Northern Wisconsin Fishing

Seasoned anglers and novices alike enjoy testing their skills in the Minocqua area’s lakes, rivers and streams. Most support a variety of fish, such as Northern Pike, Muskellunge, Large and Smallmouth Bass, Trout and Walleye, and most have public access.

Minocqua Area Fishing Report  1/13/2026

by Kurt's Island Sport Shop

Great week weather wise for anglers as temps in the upper 20’s to mid-30’s made for comfortable fishing. Even the slush issue has started to settle down on most lakes having either gotten packed down or snow cover melted down enough to let colder nights freeze it down.

Despite such good conditions, it seems ice fishing traffic has been lighter than expected (I get that Sunday (1/11) was a day of mourning here in Packer Nation). To be fair, fishing fell off some on Saturday (1/10) following a very good week of fishing. Things picked back up on Sunday afternoon and should hold for a time. A front and some colder weather for the coming week could firm things up even more on the ice and the coming New Moon period should help.

Walleye: Very Good-Good – Past week action and size as anglers getting fish from 3 PM on. Active fish taking Shiver Minnows, Jigging Raps and Hyper Rattles. Tip-up action on shiners along 10-12’ weed edges, suckers on off-shore humps of 15-25’ of gravel or over 18-24’ sand grass flats.

Northern Pike: Very Good-Good – Still big baits – shiners, suckers though a few on hot dogs of late (don’t carry at this bait shop). Warming trend seemed to help in the 8-12’ cabbage.

Largemouth Bass: Very Good-Good – Liking the warmer weather, Largemouth responding strong to tip-ups with medium shiners and small jigging spoons/raps tipped with a minnow head.

Yellow Perch: Good – Not overly deep, but 16-25’ mud using heavy spoons or tungsten jigs (#5) to get wigglers down and pounding in the mud. Good action and plenty of eaters in the 8-10” range.

Bluegill: Good – Weed bite mid-morning thru mid-afternoon on #3 and #4 tungsten jigs tipped with waxies, spikes or scented plastics. Some anglers finding larger Gills (8 ½”+) along outside weeds suspending 2-4’ off the bottom along coontail edges of 12-16’.

Crappie: Good-Fair – Depending where and when…like always. On some bodies of water the basin fish, that bit all week just sort of stopped. Weed fish seemed to pick up. Those in the thick parts of the weeds of 8-10’ taking plastics on #8 rockers while fish relating to deeper weed edges of 12-16’ taking Crappie fats and rosies on tip-downs.

With colder temps moving in over the weekend ice thickness should continue to improve. Most lakes in the 12” average range, with some areas reporting 15”. Slush very dependent on lake, but seems to have been improving following slight melt down of insulating snow.

Popular Fishing Lakes

Some of the more popular fishing lakes favored by visitors and locals include, Big Arbor Vitae, Clear Carrol, Madeline, Squirrel and Squaw. Bassmaster recently named the Minocqua chain one of the 25 best bass lakes in America’s central region and one of the top 100 in the nation. There are numerous wilderness sites for a quiet escape. Some good bets are the Willow Flowage Scenic Waters Area and the many lakes dimpling the Northern Highlands-American Legion State Forest.

Mid Lake, which has shallow water that warms quickly, is the place to be in spring, when Musky and Northern swim here to spawn.