Musky Shop Northwood's Fishing Report: Late April
Greetings from the Northwoods of Minocqua Wisconsin!
We hope all of you are finding some time to head out and do some early-season fishing. Here in Oneida and Vilas Counties, our game fishing season is closed until the first Saturday in May but there are plenty of Crappies, Perch, Panfish, and Bass to fish for. The Bass season is closed as well however one can fish for them, they just cannot be kept.
Early season fishing has been pretty good, though there hasn't been a great amount of anglers hitting our numerous lakes so far this spring, so if you're thinking about coming up to the Minocqua area by all means now is a great time as one will have many of the lakes all to yourself.
Crappies have been scattered a bit with fluctuating weather conditions however the bite has been good using small plastics, Crappie Minnows, and XL Fatheads. A larger Fathead minnow seems to be the ticket for larger Crappies. One of our guides, Al Frost, caught some really nice Crappies up to 14". With Crappies being a bit scattered you will want to look for any new weed growth near the warmest water where you are fishing as well as down timber, rock, and gravel. On the warmer sunny days, rocks seem to warm up, and fish like to hang near rocks as those areas are a bit warmer. We are also getting some reports of Crappies being suspended on the deeper clear water lakes in the 12'-20' range. Again, Crappie Minnows, XL Fatheads, or soft plastics will be the ticket you need to catch them.
Panfish are going to be in the warmest water areas as well but a bit shallower. Most likely in the 3'-8' range in any type of cover such as wood, weeds, cribs etc. Bass will be roaming from shoreline cover to any type of structure in the 2'-12' areas, again concentrated in the warmest water areas as well.
We hope you will consider coming up to beautiful Northern Wisconsin. Early season pre-spawn fishing can be great and now is the time. We have a great selection of small plastics, as well as many Bass lures and Fresh Live Bait that's always in cold running well water. One quick note outside of the fishing report is to mark your calendar for Saturday, July 20th as we are having our 4th annual Musky Bash. It is one of the most fun days of the year plus a great opportunity to learn about Musky fishing and take advantage of some great sales as well, we hope you can join us. You're all invited.
Well, that's it for this time around, please let us know if we can be of service to you as it would be our pleasure.
Good Fishing and God Bless, Jim Stewart