Minocqua area fishing report
Fishing reports remained strong right up til' the cold snap. Overnight temps of -25 degrees Friday/Saturday and below zero through Sunday have the lakes really booming (making ice).
Walleye: Good to poor. Weekend high pressure & super cold slowed most bites. Some anglers had success from dusk until about 10 pm on a few lakes: Big Arb, Minocqua, Carrol. Not a lot of reports from the weekend due to lack of participation.
Northern Pike: Poor. Not many anglers out once wind picked up mid Saturday morning.
Yellow Perch: Fair to poor. Deeper water action better as cold seemed to shut down a lot of shallow weed bites. Spoons with rattles, shaking #2 pimples in mud best to get response. Tip jigs with red spikes or fish light rocker with a wiggler along side rattle spoons.
Crappies: Poor. Check out deeper mud in late afternoons (2-5 pm). Small minnows, wigglers on glow jigs. Weed bite very slow.
Bluegills: Poor. Few reports. Tiny #14 black, purple tear drops with single mousse or spike on #2 test brought 12 bluegills to one brave angler after 4 hours. 5 were worth keeping.
Severe cold suppose to start letting up today, 20's by the weekend. This cold helped thicken the ice considerably - reports of 20-26". Access excellent with 3-6" of snow on top of the ice - truck, ATV, Snowmobile all working. Fishing should pick back up by later part of the week.
Lots of derbys in the area on the 26th - check listings on report sites. What started out looking like a bad ice season has now turned around - should be good well into March.
Kurt Justice
Kurt's Island Sport Shop
www.kurtsislandsports.com
