Minocqua Area Fishing Report - 9/8/26
An incredible Labor Day weekend of weather, us anglers call Chamber of Commerce days. Beautiful, warm, calm-not great for us anglers, but the boaters, skiers and wake boarders sure loved it. The larger lakes and chains were full of boaters, so the smaller lakes (some) Flowages and rivers were best for anglers.
Bluegill: Very Good-Good – Another flying ant hatch was spotted last week, a week from the last. That gets the Gills up and moving in the water column as the ants fall to the lake surface to become easy “slurpies”! Weed edges and drowned wood holding most of the better hand sized Gills being caught.
Largemouth Bass: Good – Bite hasn’t changed. Still good top-water action on loud tail baits (Whopper-Plopper style), Jitterbugs, plastic frogs and mice. Buzz baits, spinnerbaits, and tickling weed tops with shallow crank baits. Fishing Wacky Worms and urchin style baits as well as Carolina rigging 7” worms in and along cabbage flats also effective.
Yellow Perch: Good – Weed pockets in 8-12’ and around drowned wood or cribs at similar depths. ½ crawlers, medium fats on jigs or below slip-floats best.
Smallmouth Bass: Good – Numbers over and along off-shore rock/gravel bars of 18-27’. Drop-shotting minnow, craw and urchins. Tube jigs of ¼ oz and football/creature combos also effective. Some larger Smallies being caught shallow on surface lures and smaller bucktails meant for Musky.
Crappie: Good-Fair – Relating to deeper weed of 10-14’. Taking small minnows under floats. Any drowned wood, trees or cribs in similar depths should be worked.
Musky: Good-Fair – Not hearing as much for size as for action. Mostly shallow using bucktails, 6-7” swimbaits and top-water. A couple reports on suckers, but overall best on moving lures.
Northern Pike: Fair – Few reports. Some typical action waters did not produce. When things slow – possibly due to boat traffic, east wind or too “NICE”, jig live bait down in weeds to entice bites.
Walleye: Fair – As with Pike, weather not in anglers’ favor. Evenings best using redtails over gravel bars in 20-24’ on ¼ oz jigs. Night anglers using chubs under lighted slip-floats providing reports of decent bite between 8-10 PM.
Water surface temps remained in low 70’s this weekend due to warm temps. A drop in average temps this week with lows in upper 40’s to low 50’s should start a nice gradual cool off, getting lake temps into the 60’s. Much needed rain (9/8) won’t be enough to help low water levels, but will speed up the cooling off.
Low water continues to be a problem for launching and access on chains. Be careful at launches, survey water before backing in, especially on Flowages where sharp drop-offs into river channels can be dangerous on trailers.
Pics of the Week
Liam (6 YO) of Sussex, WI with his 1st Largemouth (of many to come) off of Grandma & Grandpa’s dock
Logan (4 YO) of Sussex, WI fishing with Grandma Jodi while visiting last week
Shelly Justice of Arbor Vitae with a Slab Bluegill
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