Minocqua Fishing Report 7-14-26

With a sweltering heat hanging over the North-woods for the next several days, lake surface temps are coming in at 79 to 83° and climbing As a precaution, it’s advised to not Letters, target musky during this time. Those large fish expend a lot of energy during a hook and line  battle, building up a lot of lactic acid, which in this hot oxygen depleted water takes longer to recover from. If you want to catch them in the future, best to layoff them this week!

  Blue gills; very good

Try “NOT” to catch them in the cabbage patches of 6 to 12 feet! Lots of action using small to medium leeches Beaver tails or leaf worms. Small 1 inch plastics on 1/32 ounce jig heads fished under a small float will bring fast and furious action!

 Largemouth bass; Very Good

  Same cabbage flats as gills! 3 inch swim, baits parentheses kite impact parentheses, 4 to 5 inch wacky worms fished weight less, light Ned rigs as well as bass jigs with craw or creature trailers.

  Early morning and evenings go top side with whopper ploppers, jitterbugs, buzz baits, or plastic frogs or spiders in the shallows. Lots of action and good size!

  Yellow perch; good to very good

  Working cabbage flats, same as gills. Have to weight your baits to get past higher riding gills. Medium leeches are half crawlers work best. Medium fat heads will keep most of the bluegill off your hook.

  Smallmouth bass; good to very good

  Outside Coontail edges to sand grass flats and 14 to 20 feet of water. Drop shot in a 3 inch Minnow or Craw imitation or fuzzy dice, Ned rigging and jigging One eighth-3/8th ounce tube jigs. Early mornings work twitch baits on inside weed edges as smallies will feed on schools of shallow minnows when the temperatures are cooler.

  Crappie; good to fair

  Tall weeds of 8 to 12 feet in ten to 16 feet of water. Casting small bladed plastic jig combos to locate areas of active fish. Work back with crappie minnows on slip float rigs 3 to 4 feet down.

  Walleye; fair

  Best on larger, deep lakes. Concentrate your efforts on rock humps of 16 to 28 feet of water or sand grass flats of 14 to 20 feet. Slip bobber rigs with extra large leeches or 3/16 to 3/8 ounce jigs with crawlers. Evenings an early morning angler finding some weed related walleyes using 1/16th ounce weedless jigs with medium red tailed chubs or crawlers in six to 10’ cabbage beds.

  Northern Pike; fair

  Fast moving spinners (number three to number four Mepps) chatter baits or spinner baits in heavy cover. A few hitting top water meant for bass. Warm water means metabolism is higher but fish burning up calories. Average pike seem rather slim.

  With temps hitting mid 80s to the mid 90s through Wednesday, July 15, best to finish early such as the crack of dawn and later, like the last 2 to 3 hours before dark. Keep your bait cool as well as any fish you decide to keep so as not to spoil. Following his heat wave, temps look to get back into the mid 80s to mid 70s. That should bring surface temps back down into the 70s and a better summer conditions for all.