Minocqua Area Fishing Report
After a week of watching the fishing plummet right along with the air temperature (20 below on Valentine’s Day) some fresh reports from Monday (2/15) are going to help add a little better outlook on this week’s report. The sub-zero temps and winds kept most anglers looking for other things to do this past weekend. Those that did go out struggled to keep warm and catch fish. As Monday’s temps rose above zero to start the day (13 degrees at dawn) so did anglers and their catches.
Bluegills: Fair-Good. Action was slow most of the week, but, picked up on Monday. Anglers doing best on neutral colored (brown, red, blue) 3mm Tungsten jigs and Tungsten jig/flys tipped with spikes. Some anglers are finding gills as shallow as 6-7’, others working mud for perch picking up nice gills in 20-25’.
Northern: Fair-Good. Not a lot of action during the cold snap, but, improved after. Most pike caught on typical tip-up set-ups with big shiners or suckers as bait. One lucky angler caught and released a 36”er on a jigging Rapala yesterday as action picked up with the warm weather.
Perch: Poor-Good. The best bite is deep over mud flats. Perch probing mud for blood worms and mayfly larvae in 20-25’ of water taking Halis, Pimples, Bro Bugs and #4 Fiska jigs tipped with red spikes or wigglers. Anglers working sand grass flats getting some action on minnows, but, the mud fish just seem to want bugs.
Crappies: Poor-Good. Dismal weekend for this species, but, showed improvement on Monday. While a few anglers picked up some crappies in 6-7’ while targeting gills, deeper water proved to be a better bite. Also producing was 10-12’ cabbage areas with dark rockers (#8 or #10) in black, purple, green or red dressed with red, brown, purple or black plastic or live spikes. Tip-down anglers working outside weedy bays in 14-18’ of water on lakes or 18-24’ on flowages did better on rosies. A few anglers reported nice slabs hitting #2 or #3 jigging Rapalas. This is a good sign of some aggressive action to come.
Walleye: Poor-Fair. While most anglers reporting bad walleye fishing (most catches 0-1 per outing), a few are having luck after dark on deeper lakes finding bars or humps topping 18-22’ on walleye suckers.
Largemouth Bass: Poor. Not surprising with the cold. This weekend with forecast to hit upper 30’s/lower 40’s should improve bite.
Not sure if it’s the doldrums of mid-winter, but, fishing has not been good overall this past month. We have just 3 weekends left of the gamefish season. With most ice reports running in the 12-17” range and a forecast of warm weather to come, I can’t foresee having fishable ice into April, leaving a short late ice panfish season (but, I’m wrong more than I’m right…just ask my wife) so it may be imperative to get out and get your ice fishing fix in soon.Kurt Justice
Kurt’s Island Sport Shop