WEEK TWO 2019 SEASON
May 13, 2019
Minocqua
3 photos



Trip Summary
Trip Summary
5/18/19 Hi from the shores of "Kennedy Bay" on Lake Minocqua. Two weeks into the 2019 season we finally got temperatures that were normal or above finally bringing water temperatures up to the low 50's.
Monday Bill Abbott and his fishing partner John Birbaum from Madison pulled into Minocqua just after noon, they were staying on Minocqua for 4 days so my plan was to show them a lot of spots so they would have an idea of where to fish the next couple days until we would fish together again on Thursday. We hit 8 different spots fishing everything from 4 feet down to 25 feet, the water temp was in the low 40s. At 5 o'clock when we pulled the boat I had only 1 bite that produced our only Pike, Bill caught and released a nice 19 inch Walleye, and John had a nice Perch. Certainly not what I was looking for, the guys did miss a few bites but that was it, the biggest surprise was no Bass. Thursday morning we went down to the Willow the conditions were as good as they get water temps were in the low 50s with cloud cover and a nice chop. At the end of the morning we had 5 nice Pike and 1 Perch. Again it was a day of fishing a lot of spots with little or no action until we found a small concentration of fish on a small point of an island that due to the high water is under water. Along with the fish kept the guys released 1 Pike, but we were lucky if we landed 1 out of every 3 fish we had on say nothing about the missed bites.
Tuesday and Wednesday I fished with Bob Garbott and John Junck from Milwaukee, Wednesday morning we went down to the Willow. With our wet spring the water level is up to almost full. We picked up a fish here and there only finding one area that held a small concentration of Pike and Perch it was a day of catch and release we boated 10 Pike and a couple of Perch, Bob had a dandy that was just hair short of 12 inches.
Wednesday we headed out to a Pike lake west of Minocqua. Even though the water temp had gotten up to 54 degrees the fish were still lethargic and bites were hard to feel. At the end of the morning we had boated 10 or 12 Pike and one Perch. Even though it was a light bite we did get 3 bite offs indicating that the fish had swallowed the jig go figure.
All the water we fished normally produces Walleyes this time of the year but the only ones we caught were on Minocqua. Bass were absent so it was Pike and Perch. I am using Xlarge fat heads on 1/16 oz jigs except on Thursday when the wind picked up and we forced to switch to 1/8 oz they produced equally well. Both days we fished the Willow, we were forced to hit a number of spots picking up a fish here and there before finding a small group of fish where we picked 3 or 4 fish. It was a different spot each day. I have a couple of friends coming up to fish the Minocqua Chain for the next week so I will get a report from them. The bad news is the weather is going right in the dumpster for the next 5 days with temperatures in the 40s with a real feel of mid30s that won't help. That's it for now folks good luck fishin' and remember "KEEP YOUR LINE TIGHT AND A BEND IN YOUR ROD" DAVE LANG