From Kurt’s Island Bait for the date 6-10-14:

Despite cooler temps this week, we seem to be in an early summer mode. Water temps have settled into the mid 60’s range. Enough warmth seems to be working its way down to help push some bug hatches as a couple species of dragon flies, some types of midge and what looks like march brown mayflies have hatched. The thing to keep an eye out for is the Hexagemia hatch, needs to warm up some….but its coming!

Largemouth Bass: Very Good- Excellent. Largemouth found in a variety of stages. Pre-spawn, spawn and (if one source is correct) post spawn. Top water action has held despite cooler temps. Plastic frogs, Jitterbugs and Skitter Pops tops. Wacky worms (Yum Dingers, Senkos and Jackals) hammering fish in shallow on unweighted hooks. Largemouth guarding beds scooping up Lizards, tubes and creature baits. Lots of bass measuring 16-19″ with a few 20″+ showing up.

Walleyes: Good-Very Good. Fresh weeds holding walleyes in 5-9′ depths during overcast days and after dark. Daytime bite on 1/16oz. jigs tipped with large fatheads, Dace or large leeches. At dusk or after dark, casting shallow running stickbaits (Rapala Scatter Minnows, Rattlin Rouges) still catching larger 20″+ walleyes.

Smallmouth Bass: Good. Action falling off a bit as spawn finishing and fish moving off to recooperate. Tube jigs fished in 8-14′ best. Also crawl rubber craws or creature baits on stand up jigs to entice slow biters.

Bluegills: Good. A few scattered reports of bedding fish, but we really need to see water warm a bit more. Small wet flies and rubber spiders behind a casting float (or on a flyrod for those who know how) is accounting for a lot of fish. Small leeches tops for live bait anglers.

ALERT!!!! SORRY! But thunderbugs won’t be available this season.

Northern Pike: Good. Chubs and suckers on jigs or under floats. Spoons such as Daredevils and Johnson Silver Minnows and #3 Mepps working well.

Crappie: Good. Moving out a little deeper. Warmer temps may bring fish in as minnows and young of year fry move in. Tiny tinsel, plastic and hair jigs tipped with waxies or small minnows in 6-10′ weeds best.

Yellow Perch: Good / Fair. Not a lot of reports. Best to use medium fats in 6-9′ sparse weed flats.

Musky: Fair. Not many reports at our location. Anglers spotting lookers (follows), and mid 30″ fish but not much for catches.

Fishing overall good, though daily weather patterns can cause poor “days” (high pressure). With weeds still a bit behind schedule, finding green standing weeds helps to locate fish till everything greens up.

Thanks,
Kurt

From Kurt’s Island Bait for the date 6-3-14:

Spring was short! Jumped right from late ice out to summer time temps in a matter of 2 1/2 weeks. Lake surface temps shot through the 60’s on smaller lakes and flowages right into the mid 70’s. Larger lakes recording temps of 64-69 deg. Recent rains brought temps down some, but warm temps of the past week have accelerated spawning of Crappies, Muskies and Smallmouth bass.

Smallmouth Bass: Excellent. Smallies bedding. Great top water action on Pop R’s, Chug Bugs, Zara Puppys and Skitter Pops. Plastic Lizards and Creature baits also very effective. Catch & release only till June 21st.

Walleye: Very Good. A bit of a lull mid-week brought on by high pressure, but as barometer dropped, walleyes really kicked in. Jig & minnow as well as jig & leech combo helping anglers to lake limits during the day. After dark, casting Scatter Rap minnows along shorelines scoring big walleyes to 30″ this past week. Lighted slip bobbers suspending big leeches in 6-8′ of new growth weeds also top tactic.

Crappies: Very Good. Spawn all but done on most lakes, but good catches of big slabs floating small hair (Pinky), tinsel (Gapen Shrimp) or plastic (Fall’s minnows or mini-mites) below small floats outside of areas where spawning occurred. Big fish to 14 1/2″ this weekend. Rain should hold these fish shallow for a while.

Largemouth Bass: Very Good. Top water action Hot! Anglers working Torpedoes and other prop baits having 30-40+ evenings on fish. Big fish showing up with a 21″, 5 1/2# taken before the weather came in on Sunday night.

Bluegills: Very Good. While not ready to spawn, gills very active taking poppers on the surfaces well as small jigs, plastics and live leeches. Once thunder bugs are available gills cant pass up these bugs.

Northern Pike: Good to Very Good. Lots of pike action on Chubs & Suckers in the 5-7″ range on Slo-poke jigs. Slip-floats also good way to suspend bait near weeds. Casting #3 Mepps Aglias and Comets and smaller Daredevils also hot.

Musky: Fair- Improving. Following the spawn, recovering fish starting to show up. Small twitch baits (Cranes, Shallow Raiders 5-6″ long), #5 sized Mepps Aglia and Buchertails as well as 3/8oz. and larger spinnerbaits fished in shallows best. With water warming so quickly, top water action should pick up. One reported 48 1/2″ on a Mepps this week from small, weedy lakes.

Yellow Perch: Fair. A few incidental fish on the Flowages by anglers targeting walleyes or Crappies. Medium fatheads best.

Weed growth is still behind even as water temps climb Mosquitos have been on a rampage looking for dragon fly hatches to help curb the clouds of biters at the boat landings. Load up on bug spray and such before you depart.

Thanks
Kurt Island Sportshop
Minocqua Wi.

Minocqua area is terrible!!! Every time we let the dog out of the house she comes back in with a dozen for us to try to contain/kill before they eat us!!! I have fished and they haven’t been bad on the water, though at the boat landing, they were super horrible. Some joked that driving and killing mosquitos in the car may be more dangerous than texting and driving right now!!!

Mark

WOW leineguy, you’re still around!!!

Mark

From Kurt’s Island Bait for the date 5-27-14:

A weekend such as the last could almost make ya forget about the winter and opener of 2014…. almost!

A truly gorgeous weekend of weather brought anglers out by the droves as they pursued their favorite species all over the Lakeland area.

Crappies: Excellent! Anglers found crappies in both pre-spawn and the start of spawning modes. Flipping tiny 1/64 oz jigs such as Gapen’s Freshwater Shrimp as well as Hotties and Falls Fine Ball jigs under tiny floats produced limits for 10-13″ crappies throughout the Lakeland area. Big fish topping out at 15″ succumbed to small minnows suspended 2′ under floats outside and through just about any downed timber. In a matter of hours a shoreline devoid of nesting crappies would fill up with nesting pairs. With many lakes just hitting their peak this week, action should continue through the coming weekend.

Walleyes: Very Good. The tribal spearing counts are in and the bag limits on many- but not all lakes bounced up from 1’s and 2’s to 2’s and 3’s. Check the new bag limits at the Wisconsin DNR website. Lots of big fish being caught after dark. Fish of 24-28″ hitting long twitchbaits with Rapalas Scatter Minnows #11 tops. Anglers casting from shore and piers doing the best. Daytime bite mostly on jig minnow combos with Dace and chubs (where available) top choices.

Largemouth Bass: Very Good. Action picking up as largemouth moving into shallows to pick up heat and feed on small pan fish and insects. Even had reports of top water action as local angler caught 20 LM in one evening on Baby Bully 45 frog. Spinners, spinner baits, small shallow running cranks all producing nice catches to 20″ers. A 24″ was caught on a fly rod with a white streamer (reportedly).

Northern Pike: Very Good. Pike following pan fish toward shallows of 3-6′. Jigs and sucker combos accounting for lots of action on fish of 24-32″. One 35″ caught by crappie angler. #3 Mepps spinners also effective.

Bluegill: Good. Not as heavily targeted due to crappie bite, but bug hatches bringing gills up high to surface. A few larger gills taking minnows meant for crappies. Small leeches tough to beat here.

Smallmouth Bass: Good-Very Good. (catch and release only) Big fish staging outside spawning areas. With temps on many lakes warming to mid 60’s in a hurry- watch for beds to appear
Jig & Creature, Jig & Lizard and top water lures such as Chug-Bugs good way to go.

Muskie: Poor-Fair. Not many reports and the ones we have received not good. Could have caught the midst of spawn or post spawn with how warm it got so quickly, tough to know. Disappointing opener for most.

Sun and little wind caused lake temps to soar into the 60’s. Shallows becoming active with insect life and small bait fish pulling in the larger fish. Weed growth weeks behind making any standing green growth valuable real estate.

Good Luck,
Kurt
Island Sportshop, Minocqua, Wi

Mark

Kept da boat in 10-ish’… Nabbed a pink over pearl xrap… Stopped it cold!!! Can’t wait for Friday night and the weekend!!!

Mark

Its probably been mostly said, but I want to reiterate my thoughts… I LIKE very much the episodes that are time specific, as I am a huge Gillespie fan!!! I like the fact that I can take advantage of a bite near my home or even drive to where you might have fished to do the same…

I also voted yes, because if I am learning something regarding a body of water, species I like to chase, etc., I am all in as well. I love to fish for SMB’s planning to do this weekend as well as open up the musky season by fishing a day as well. Got into a musky league that starts on Thursday… and as Hoffies said, you can have all the LMB shows that someones else watches, although if I get on a hot bite with them, I am not leaving them for a while…

If you have the time to hook up with someone who will help you produce a saltwater show, that would still be good stuff… Not saying your expertise would not allow you to go south and put together a show, it would just seem to be more productive and efficient, please just don’t go to Venice, LA, except for your own pleasure!!!

Might see ya, a little ‘eye stuff going into the weekend, then going to try to chase them in LdF too… Good Luck and stay safe!!!

Mark

I think you get a warranty, but its very short!!! 90 days to a year, I am thinking, but not sure…

Mark

bdawg:

If they are reacting anything like they are straight east of Hayward in Mincoqua, they are sitting right on the break off their spawning structure. They should also light up the rest of this week into the weekend. It sounds like hard, suspending baits are doing most of the damage and that plastics are just starting to warm up in the equation… water temps over here are still running anything from low to mid 40’s to the mid 50’s…

Mark

From Kurt’s Island Bait for the date 5-20-14:

After a little taste of winter late last week (yes, snowflakes on May 15) and the drop in water temperature that comes with the cold, things look good from here on out with a nice gradual warm up for the next 7-10 days. We will need the warmth and sun to get the weeds growing. We are weeks behind on both plant growth above and below the water.

Crappies: Good and Improving. Crappies are moving up to the shallows on North and East shores to collect warmth in the afternoons. Now that we are done with the night cold, these fish are staying and staging in areas. Submerged wood along these shores and in protected bays help to gather heat to the surrounding water and adds protection for these fish. Pitch tiny jigs (Gapen’s Freshwater Shrimp, Mini-mites, Hotties) under small floats from as far away as possible to suspend these offerings to entice hits. Small minnows, leeches and wax worms also working.

Walleyes: Fair-Good-Improving. Drop in temperature hurt late last week, but there was still a good bite in the afternoons and evenings as the waters warmed back up. Post spawn walleyes are moving shallow to feed up after the rigors of spawning.

A lack of green weeds to hold forage fish means a lack of targets for walleyes and anglers to key in on. A majority of walleye stomachs have been full of small bluegills and perch (though fish from the Turtle Flambeau Flowage have reportedly been full of leeches). Small, shallow running crankbaits that run to 5-6’ depths and not retrieved too quickly have been a good way to work shallow flats, covering water and enticing strikes from active fish. A jig and minnow (or leech) combo slowly worked back over the same areas will produce the less active biters.

Pike: Good-Improving. Most catches have been by anglers targeting walleyes with jig/minnow combos. Larger chubs or suckers produce best. Slow moving plastic spoons (Moss Boss) worked with a lift and glide as well as Slug-gos also garner nice action.

Largemouth Bass: Fair- Improving. Twitch stick-baits over shallow warming dark bottom areas. Plastics such as Salamanders, craws and tubes crawled/hopped in like areas also working.

Perch: Fair. Few reports

Bluegills: Fair-Good. Moving into shallows on warm days. Tiny jigs tipped with waxies.

Musky: Opener is this Saturday. Haven’t seen or heard much this spring. With the Memorial weekend temps forecasted to hit 70’s, water temps should rush through the 50’s and into the 60’s bringing fish up to pre-spawn mode.

Weather looks to be very favorable for the upcoming holiday weekend. Water temps should climb and weed growth should begin.
Wild bait such as chubs, dace are tough to get. Leeches are in good supply.

Should see pre-spawn activity increase for crappies, smallies and musky. Crappies and musky spawning the following week, if not before on some smaller lakes.

Kurt’s Island Sports Shop
Kurt Justice

Mark

Considering I get a chance to see Gillespie trying to pull off the same things you guys 6-8 times a year at Fibbers, I can appreciate the weekly test to do so. He was up Mon. and Tues., fished with my boss and another guide on consecutive days, then home to edit and process… Assuming they did ok as the fishing has been lights out since the ice off… almost every where up here!!!

Mark

From Kurt’s Island Bait for the date 5-13-14:

Ice is gone!!! The last sight of ice (on Trout Lake) left Saturday. Water temps on the lakes range wildly from high 30’s to 40 (Trout) to as much as 60’s on some of the small dark waters. Average temps are in the low 50’s. Due to the fact that the ice stayed on so long, walleyes were busting to spawn….and they did. On most bodies of water the spawn came and went quickly. There are lots of signs of the larger females already recovering and feeding heavily in a post-spawn pattern.

Walleyes: Very Good. While a few larger lakes are still seeing a spawning bite, most are past that and on a hot post spawn bite. Warming shallows, mostly on north and east banks are holding actively feeding eyes. Jig and minnow combos accounting for most catches, but casting long stick baits (Rattlin Rouges, Thundersticks, floating Rapalas) also tagging nice fish in 4-6′ in and around any green weeds. Low light times best, but overcast days seeing action all day long.

Crappies: Good. Best along North shores as crappies (and bluegills) piling up into shallows where water is warmest. Sometimes a shift in the wind will push warmer water to one side or the other of bay, follow the warmth. Since fish are in shallow and spooky (they are not spawning….just warming)stay back as far as a long cast will let you reach using rocket bobbers to crappie minnows or tiny jigs to reach fish.

Northern Pike: Good. Actively feeding in shallows of 2-6′. Lots of upper 20″ fish. Stick / Twitch baits and 4″ twister grubs best. Chubs & suckers on weed weasel jigs with wire leaders. On days the walleye bite seems to slow (Sunday for example), slow dragging a lively dace or large fathead was needed to entice reluctant pick-ups…. patience needed to set the hook.

Looks like some cold nights (30’s) coming at weeks end, but daytime highs in the 50’s – 60’s should keep things moving.

Kurt
Island Sportshop
Minocqua Wi

Mark

All clear this weekend…

Mark

Eye-Guy…

I live close, but its still a 45 minutes drive over there… Do you know what models you are looking for so that if whoever becomes your purchaser, they can walk in and purchase??? Perhaps a pm if you want to let me know what you are interested in…

Mark

BK – Good Question, I’ll ask

Mike West – Seems like a lot of the stuff that he said to me is similar to what you just quoted… Need to find out if he went with Gen 2…

Thanks guys!!!

Mark

Almost all waters are in the Minocqua area are ice free… The only lakes with ice are the largest lakes, i.e. Trout, Tomahawk and people are expecting that they may lose their ice even before the weekend ends… I went by Trout this a.m. and in the brief view I get, I am not sure I would collaberate that, but I would be happy if they went off too!!! It seems that most all of the lakes even to the north are very close to being open, so check with your locals before heading up, but there should be plenty of water to access this weekend!!! Good luck and be safe!!!

Mark

well trained belletaine!!!

Mark

From Kurt’s Island Bait for the date 5-6-14:

Can’t wait till the opener!!!?

Oh yeah….it was last week.

The weekend was a bust! Open water opportunities were few. Of the few areas where open water was available, the water was just a bit to cold still and the walleyes haven’t
moved up…. bodes well for those coming up this weekend.

Anglers still ice fished the opener on Trout, Big Arb and even Minocqua. While the Wisconsin above the Rainbow, the Tomahawk above the Willow and parts of the Turtle at Murray’s Landing were available for the opener. These areas were crowded, the most action took place from Tomahawk and below.

Crappies: Good. Ice anglers on Big Arb and Minocqua did well. Some reports from the top of the Willow where anglers found nice crappies along 10-12′ depths jigging for walleyes. Keep an eye out for sunny afternoons- North shore flats will warm and crappies will lay very shallow to gather heat.

Walleyes: ? A few areas (Turtle Flambeau) were very good to anglers. The dark shallow water warmed up enough to get walleyes into pre-spawn mood. Other areas that were open were too cold for the most part. There have been a few late night anglers finding success casting Rattlin Rouges along rocky shorelines at night where the ice had pulled away enough to warrant cast (usually where pumps used to protect docks had kept water open) and have found nice walleyes… most females still seemed hard while males were milking.

With mild temps this week smaller lakes will continue to open. Shorelines are pulling away, with areas of 80-150′ open here on lake Minocqua.

The pond went officially ice free Sat. May 3rd.

Thanks, Kurt
Island Sportshop
Minocqua, WI

Glad James got a chance to enjoy it with Paul… My boss has been doing this for I don’t know how many years. They’ve just hammered them for the last ten days from Oconto up to Menomonie…

BTW it was a GREAT show and had implications as to what we do or should do on other bodies of water that are much smaller!!!

Mark

I wished I lived closer to one of these!!!

Mark

A guy was asking about fish kills on another site… Here is my answer along with ice condidtions as I saw/heard of them over the weekend and today.

So far not too much has been said about any kills… Most of the lakes being targeted right now have pretty decent flow in them all winter and the ones to be suspected probably haven’t opened for inspection by any fisherman.

I work just to the north of Content, which has had bad kills in the past and haven’t heard anything bad from the peeps down there that have been in the restaurant lately and have asked.

It sounds like the area to the east of you has open water and to the south… There are only two lakes in the Minocqua area that are open, Mid and L. Musky. West of us is pretty much iced up yet until you get over to the Highway 13 corridor where it sounds like most of those lakes have opened. North of us in the Mercer area, because of all the rivers flowing into each lake, there is a fair number of acres of water opening.

Each end of the TFF was open this weekend with Sunday being a pretty good day from the three reports that I received… And I also heard the Gile was open…

I did run down to Nokomis yesterday just to fish as I know that I will not get to fish pretty much the rest of this week. I have never fished there and chose to fish the east end. I fished shallow water and managed to find just about 41*, but without a lot of time, I really didn’t get to fish any of my “A” choices. I also stayed strictly with throwing small crankbaits in shallow windblown shorelines…

Mark

You didn’t go fishing with them???

Mark

From Kurt’s Island Bait for the date 5-1-14:

The pond behind the shop is about 50% ice free.
I checked the Willow Dam last night, from the launch to the first point where everyone beaches their boats is open, the rest is ice!

Cedar Falls- river is open, walked through the woods….open as far down as I could see.

Katherine- Is out 20′ from the landing, the rest still iced up.

Minocqua- Iced up, only open areas by aerators.

Lake Tom- Still ice fishing on the bay….rest of the lake is still iced.

Big Arb- Accessible from the south end to ice fish….no open water to speak of.

Little Arb.- Mostly Iced up….not safe to use the ice though.

Carrol- Ice fishing access from in front of parking lot, DON’T use the landing! Lake is ice covered.

Sweeny- Ice covered, but not accessible.

Rainbow Flowage- Ice covered, not accessible.

I haven’t visited the lakes to the west. I did get a report that the Pike / Round Lake chain looks about ready to open up.

It’s been raining off and on for a couple of days, just not warm enough or hard enough to eat through the ice.

Thanks,
Kurt

Kurt’s Island Sportshop
Minocqua Wi. 54548

Here is Ty’s assessment from one of his updates, the last paragraph being the most important for our discussion:

Well, not really but according to the ice out contest on the site yesterday was the official ice out. Rob Barabe was the winner. Call me or post what colors you want in the Flowage Boas and Corey will make them up this week. You might have to wait a couple more weeks for the Vexers. Just got the first batch of those from the mold and they look great.

Rob must have had some biblical help on ice out because there was a perfect fifty yard wide path of open water from Siskos to Eagle Island last night when I went and looked. This morning the ice shifted and it’s scattered ice again. So Rob won but on a technicality. Like I said to Don, rules are rules. You don’t need another Flowage Boa anyway Don!

I haven’t driven around the lake and probably wont until Friday but from what I can see from the roads about half the lake is open. Maybe more. Hard to tell though. Most of the road areas are where there is current so that’s going to be open. I think satellite imagery will tell more. from Ty Sennett fishinginfo

Mark

P.S. I’ve also been reaading and it sounds like a lot of the smaller lakes in that area have opened… It also sounds like here that the large lakes will still have ice… Round, LCO, Grindstone, Namekagon, etc.

I know that the Phillips Chain to the east has opened…

Ty Sennett is concluding his iceout contest and it sounds like ice will be off the Chippewa Flowage.

Mark

From Kurt’s Island Bait for the date 4-28-14:

Things are looking a lot like this time last year… maybe even worse! At the time of this report (3:00pm. 4/28/14) average ice thickness on the surrounding lakes is 22-26″. Some anglers still reporting drilling to the gear box (32-34″) but these are on areas that received heavy winter traffic with crushed down snow and slush. 12-16″ of hard black ice is still the norm, though lake edges on the north and east sides in particular are pulling away, to the point of making access iffy.

Last year on April 29th (a Monday) we had 25″ of ice on lake Minocqua This year April 28 (Monday) it’s closer to24″. The Rainbow Flowage is locked up to just where the Wisconsin pours in. The Willow down by the dam is only ice free about 100ft. out. Stacks Bay is iced up, but I don’t recommend access. Carroll is accessible to ice. South end of Big Arb is good. Pickerel and Sweeney are iced up, but not accessible to ice.

Anglers are still getting on School House Bay and Sunny… but access is getting poor. Unfortunately we are looking at a mix of to much ice to launch boats on lakes, but not enough ice to get out and ice fish. Check out our website for updates.

Crappies: Very Good-Excellent. Both tightliners on plastics and tip-down users with minnows scored very well this weekend lots of numbers, some sorting to keep limits of crappies north of 10″.

Yellow Perch: Very Good. Perch feeding up prior to spawn. Minnows, waxies and spikes, fairly large jigs.

Bluegills: Good. Larger jigs with waxies, Chena and plastics all working well.

It will be close as to having any open water. Depends entirely on how much warm weather we get- rain and wind will also help.

Kurt’s Island Sports Shop
Kurt Justice

Thanks Joel!!! You know I like to consider everything a challenge… This years was just bigger than others. Lots of other time constraints were in my opinion bigger problems, tho.

Up here in the woods, there is no agriculture really at all… So with the harshest of winters this year, closing in on the best food sources were actually putting you pretty close to someone’s bird feeder.

As much as I have considered the “I’m hunting hungry” mantra, there is a certain amount of delicacy about how to get close to those birds… and you need time, which I didn’t have a lot of, to do it.

As much ice as we have up here yet and with the usual fishing excuse of “I am going fishing, to heck with the turkeys”, I might just pick up a tag for later in the season…

Mark

From Kurt’s Island Bait for the date 4-24-14:

Ice Update*****

It’s April 24th with an inch plus of new snow on the ground and more coming down. Air temps of 32-33 deg. at noon, not much melting going on.

Some shorelines have pulled away thanks to Wednesdays sunshine and near 50 deg. Ice thickness seems to run from as little as 18″ to as much as 30″ plus. 22-24″ seems to be the average with the bottom 14-16″ still solid clear ice. Top layering punky and soft could use some more sun or some warm rain.

Pond behind our shop is about 95% covered. Historically, once the pond is ice free it takes about 7-10 days for Minocqua Lake to open. Some years it has gone quicker with hot days….but 7-10 days is average.

Crappie fishing remains very good. Yellow perch and gills also in positive feeding modes. Once you’re out to the ice tall waterproof boots are necessary. Holes haven’t been refreezing, some expanded during hot days.

Kurt

Kurt’s Island Sports Shop
Kurt Justice

Mark

I always aim for the 1st season in WI. I also live in Northern WI where a smarter guy would not take the first season based on the winter weather the last two years. Also in consideration is the fact that I am also in school this year as well as teaching it. So time hasn’t been on my side. Had several areas where I knew people had been seeing groups of birds even as bad as our winter has been.

I also know that I have been able to call birds in over 400 yards in situations from my coulee hunting days… So I know I was close enough. But the snow in the woods just wouldn’t let the birds navigate to any calling or they just weren’t really interested yet…

So this morning, two days into the second season, one of the groups that I am aware of in my 45 minute drive to Mercer to teach school made their first appearance to me. Of course at 60 mph and going around a corner with traffic, didn’t give me the best view, but there were four toms strutting in a field I had been watching for the last two weeks.

Where were they last week???

Mark