Minocqua, Wisconsin report 5/1 - 5/2/04 - photos

[Jig'nMinnow]

STATS
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Area Temps - High 40's (5/2); High 50's (5/1)
Water Temps - High 40's (my 23 acre lake only)
Places fished - My 23acre lake
Total fish caught - 4


Minocqua, Wisconsin area - land of 3,200 lakes


Map of my lake (structure map - weeds (X's) only come up during summer)


The trip kinda started out bad. We were planning on taking my '97 Ford wagon on the 330 mile trip. Right after we pick up gramps from his house in Bloomingdale, we were on our way. We decided to drive right through Elgin, IL and take the short-cuts onto I-94. Didn't work...My baby and the transmission just gave out right on rt. 20 in Elgin. I hope that it'll get fixed somehow, or else I'm just screwed for the summ er. It only has 84,000 miles on it.... :evil:

After wasting 2 hours and after towing it, we grabbed my grampas Buick and we were off. We left the second time at 9:30 from Itasca, IL and didn't get to Minocqua till 3am.


5/1/04
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After waking up at 6 to get some Minnows and batteries for the locator, I had to work my a$$ off. This is what I had to do...........

Raking up piles of pine-needles all around the cabin took me 3hrs. Then I finally got to business (fishing) at around 1pm.


THE LAKE











my hot-spot


Only 3 fish were caught yesterday, all were Largemouths. The strange thing was that they were caught near drop-offs, and points in around 8ft of water, all on 1/16oz jigs w/ minnows. I did witness a beautiful Pike sunning itself near our dock. It was somewhere between 25-30".


14"er

16"er

15-16"er


Later that evening, we went to the Wisconsin River

It was so packed, and I couldn't believe how many people were there. The lot was all full, and maybe 40-50 people were fishing, and wading the high & flooded river, maybe a mile downstream of the dam too. My dad talked to a few guys and said that the fishing was spotty. (they obviously weren''t casting and dabbling the high water near shore....duh!)

Then we went to a nearby, secret river that I know of, about 10 mins west of the cabin.
It was closed off to fishing because it was marked as a fish sanctuary. I guess they come up to the dam and spawn. We were nice to the fishies, and didn't go fishing here.







5/2/04
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Set the alarm for 5am and didn't get out till 5:30ish. This was hard-core fishing. The temps were in the low 30's, my guides in the rods were getting all frozen, and etc... I first started going for Northern Pike with the heavy stuff, but then gave up after 30mins.

Here's what I was able to muster up for today.....


a 14.5" keeper, also caught on the jig & minnow combo off a sand bar edge at 9ft.


Here's a sample of baits that all the fish were caught on, including the rod & reel.....




TOTALS
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- 4 Keeper Largemouth Bass (14", 14.5", 2 at 15-16")


Not too bad, but it was earned. Opening weekend is mainly a Walleye & Pike bite anyway.


I'll be back up there right after school gets out on June 4th and will stay there till Sunday, June 8...


JIG

[Wahoo!]

Great report and pics Jig. Thanks for the report. Looks like an amazing place to fish.

[DementedFish]

Yea it does wahoo. Very pretty.

[GlobalFisher]

Looks like you have a lot of fun there!