4-2-14 Minocqua Area Fishing Report
Finally some relief from the cold! By weeks end, we saw temps soaring from morning lows of 10 below early in the week to highs of mid 50's by Sunday. Unfortunately the warm temps did make things very messy by Sunday. The amount of snow still on the ice turned very slushy, limiting most traffic to foot or snowmobile. As the snow/slush continues to condense (and hopefully disappear) travel conditions will improve. With averages of 34-36" (with some reports of 40+) of ice we will have a long ice pan fish season ahead of us!
Crappies: Good to excellent- The hot bite windows on most lakes have not been big- 30 min. to 1 hour at dawn and just before dusk. Though there have been decent bites in between, at times. While some anglers are still finding crappies deep (18-24") using rosie reds on tip-downs, the bulk of the action has been up around the edges and up into bays with standing vegetation in 8-12'. Now that temps are above freezing tip-downs have worked well. Plastics are producing tipped on #10 rockers. Chena is also a good choice for this technique, Slow dropping while allowing the plastic/chena to flutter watching the line for any tell-tale "pause" indicating a bite (tough to do on windy days).
Yellow Perch: Good to Excellent- While the bulk of this species is being caught in water of 18-35' deep this week, some anglers are finding success in water as shallow as 7-8'. Deep water, its Halo jigs, Pimples and flash champs tipped with wigglers or red spikes
The shallow water perchers are using UMC's Minnow jig #2 jigging Raps and forage minnows packed with waxies to catch nice 9-10" fish.
Bluegills: Good. Work tungsten jigs to punch through smaller clouds of gills to get the larger fish. 2-3 waxies on a large headed jig to key on nice gills to 9.5" this weekend.
Overall the catches have been "good" when anglers can get to the fish. The "excellent" reports were from anglers who found fish and hit limits of crappies and perch in 2 hours or less by being at the right place at the right time.
Reports of "sulfury" smelling water from the north end of squirrel Mid Lake, and Sweeney are signs of winter kills (most likely partial-kills) expect (and please let us know) to find more lakes with these problems as access opens up and anglers probe more waters.
Kurt
Kurt's Island Sportshop
Minocqua, WI