Minocqua Area Fishing Report 9-18-2012
By Professional Guide Kurt Justice
Just starting to see a significant drop in water temps. This coming week should bring the type of temperatures we want to see for a good fall bite, so get ready.
Smallmouth Bass: Good. Walleye anglers plying gravel humps with chubs, leeches and crawlers finding big smallies in depths of 18-28'. Anglers targeting smallies using creature baits and sculpin imitations on 1/4oz football jigs reporting nice fish to 21".
Perch: Good. Drowned wood (cribs) in 14-18' holding nice perch of 10-13"+. Minnows, 1/2 crawlers on weedless jigs (Weedweasels, Slo-falls) and hanging below slip floats doing best. On shallow lakes, perch taking medium fatheads, 2" twister grubs on 1/16oz jigs in 6-8' weeds.
Bluegills: Good. Warm weather over weekend helped out anglers fishing fills. Worms, tiny jigs, plastic and Gulp Alive 1" fish fry grubs best. Fishing best in 8-12' though pumpkinseeds very aggressive in shallower 4-8' depths - this could change with colder temps coming.
Crappies: Fair-Good. Still scattered and hard to get numbers. Most catches along 14-16' weeds, though some shallow fish (6-8') and deep (28') caught this week.
Largemouth Bass: Fair-good. Spotty action along weedlines. Jigging 1/8oz jig with 4" plastic worms, Wacky hooking 4" Sendkos and Carolina rigging same producing ok. A few reports of good top water on warm evenings and spinnerbait action.
Pike: Fair. Some action on chatterbaits and Boonies in the afternoons, some live bait action. Cool down should help this one.
Walleye: Fair. Deep gravel best bet as fish seem scattered. Work mud at base of humps with 1/8oz - 1/4oz jigs and large fathead or 1/2 crawler. Weed bite mostly quiet unless green weeds and some current nearby.
Musky: Fair. Some bucktail and twitchbait action. Live bait slow - this could change dramatically if water temps dip to high 50's, low 60's by weeks end. Then get out some sucker rigs, but keep throwing bucktails and top-water baits.
While morning water temps dropped to 60-64 degrees over weekend, daytime temps rose to 65-68 degrees. For traditional fall species (Musky, Walleye, Crappie) this next week should kick start some better action.
Kurt Justice
Kurt’s Island Sport Shop
www.kurtsislandsports.com