2-5-14 Minocqua Area Fishing Report
Hope we are starting to see the bottom here. Cold and snow continued last week. A bit of a break this past weekend and beginning of the week, but, Wednesday and Thursday cold again then this week cold again with things improving again for the weekend.
Travel conditions on the lakes continue to deteriorate due to snow and slush. Best to confine your travel to areas of high traffic where snow has been packed down and any water on the ice is exposed to the cold night air and gets to freeze. Travel by snowmobile and your brother-in-law’s truck best. Carry a tow strap, shovel and make sure your cell phone is charged just in case.
Pike: Good. Thank goodness for these fish! Getting good results on shiners on tip-ups in waters of as shallow as 5 feet to outside weeds of 12-14’. This has been a winter of better than average pike for our area. Lots of high 20” to low 30” and quite a few upper 30” pike and some low 40”ers.
Perch: Fair-good. Access has been the limiting factor to anglers getting out over the mud flats to where the best perch fishing is. Those that have had good success with the typical Pimples, Hali and Flickers tipped with wigglers for catches of 8-10” perch over 22-28’ mud.
Walleye: Fair-Good. Best after dark using suckers over off shore sandgrass covered humps topping off at 18-22’ from 40’ depths. Those with permanent shacks scoring using jigging Raps and Buckshot spoons tipped with minnow heads.
Crappies: Fair-Good. Best right before dark though few anglers staying out then. Glow Demon jigs (#8) and VMC Larvae jigs tipped with waxies or the smallest of minnows as the crappies start to feed in 7-10’ of weeds as the sun goes down. Still too cold to effectively work tip-downs.
Bluegills: Fair. A few good reports from anglers venturing out to out of the way places catching 8”+ gills on Tungsten jigs tipped with spikes. Areas of easy access receiving a lot of pressure.
With temps returning into the teens this weekend (heat wave) and a whisper of possibly seeing 30’s by the following weekend hopefully will improve access and reports.
Kurt Justice
Kurt’s Island Sport Shop
www.kurtsislandsports.com