Minocqua area fishing report 9.4.12 An incredibly gorgeous Labor Day Weekend put lot of people on the lakes. Anglers, while enjoying the nice weather did have to put up with some tight lipped fish often associated with high skies. It wasn't all bad, though, water temps crept upward, fish were being caught and signs of a good September bite started to show up by weekends end.
Largemouth Bass: Good. Action returned to the weeds as the bass started chasing, especially towards evening. Anglers casting 1/8-1/4 oz Boonie Baits and Chatterbaits reported good catches over weeds of 5-8'. Closer to dusk top water lures such as plastic frogs, Jitterbugs and Hula Poppers produced around emergent weeds where a lot of small frogs are seen. Some very nice Largemouth bass to 20+" this week.
Bluegills: Good. Nice gills this week to 9 1/2". Bigger gills on deep weed edges and around deep wood. 1/2 cralwers on light jigs as well as medium leeches under slip-floats.
Smallmouth Bass: Good. Returning to rocks...somewhat. Marking a lot of fish, but, bites slow in coming. Live bait (big leeches or crawlers) best. Mud minnows have also been effective. Best depth for active fish is 10-15'.
Walleyes: Fair-Good. Some nice catches with crawlers/leeches on jigs. Fishing drowned wood, rocks of 7-10'. Deep lakes starting to see some action on gravel, not enough to get excited about as we need cooler temps.
Pike: Fair-Good. Live bait (chubs) work best, but a few anglers reported some good mid-morning action on Boonie Baits and #4 Mepps in 6-9'.
Crappies: Fair. Fickle. A few anglers reporting a lot of smaller fish over weed tops. Some anglers finding deep suspended fish, 3-5' off of 22-26' mud bottoms. A few big slabs this week.
Perch: Fair. Starting to improve. Half crawlers on light jigs with minnows or leeches below floats. Weeds and wood of 8-15'.
Musky: Fair. After what looked like a strong showing last week, things have slowed (most likely due to the heat). Best action on big spinnerbaits over weeds of 8-12'. Mostly smaller fish were caught this week (26-36") with a few in the 40's. Sucker bite very slow due to heat.
The warm spell threw a wrench in the fishing pattern for now. Surface temps on the flowages and smaller lakes hit 75-76 degrees while mid to large lakes had surface temps of 72-73 degrees.
Kurt Justice
Kurt?s Island Sport Shop
www.kurtsislandsports.com
715-356-4797
