Minocqua Area Fishing Report 9-26-12
By Professional Guide Kurt Justice
Big cool down this last week with air temps in the low 30’s some mornings, water temps dropped drastically and this bodes well for the coming week.
High winds and rain stirred up the water which brought some surface temps down to 50 degrees, though most lakes are holding at about 56-59 degrees.
Smallmouth Bass: Good. Holding to deep gravel humps. Targeting sculpin and crayfish. Use heavy jigs (football style) to work rocks with creature baits.
Perch: Good. Weeds of 7-9’ and wood holding perch. Cast 1/16 oz jigs with a ½ crawler or medium fathead. Crayfish tail meat on jig hard to resist.
Bluegills: Good. Wind kept effort down but anglers working surprisingly shallow weeds (4-6’) catching nice gills to 8” using wax worms, pieces of crawler or small leeches. Some crappies and perch mixed in.
Crappies: Very Good. Fish in a variety of locations. Some in weeds as shallow as 5-7’ others along deeper weed edges of 14-18’ 3-4’ off bottom. Deep drowned wood of 9-15’ also holding big slabs of 14”+. Slip-bobbers and small to medium fatheads best- though some anglers using mini-mites, 1-2” Gulp Alive Minnows and Charlie Bees have produced nice catches.
Largemouth Bass: Good. Weeds holding fish relating to panfish. Swimbaits, spinnerbaits and shallow running cranks over 5-9’ weeds. Jig& pig combos as well as creature baits in thick stuff when not coming to weed tops.
Pike: Good. Jigging chubs has produced very well this past week in shallow weedy lakes. Spinnerbaits (Boonies) Chatterbaits and shallow Raps (#7’s, #9’s) also scoring.
Walleye: Good, improving. Cold helped this bite. Fish working deep gravel bars, mud transition zones. Use 1/8-1/4 oz jigs or Lindy style rigs baited with red tail chubs (hard to get) black tailed chubs (hard to get) suckers, big fatheads or even ½ crawlers. Night bite on lighted slips good. Also, in drowned wood on cloudy days in 9-15’ of water.
Musky: Good. Wind the past week hampered boat control. Cold snap stirring fish to action. Best bets using small jerks, 7” twitch baits and large bladed bucktails. Fairly shallow fish over weeds of 5-9’. Sucker action picking up and should improve during next 2-3 weeks, typically peaking 1st to 2nd week of October. Sucker supplies good so far.
Finally feels like fall. Trees are changing colors quickly. With water temps in 50’s some lakes prime for turn-over. This week’s high in mid/upper 60’s should delay bite. Good time for top water musky before turn-over.
Kurt Justice
Kurt’s Island Sport Shop
www.kurtsislandsports.com