Musky Shop Northwoods Fishing Report: Late May
The fishing season has started and has been awesome so far. We have had a lot of reports from fishermen and our guide staff that fishing has been really good to start the season. Lots of walleyes and crappies are being caught.
The water temps in the Northwoods of WI vary quite a bit due to the vast variety of lakes and flowages we have in abundance. Water temps on the Rainbow Flowage and the Willow Flowage have been right around 60 degrees, most of the lakes are under 500 acres and have somewhat dark water, temps are around 60 degrees, and the larger deep clear water lakes water temps have been in the low to mid 40 degrees.
Fishing has been good on all of these types of lakes. My brother and I were out on Trout Lake for a few hours a couple of days ago and the water temp was 42.5 on a bright sunny day. Walleyes that day were somewhat shallow early in the day and moved out as the day progressed. We caught 23" & 25" Walleyes. One was caught on a large blacktail chub, and one on a #5 ShadRap in the Golden Shiner pattern. Trolling, casting, and jigging all have been working well for Walleyes.
Rapala Husky Jerks are a great bait for marble eyes as well as casting or trolling. The aforementioned baits work great on the Rainbow Flowage and Willow Flowage as well. Many anglers will troll for walleyes using Rapala Husky Jerks and crankbaits with really good success. Live Bait such as XL Fatheads and Dace Minnows work very well casting or jigging on the flowages and small to medium size lakes. Larger minnows such as blacktail chubs work really well on the deeper clear water lakes. Redtails are always a very good live minnow to use however they are very hard to trap and so far, this spring none of our Live Bait vendors have been able to trap any in the wilds.
Crappies are slowly starting to move in a bit. Our guides Al Frost and Fred Palermo have had some good trips catching crappies anywhere from the shoreline to 4'-5'. Crappies are starting to move in however they have not all moved in yet. As the water begins to warm a bit then more will move shallow. Kalin’s Crappie Scrubs and Triple Threat Grubs are great for catching Crappies. Live Bait offerings for crappies you will want to consider are crappie minnows and XL fatheads; they have been working great.
The worm, nightcrawler, and leech bite really hasn't got going yet but will soon as the water temps creep up. We have a great selection of fresh Live Bait that is always in really cold well water and with 4 different live bait dealers, our bait is always fresh and lively.
If you are planning a trip up to Oneida and or Vilas County, please stop by the Musky Shop or contact us as it would be our honor to serve you.
Our guides have a few openings and we would love to meet your needs with a fishing guided trip if that is something you are considering. They are on the water a lot and would love to hit the water with you and catch some fish.
https://www.muskyshopguideservice.com/ 715-513-7700.
The Musky Season is only a couple of weeks away and all of us at the Musky Shop can't wait. Please let us know if we can be of service to you, as again, it would be our pleasure
One last thing, we would love to have you join us on Saturday, July 15th for our third annual Musky Shop Summer Bash. This has become one of the most fun days of the year for us and our customers. Our Musky Bash will feature Bassmaster Champion Randy Howell, Freshwater Fishing Hall Of Famer Joe Bucher, Freshwater Fishing Hall Of Famer Russ “Smity” Smith, Long time Musky Guide and one of the smartest fishermen in the world Steve Herbeck, and Professional Musky Guide and host of the Musky360 podcast Steven Paul.
We will have lots of door prizes and huge discounts during the Musky Bash as well. We would absolutely love to have you as our guests for our event. Mark your calendar Saturday, July 15th 11:00 am-4:00 pm.
Good Fishing and God Bless, Jim Stewart