Minocqua Area Fishing Report - 6/7/22

Conditions on the water have varied from lows in the 30’s for air temp (6/4) to highs in mid-70’s. Not excited about the lows in the morning (when lakes are losing heat like they were Saturday morning, steam coming off water like fog) typically not the best of fishing. As temps get closer together (air/water) fish tend to get more active, and they did!

Smallmouth Bass: Very Good – Smallies bedding provided great action over the past week. Tubes, Ned rigs, Wacky Worms as well as top-water baits such as Chug Bugs and Lunker Hunt Spiders brought up some great fish over the weekend. There are lots of signs that we are getting to the tail end of this bite as reports on Monday (6/6) were of mostly smaller males still guarding beds.

Northern Pike: Very Good – Spinnerbaits, large swimbaits, and inline spinners have all been effective for Pike lately. Find green cabbage weeds and work these baits over top of them in 5-10’ of water. Large chubs and suckers set under a bobber has also been producing some large fish.

Walleye: Very Good-Good – One bright spot to the cooler surface temps last week (56-59 degrees) was Walleyes staying in fairly shallow, new growth weeds. Light jig and minnow on jig/leech combos working great. Slip-floats also effective. A few anglers reporting success on Husky Jerks (#6’s & #8’s) in 6-8’ weeds towards dusk. This week’s bite should continue to be good as morning temps in 40’s followed by high 60’s to low 70’s should hold pattern in place.

Largemouth Bass: Very Good-Good – Lots of shallow “Cruisers” this past week. Pitching Wacky Worms and Ned Rigs right tight to shore (had Father/Son team boat 120 Smallies and LMB Monday in 4 hours on the water). Were some signs of Largemouth starting beds, but not as many as I had predicted, probably due to cold mornings.

Bluegill: Very Good-Good – Strangely, saw colonies of bedding Gills. Usually, its Largemouth first. Bluegill action very good shallow. Tiny tubes, twister tails and the gool ol’ worm and a bobber working just great. Think of the future on these bedding fish, research shows its very important for bedding males to be left to guard eggs. Strange as it sounds, good time to practice selective harvest to protect your favorite Bluegill lakes.

Musky: Very Good-Good – Good action as Muskies getting past spawn and actively feeding. One boat reported boating 8 Skies on Saturday! Twitchbaits, smaller bucktails and top-water in the shallows (as it seems they’ve been cruising the panfish up in skinny water)!

Crappie: Good – Work weeds of 6-12’ using 2” twister tails, 1/32 oz jigs tipped with minnows or slip-floats and small minnows. Casting #0 or #1 spinners also has been effective for finding fish.

Yellow Perch: Good – Most action in 6-10’ cabbage. Light jigs tipped with ½ crawlers or medium leeches. Slip-floats with same also effective. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get thunderbugs in yet, these are killer on Perch and Gills when we can.

This week looks good as the forecast is fairly stable temp wise. The slow water temps increase with growing weeds and a multitude of insect hatches has been helpful. Mosquitos have been plentiful unfortunately. Dragonfly hatches have been few and far between. A hatch of small mayflys, not the big Hexagemias has occurred also, but not overly disruptive.