Minocqua Area Fishing Report - 9/22/25

Third week in September, waters finally coming down in temps from heat wave high of early in week.  Surface temps reported as high as 78° as of 9/16 on some lakes.  Now closer to 67-68 and still falling thanks to cool rains.  Despite less than stellar reports from this writer, 24 pros came to the Minocqua area for a MLF tournament and showed us locals there is more Bass fishing here than we knew!

Largemouth Bass:  Excellent (?) – What can be said…two-man pro teams were boating catches (all catch and release) of over 100 #’s a day.  Wacky worming and some heavy weed punching.  They could only weigh Bass over 1#, but to boat those kinda weights and #’s really opens your eyes to the Largemouth population in these Northern Wisconsin lakes!

Smallmouth Bass:  Very Good – …and not just from the pros.  Drop-shotting and Ned rigging scored well on Smallies over rock humps and over sandgrass flats.  Nice fish finally, up to 4#’s this past weekend.  Rock of 22-30’, grass flats in 13-15’.

Northern Pike:  Good – Picked up by weekend on spinnerbaits, Mepps #3:#4 spinners and jig/chub combos in green weeds (some die off, so search a bit) in 5-8’ of water.

Yellow Perch:  Good – Some real nice Perch to 14” this past week.  Woody flats with areas of mixed weeds.  Medium fatheads or ½ crawlers on 1/16 oz weedless jigs or below slip-floats in 6-14’ best.

Walleye: Fair-Good – Action picking up as water cooling.  Some lakes giving up shallow action on jig and minnow/chub combos as well as half crawlers.  Windward weeds in 4-8’.  Off-shore on deep mud flats outside rocks in 18-26’ on crawlers and large fats.

Musky:  Fair-Good – Shallow bite over weed tops using bucktails and 8” swimbaits.  Few sucker bite reports.

Crappie:  Fair – Slow during week.  Action picked up some by Saturday (9/20) but still not what it usually is at this time in September.  Crappies very scattered.

Bluegill:  Fair – Not many reports.  Rain and wind not Bluegill weather.

Fishing seemed to bottom out mid-week, off season heat probably the culprit.  As temps get back to normal, hopes are fall fishing patterns build and the fish we haven’t caught are ready to bite.

Pictures of the week

Mark Dooley with a 26” Northern Pike

Steve Sanchez of Chicago with a 19” Smallie

Chas Moritz of Rhinelander with a Bluegill