Minocqua Area Fishing Report 8/9/2022
by Kurt's Island Sport Shop
Following a week of some fairly high temps and a couple big storms that brought both lake temps (76-78 degrees) and lake levels (3+ inches of rain) up in our area, a relative cool down to start the week. This dropped some surface temps by 3+ degrees overnight (8/7 to 8/8). Fishing remained relatively strong until the recent cold snap and storm shut down early morning fishing on 8/8. By afternoon though, things coming back to normal.
Largemouth Bass: Very Good – Working into heavy cover during cool downs with crawfish imitation plastics on Ned heads. By afternoons Bass moving up in weeds to hit spinner baits and shallow running cranks over cabbage in 8-10’.
Smallmouth Bass: Very Good – Not as many BIG fish reported as last week, but still lots. Best working deep weed edges of 12-16’ using drop-shot rigs, Ned Rigs and Wacky Worms.
Bluegill: Very Good – Best along weed edges/tops using worms or small leeches.
Crappie: Good – Anglers using small spinners to “clip” weed tops in 10-14’ catching nice slabs to 13”. Once located, slip-bobbers and tiny jigs or small minnows hot.
Yellow Perch: Good – Finding nice Perch (to 11”) in shallower weeds of 5-8’ while working jig/crawler combos. Gotta sort through little Perch and Gills, but one nice eater (8”+) usually leads to several in the area.
Musky: Good-Fair – Evenings, especially pre-storm, or just at dusk best. Top-water has been producing. Mornings call for gliders or bucktails
Walleye: Fair-Good – Deep rocks early and late. Crawlers or big leeches. Some weed fish, but action limited to conditions (clouds, wind)
Northern Pike: Fair-Good – Action picking up, but live bait still tops. Try jerk baits (Husky Jerks, X-Raps) over weeds in 8-12’.
Cool nights are expected in August. Slowly falling lake temps and a seasonal die-off or certain weeds will bring some change in patterns, but overall, nothing too drastic as of yet.
