10/21/14 Minocqua Area Fishing Report
Heavy into a typical fall pattern now. Cold mornings, mild days, some wind, some clouds. Also, fewer anglers on the water.
Musky: Very Good- Good. Not as hot as last week, but still nice fish in the nets. While it's typical for anglers to get the best action on suckers at this time (and they have by a 60/40 split) jerks, gliders and twitch baits have all been tagging fish. Jointed Savage (not sausage) baits, Cranes, Suicks and Smitys have been the areas best still. Don't give up on shallow water, some of our fish have come up from depths of 7' to as deep as 18'.
Smallmouth Bass: Very Good. Big fish and lots of them. Not many anglers up looking for smallies, but the ones who have been, plus anglers targeting walleyes have had lots of action from fish of 17-20"+. Smallie anglers doing best on jerks and twitch baits. Walleye anglers fishing mid-depth (12-18') being surprised with big smallies on chubs and suckers.
Northern Pike: Good. Casting slower moving spoons, twitch baits and large chubs / suckers has produced some nice heavy pike in the upper 20" to lower 30" range.
Walleye: Good-Fair. Deep fish on lakes that have turned coming on heavy jigs with 4-6" chubs / suckers. Smaller shallow waters are seeing action on large fatheads or small chubs.
Yellow perch: Good-Fair. Good for size (up to 13" this week), fair for action. Feeding heavily on crayfish, use 1/2 crawler below slip float or crawler on a 1/16oz jig to entice jumbos from drowned wood.
Crappies: Fair-Good. Action slowing down... still finding nice slabs (11-14") over deep wood (14-19'). Medium fatheads for these nice fish. Adding a tiny spinner blade over hook on slip-float helps to entice bites.
Largemouth Bass / Bluegills: No reports.
Water temps seem to have leveled off despite some cold mornings. Most lakes are seeing average surface temps of 50-52 deg.. Lows of 47 deg.... highs of 54-55 deg. (large bodies). Leaves are coming down, helping hunters with targets.
Thanks,
Kurt
Island Sportshop
Minocqua, Wi 54548
715-356-4797