Heading up there in a few weeks and have never fished these lakes. Any tips on what to look for and what to throw....targeting largemouth and smallmouth.
Heading up there in a few weeks and have never fished these lakes. Any tips on what to look for and what to throw....targeting largemouth and smallmouth.
Kayak Bass League - President
https://www.facebook.com/groups/kayakbassleague
I used to fish the chain, primarily Minocqua and Kawaguesaga, regularly for muskies. The chain has a good largemouth population, and my PB largemouth actually came from Kawaguesaga while musky fishing. My buddy is staying on the chain and fishing it for the first time this week, and per his text messages, he has also caught several "nice" largemouth already. The bass are not shy here and often strike large lures typically thrown by the muskie anglers.
Minocqua is a deep clear lake but still contains good structure. There are numerous islands on both Minocqua and Kawaguesaga. Order a Fishing Hot Spots foldable, waterproof map before you go as it is a great tool. Daytime boating traffic is unreal and the chain is best fished early morning and late evening into dark. If you are there after Labor Day, boating traffic will not be a problem however. The lakes (particularly Minocqua) are right in town and are loaded with houses, cabins and resorts and don't quite have the northwoods feel of so many others in the area.
The Minocqua/Woodruff area is wonderful and is my favorite place in the whole state. It is "touristy", but I love it. There are literally hundreds of lakes within a very short drive. Take a ride a few minutes north to Boulder Junction as well if your wife and family will be along.
I realize I didn't provide a whole lot of bass specific info, but I hope I was a little bit of help.
Last edited by madmurph; 08-19-2020 at 08:20 AM.
chatter baits over weed edge's with deep water near by works well. skipping jigs under docs is always good. usually random laydowns will produce some fish. of course fishing 10' weed edges is good as well
Live in the area now, when I didn't live in the area I fished the chain more then I do now.
Having done really well competitively on this chain has my view skewed towards Lake Tomahawk. Lake "Tom" is the bastard child of the chain and oddly enough does not see a fraction of the boat traffic - if it does, it's large enough to sustain it. Granted the DNR hurt generational bass on the chain with it's efforts to restore the walleye population by 1. Miss information reported that caused locals/ semi-locals to take 'control' of the bass population themselves - meaning a lot of smallmouth ended up on the bank or with gills ripped out, and 2. They put up nets in popular spawning areas to try to prevent the bass from spawning. Even with all of this there are some really good fish in the chain and in Lake Tom.
A warning to all people fishing... watch out for Ghost Surfing. This has become really popular on the chain and obviously with nobody piloting the boat, they cannot steer around you if they are pointed towards you. That ski boat heading towards you when you are fishing a flat or a hump... it might not have a driver.
Just an update for you guys. We had our tournament out on the chain a couple weeks ago and for the most part did pretty good. I actually ended up winning the two day event with a little bit of luck with that cold front moving in. I stayed in Kawaguesaga both days and managed to find a couple good groups of smallmouth....biggest was 18" and was every bit of 3.5 pounds. Other notable mentions from other anglers was a 19.25" smallmouth caught somewhere past the channel just south of mid lake. The biggest however was a 21.25" largemouth caught on Katherine on a shakeyhead. That had to be a super old fish especially for that body of water and being that far north. Had a great time up there!
Kayak Bass League - President
https://www.facebook.com/groups/kayakbassleague
Sounds like you had some good fishing. Congrats on your win and glad you enjoyed Minocqua.
Reply With Quote