12-26-13 Minocqua Area Fishing Report
Weather has been up and down here in the Northwoods a bit lately. High pressure and low temps (-9 to -20 degrees last night) put fish and anglers not in a good mood to bite or fish. Windows of opportunity spring up. Monday’s higher temps, lower barometer and better fishing follows.
Pike: Good-Very good. Big suckers and chubs have been the choice4 on tip-ups. Anglers fishing the typical weeds of 8-12’ reported good action with nice fish. A pair of 35” silver pike (no spots) were iced yesterday. Another group caught 43 pike in 4 hours using tip-ups in a bay near incoming stream.
Walleyes: Fair-Good. Some trophy fish over the weekend (which saw otherwise slow fishing) included catches of a 26”, 27”, 28” and 30 ½” by anglers mostly on tip-ups after dark. Action improved on Monday. Walleye suckers for the deeper fish (14-22’) as well as jigging raps in sizes #7 and #9. Anglers fishing the flowages and shallower lakes having better success on shiners and large rosies (slip-float rigs).
Perch: Good-Very good. Angler plying slightly deeper waters (25-30’) catching nice perch on Swedish Pimples, Kastmasters tipped with waxies/wigglers. Up on weed bars small rosies used to tempt 9” plus perch.
Crappies: Fair-Very Good. This species, as is typical, has been weather dependent. High skies and cold have brought poor catches requiring anglers to finesse with small #3 tungsten jigs tipped with tiny plastics to entice reluctant bites. On the other hand, days with warmer temps and clouds have anglers doing good on tip-downs with minnows as well as horizontal plastic jigs. Lots of good fish including a 16”er this past weekend.
Bluegills: Good. Better weather, better bites. Small #12 to #10 rockers tipped with single spike or plastics in 6-8’ bays. Nice catches of 7”+ fish on Monday after a tough bite over the weekend.
Largemouth Bass: Fair-Good. Warmer weather, better bite. Medium to large shiners best over weedy bottoms.
Cold temps through Thursday look to be lifting to highs of mid 20” to low 30’s for Friday/Saturday. With new moon coming up for January 1st, combination looks good for anglers heading out to enjoy some holiday fishing.
Kurt Justice
Kurt’s Island Sport Shop
www.kurtsislandsports.com