Minocqua area fishing report
The past week ended with a huge storm, knocking out the power in much of the Lakeland area this past Friday night. A week of very changing weather: sun, clouds, cold (launched boat at 32 degrees on 6/7), wind, and flat calm. Crazy ups, downs, and sideways so anglers had a lot of changes to deal with.
Largemouth Bass: Very good. Post spawn, hungry fish. A wide variety of techniques working, much dependent on weather, but, lots of great action. Spinnerbaits (Boonies, Booyahs) best to start covering weed tops of 5-9’ of cabbage. On cooler mornings switch to twitch baits (Rattlin Rouges, X-Raps, Shadow Raps). Surface lures best on warm evenings. Plastics such as Wacky worms, Jig and Craws and Sweet Beavers have all been working well as anglers reworking areas that were covered by faster moving baits pick up, the more aggressive fish. Lots of 14-18” fish with several 20”+ being caught and released.
Bluegills: Very good. Still bedding on the larger lakes. Fun for popper fishing in the evenings. Small 1” tubes, small leeches, Thunderbugs and worms all tough to resist. Once off beds, gills are think in 4-8’ cabbage.
Pike: Very good. Actively slamming blade baits (Boonies, Booyahs, Chatter baits) and swim baits in the 3 ½-4” size. Twitch baits (4 ½ - 5”) and lipless cranks are also hot. For a more relaxed pace, cast 4-6” chubs and suckers on jigs or under floats.
Walleyes: Very good. Cloud cover is walleye angler’s friend and on cloudy days work cabbage beds in 6-10’. While leeches and crawlers working well, Dace and smaller redtails are also producing in the mid 60 degree waters. Twitch baits such as Husky Jerks (#8) and Shadow Shads also picking up better than average walleyes (19-24’”) over and through early morning cabbage of 5-10’. Top fish of the week: 26”er on a Boonie Bait. Released.
Smallmouth Bass: Good. At dawn, work shallows with X-raps, Shadow Shads. As smallies move out during day, working the next break lines of 8-15’ using plastic craws, wacky worms best.
Crappies: Fair-Good and Improving. Starting to find crappies working upper column of weeds in 8-12’. Cast light jigs tipped with small minnows or 1 ½” tubes. Wood is key in deeper water. Angler reporting action increasing with several big slabs of 13-14” being caught.
Musky: Good. Topwater, bucktails and 7” twitch baits. Lighter rubber baits also moving fish.
Perch: Fair-Good. Action picking up. More perch being caught in weeds of 8-12’. ½ crawler, medium fatheads working best.
Between fits of weather, anglers have found good to very good fishing. Waiting out slow periods have paid off big. The last big hurdle for patterns to settle in for summer will be the impeding Hexagemia (Mayfly) hatch.
Kurt Justice
Kurt’s Island Sport Shop