Minocqua Area Fishing Report 7-16-2012
By Professional Guide Kurt Justice
Heat has worked it's way back into our summer. Water temps are high for up here, the best fishing times are very early and after dark.
Largemouth Bass: Excellent. Bass owning the shallow weeds during the morning. Pre-rigged plastic worms, X-raps good. Mid morning through early evening work outer weed edges with plastic craws, creatures or worms. Drop-shotting craw pappis and 2 1/2-3" Gulp minnows, leeches. Towards dusk, head to the slop with plastic frogs, mice and buzz baits. Lots of smaller 13-15" fish, but 18-20+ also being caught.
Musky: Very good. But....action best during last hour of light through early morning. Burning bucktails has been extremely effective. With a high gear-ratio reel, work bucktails as fast as you can and hold on for jarring hits. Be careful! Boat and release fish quickly. Don't fish during peak water temps as this can kill fish.
Bluegills: Very good. Cast small 1/32 oz Beetle Spins, Charlie Bees to pull schools in towards your boat then fish with leeches, worms, small platic jigs. Hot action, sort for size.
Smallmouth Bass: Very good. Relating to deep coontail edges, rock/gravel bars. Wacky worming Senkos, Yum Dingers along weed edges. Also drop-shotting Craw-Pappis, Gulp minnows/leeches. Over gravel/rock drop-shotting working well along with football jigs and creature baits. Lots of nice 18-20+ fish from rocks. Weeds holding numbers.
Perch: Good. Sandgrass flats of 18-25' split-shot rig a soft shell crayfish (frozen), or slip-bobber medium leeches. 1/2 crawler on 1/16oz jig in 8-12' weeds also effective.
Pike: Fair. Heat seems to have slowed this species, but they gotta eat. Chubs and suckers under a float best - but keep an eye on your bait, it won't live long on the hook in this heat. Wild bait (chubs) are hard to get this sumer, suckers are typically pond raise and in slightly better supply.
Walleye: Fair. Best at dusk or very early in am (3am-6am). Big leeches, crawlers on jigs or under lighted slip-floats. Off shore humps producing best. Larger fish on humps topping out at 26-40'.
Crappies: Fair. Deep curly leaf cabbage tops in 8-12'. Tiny hair or plastic jigs twitched at weed tops. Deep wood requires slightly heavier jigs (1/16oz) or slip-floats and minnows.
With water temps running 80 degrees (large bodies such as Tomahawk, Fence, Big Crawling Stone) up to as high as 87 degrees (smaller darker lakes), this puts a stress on fish as the hot water holds less oxygen and the fish - with increased metabolism due to warmer water/body temps need more. Be careful with fish, release quickly or best to fish during cooler times of day.
Kurt Justice
Kurt’s Island Sport Shop
www.kurtsislandsports.com