Minocqua Area fishing Report 8.12.10 Solid Summer patterns developing as heat keeping lake temps up. As expected, high temps/skies mean best fishing early and late in the day.
Largemouth Bass: Good - Very Good. With exception of new high pressure, bass very active. Wacky style senkos/dingers in weeds of 8-14'. Shaking 4" worms on 1/8 oz jigs and swimming senkos also working for day time anglers. Towards evening top water tearing up the action. Buzz baits, plastic frogs, hula poppers all producing lots of fish in the 14-17" range with 18-20" fish not uncommon.
Smallmouth Bass: Good - Very Good. Sandgrass flats in 14-22' of water. Lift/drop chomper skirted grubs, Caroline style. Light 1/16 -1/8 oz jig with large leech or whole crawler or soft shell crayfish. Tubes in brown color patterns, also drop shotting 2-1/2" gulp minnows.
Bluegills: Good. Finding nice gills schooling over deep water, along coontail edges or over weed covered humps. Small leeches hard to beat. Count down small jigs or slip float half crawlers 10-12' down over 18-20' edges.
Muskie: Good. Heat bringing back good evening bite. Loud surface lures (pacemakers, Top Raiders, Creepers) at dusk/after dark. Daytime work bucktails fast over weeds. Bulldawgs, Medussas over open water where ciscos present.
Northern Pike: Good. Heat slowing action. Spinnerbaits, Daredevils over 6-10' weeds in am before sun shuts bite down. Soak big chub/sucker along coontail edge of 14-20' for shot at larger fish.
Crappie: Good - Fair. Depends on how bright. Some anglers finding crappies moving out to deep weed edges, holding 2-3' from bottom in 18-20'. Small minnows, tiny tubes best.
Yellow Perch: Good - Fair. LIking heat. Fish with live bait up on top of weed flats of 8-12'. Work pockets not #'s but nice 9-11" fish on medium fats, leeches.
Walleye: Poor - Fair. Good catches at night, daytime is rough. Night anglers set up on off shore humps by 7 pm. Work jig/crawler combos on lighted slip floats with leeches. Nice fish to 27" from larger lakes.
Surface temps on lakes hitting 75-78 degrees and probably will continue to rise further. Leeches getting tough to come by, double hook and keep away from unwanted panfish. Luckily crawlers working just as well. No cold nights in this weeks forecast so things should stay same. Fish early/late.
Kurt Justice
Kurt's Island Sport Shop
www.kurtsislandsports.com
