Minocqua Area Fishing Report

Its Summertime…..but the fishin’ ain’t easy!

Several species seem tight lipped this summer, but a few are staying right in line.

Bluegill: Good – Moving deeper on the large lakes. Anglers surprised to find Gills in as deep as 25’, yet most hovering in the 12-18’ range. Small leeches and worms, even small minnows. Mini-mites and small tubes. Warm evenings bringing good top-water action for anglers using poppers in the shallows.

Largemouth Bass: Good – Best buried in weeds. Use Ned rigs or Wacky Worms to pull fish out. Nice Largemouth of 15-18”, a few larger. Creature baits and jig/creature combos also working. Evenings bringing top-water action on plastic frogs in slop. Tail baits (Whopper Ploppers, Tatsumakis) working well on warm evenings along or over top weeds.

Smallmouth Bass: Good-Fair – Deep gravel humps or over Sandgrass beds. Drop shotting 3” craw imitations. Tube jigs also producing as are Football jigs/creature dressing. For live bait anglers, leeches, crawlers and frozen softshells working.

Northern Pike: Good-fair – Could be the recent high skies, but the chase isn’t on! Spinnerbaits, swimbaits and 1/8-1/4 oz jigs with 3-4” twisters working best.

Crappie: Fair – Not a lot of reports this week. A few scattered nice slabs (12-13”) over deep wood. 2” twister tails or med Fatheads on slip-floats.

Yellow Perch: Fair – Best fish deeper over Sandgrass or along weed edges. Frozen softshells best choice followed by ½ Crawlers or medium Fatheads.

Musky: Fair – Big spinnerbaits worked over cabbage flats. Some top-water action early and late. More lookers than takers.

Walleye: Poor (at least by my accounts) – Picking the right lake at the right time (I can hear the collective “Duh!”). Windows small and very early or after dark. Leeches best.

Maybe the full moon (or the Eclipse?) but action off a bit. If action is your goal – target Bass and Gills this week.