Minoqua Area Fishing Report 3.16.10
The wicked witch of the East blew for five straight days, making what should have been a great late ice fishing bite, not so great. With daytime temps hitting the 40's - 50's (and even some 60's the past two days) ice conditions are deteriorating quickly. Driving cars and trucks is not only unadviseable, but just plain stupid. ATV's and foot traffice only. Many shore lines are deteriorating, look for South access point and areas NOT near current of any kind.
Yellow Perch: Poor - Fair. The warm weather seems to have dispursed the deep water Perch. There are still some hanging out over 17-24' mud flats, taking wigglers on pimples, flickers and hali jigs, but with the warm temps anglers are finding some nice Perch moving into 12-14' weeds taking minnows on tip downs or forage minnows with waxies.
Crappies: Poor. Mostly due to the East wind. Best bite still at dusk, last hour. Minnows and tip-downs. A few early risers catching fish at first light. Daytime anglers slow dropping rocker jigs tipped with plastics or little cecils tipped with waxies.
Bluegills: Poor. Fish are in bays of 6-8' weeds, just didn't want to bite. Small #14-#16 gill pills tipped with single red spike or moussee best, light line (1-2# test) a must.
We are in a new moon period which usually bodes well for day time angling. The East wind is gone, but the sun is shinning very bright (wear your sun screen). Ice depths of 14-20" this weekend on most larger lakes. A few smaller have only 12-15". While night time temps have dropped below freezing to help firm things up in the mornings, daytime temps of 60 degrees forecasted through Thursday, with lots of sun, could really eat up ice. This weekend could be the last ice fishing weekend, stay tuned for further reports.
