Minocqua Area Fishing Report 8-21-2012
By Professional Guide Kurt Justice
For a portion of last week, fishing really seemed to take a dive. With a few exceptions it didn’t seem it could get much worse, but it did. Night time temps in the low 40’s have started some sugar maple trees turning, daytime surface temps on larger lakes hovering around 69-71 degrees while smaller lakes have cooled to the mid 60’s.
Musky: Fair to Very Good. Very dependent day to day – while high pressure days for the most part have been poor- some very nice fish have been showing up. One local lake has given up three fish of 48½-51” since last Wednesday. Big bladed bucktails, topwater baits have been best.
Bluegills: Good. Best suspended out along deeper weed edges. Gulp Alive leeches, waxies, live leeches, worms and even small minnows for the bigger gills. One angler produced a 11 ¼”- 1lb, 6oz monster this week, though most running 7-8”.
Walleyes: Fair. Odd weather seems to have messed up most of the bites. Flowages starting to show signs of life. Crawlers and even minnows over gravel humps producing some- weed lines on shallower lakes. Nothing hot.
Crappie: Good. Better numbers starting to show from weed tops in 10-14’. Taking small minnows, tube jigs, Charlie Bees, and Mr. Twister tails. Several nice year classes including big slabs to 14+ inches again this week.
Largemouth Bass: Fair. Strangely absent from some of their more familiar weedy haunts. Caught some nice bass on rocks while seeking smallies. Tubes from Gitzit and Yamamoto on 3/8 jig heads and Carolina rigging 4” worms catching some fish. The top water bite should return with a vengeance soon, but for now strike to soft submerging lures.
Northern Pike: Good. Cooler weather spurring some action on bladed baits. Try working Boonie Baits, Chatter baits, Daredevils and #3 Mepps spinners over weed tops. Lipless cranks such as Rattlin Raps and Rattle Traps as well as Shallow Shad Raps producing nicer 25” + fish.
Yellow Smallmouth Bass: Fair-Good. Fish deep off of humps in 20-34’ to locate smallies. Bite has been slower, though nice fish to 20” being caught. Some days you’ll find a pod, catch one fish and that’s it. Drop-shotting 2 ½-3” Gulp Alive minnows or 3” senkos doing the trick. Big leeches and crawlers catching fish as well as working 3/8 oz. football jigs and Chompers skirted grubs.
Perch: Fair. Mostly due to lack of participation. Random catches on crawlers, minnows by anglers targeting other species.
Even though surface temps have dipped a little, forecast toward weekend shows 80’s by weeks end. Definitely a slowdown has hit in some instances (Bass especially) though Muskie, Crappies and Pike action are increasing.
Kurt Justice
Kurt’s Island Sports