Minocqua area fishing report
Fall is upon us. Cold nights and mild daytime temps have brought color to the trees and dropped the lake temps into the upper 50’s. This high pressure system that allowed those cold nights (launch time temps at 32-34 degrees) also slowed fishing from the active bite it was.
Musky: Fair-Good. Action tailed off with the high pressure and cloudless skies. Bucktails, gliders and twitch baits all accounted for fish this past week, just not as many fish as the week before. Suckers were favored, as is typical at this time of year, but also probably due to the less active bite.
Crappies: Fair-Good. Deep wood (14-20’) and outside coontail edges holding nice crappies. Watch your locator for suspended fish 2-4’ off bottom. Jig and minnow or ½ crawler or slip bobber rigs helped produce nice catches of 11-12” crappies using the above cover.
Walleye: Fair-good. The high pressure system late last week really seemed to hit these fish, but, by moving around on dark water lakes and flowages, some nice catches of walleyes were caught on small to medium redtails. Deeper lakes were off, but, should improve with weather this weekend.
Smallmouth Bass: Good. Nice big fish of 18-21” this week, but not a lot of anglers out targeting this species. Jig and creature baits as well as 4” swim baits crept along sand/gravel humps of 10-18’. Larger chubs meant for walleyes also finding fish.
Pike: Fair-Good. Lots of little fish on the flowages taking chubs or fatheads on jigs. Reports of larger fish falling off this week.
Largemouth Bass: Fair. Reluctant biters best on Wacky worm rigs and live bait. Participation falling off for the season, though Guide George Metrich had a client boat a monster 23” bucket mouth on a jig and redtail mid-week.
Bluegill/Perch: Fair. Not a lot of reports despite beautiful afternoons. For bluegills try waxies and leaf worms in 6-8’ cabbage if green weeds found.
The return of clouds and maybe some rain in the forecast should bring back a better bite. This is typically sucker time for muskies and with the lake temps in the 50’s this weekend should be prime.
Kurt Justice
Kurt’s Island Sport Shop