Minocqua Area Fishing Report - 9/20/22

A little taste of things to come earlier in this past week as surface temps on some bodies of water fell as low as 64 degrees. But as of early this week, temps back up to 70 degrees on most lakes.

Smallmouth Bass: Very Good-Good – Rock/Gravel humps using drop shot rigs for #’s of Bass. Big Bass up shallow hitting top-water baits (Whopper Ploppers, Choppo’s, Torpedos) up in 2-5’ of water. Swimbaits also effective on these big, shallow brutes!

Northern Pike: Very Good-Good – Action also slowed with warmth, spinnerbaits, swimbaits and Husky Jerks for artificial. Chubs, suckers on jigs for live bait.

Musky: Very Good-Fair – Fall off as water warmed, but as cooling, top-water bite got hot on Dr. Evils, Whopper Ploppers and Pacemakers. Top top-water fish of the week, Guide Russ Smith led a client to a 48” top-water Ski on a Smity Flap Tail! Look for this bite to improve this weekend as water temps drop!

Largemouth Bass: Good – Weed bite on Wacky Worms hard to top. Some top-water reports in the late hours on frogs, spiders and chug bugs.

Crappie: Good – Best over deep wood especially along channels in Flowages. Medium fats under floats. On lakes, 10-14’ weed edges using small jig or minnows.

Walleye: Good-Fair – Better when water cools. Deep bite best in 22-28’. 1/8 – 1/4 oz jigs tipped with large fats or 1/2 crawler. When this isn’t working and fish are being seen, drop jigging lures such as Shiver Minnows and Jigging Raps to entice gits. For shallow lakes/Flowages, redtails on a 1/16 oz weedless jig on cloudy/windy days.

Yellow Perch: Good-Fair – Medium fatheads, beavertail, crawlers in 6-10’ weeds.

Bluegill: Good-Fair – Not a lot of angler attention. Still suspending outside weed edges. Small 1/32 oz jigs tipped with worms or beavertails.

Early part of this week has warm weather, spiking water temps up over the 70 degree mark. Forecast for Thursday AM (9/22) calls for lows of 31-33 degrees. This cold “snap” should actually help anglers as Walleye and Musky should react “positive” to the falling water temps for the weekend.