Friday, 14 August 2020 / Published in Fishing Reports

Northwoods Bass Fishing Report, late July thru mid August, 2020

As summer is progressing, fishing is slowly improving. July flew by, and here we are in middle of August. Summer patterns for both smallmouth and largemouth have been in play for well over a month. As of late, we’ve had some very good days on the water, and some poorer days on the water. This has all been a product of each day’s weather, yet also relative to lake choices, preference of species, and fishing style. Unless sunny with some wind chop, smallmouth have been belligerent and uncooperative for the most part, while largemouth bass have been more reliable. You just got to take what the fish and lakes will give you each day, and do not settle for anything.

I recently wrapped up my summer season guide trips that took place from July 24th thru August 8th. Each day was full day trips. This time of year usually delivers the best weather, steadiest bites of the season, and patterns are generally consistent. That has not been the case at all in summer, or in 2020, as we were met with thunderstorms or new cold fronts every few days, more dry east winds, cold overnight lows and zero humidity to create any successful night fishing opportunities.

I can wake up every morning, judge the weather, and be able to predict the type of fishing day we are going have. On a good weather day, 20 to 40 fish for a full day is the expectation. On a crappy weather day or lousy wind, only a dozen or more. What’s a good day of fishing? I don’t know anymore. Expectations and standards have become arbitrary.

The first few weeks of July were deadly hot and most gamefishing opportunities came to a halt, but things have finally leveled off. Water temps on many area lakes are now ranging from 71-74. The deepest, largest, coldest, clearest waters are remaining coolest. Meanwhile our flowages, shallow water lakes, and brown waters are absorbing the most heat and have the warmest surface temps, and I tend to not bother with these fisheries during this time of year.

We are past summer peak, and many of our bass now live offshore. Most fish will be living offshore now thru fall turnover, but will revisit near-shore areas if the food is present. Largemouth bass on the deepest greenest weedlines near main lake basins. Smallmouth on mid lake structure, bars, open water, and deep structure within close range to the thermocline.

Weeds are finally sprouted, and look very good and DEEEEP on many lakes. This year our lakes again experienced some of the best minnow specie and panfish hatches. Baitfish balls and schools of minnows are loaded everywhere on many lakes right now, making it impossible to compete with them. However, when fishing where the food is at odds are in your favor.

Fish early and late. Presently there is an obvious morning bite that has lasted from sunrise thru late morning. Midday thru afternoon hours has been near worthless unless air temps remain cooler midday. Midday fishing does improve when there’s been weather changes though. Then the fishing picks back up again during evening to sunset hour.

For those of you wondering, evenings and nighttime hours haven’t been worthwhile yet this summer due to wind, cooler temps, and lack of humidity. Additionally, the crayfish haven’t been around. We have only done 1 evening/night trip this summer, on July 30th. Most days, I’ve actually stopped fishing by 7 to 8 pm.

The main constant as of late has been fishing the deepest, coldest, clearest lakes to counter summer heat, warm water temps, and lack of wind. On these waters, the best smallmouth fishing was experienced. Many lakes now have thermoclines avg. 22-25ft, while in some down to 16-18ft. If your electronics isn’t displaying a distinct visible colorline, trust me it’s down there though not obvious like it normally would be in most years. In my opinion, there is no need to fish that deep quite yet unless fish are roaming and suspended in pursuit of ciscoes and other baitfish. Most bites are happening in the magical 8 to 15ft zone right now, wherever the best rock and wood is located. There is also no need to fish depths greater beyond the thermocline either. Most fish contacted are relating to structure and contour; as shallow as 5ft during lowlight conditions, to as deep as 20 midday. On some lakes, fish have been feeding heavy on crayfish, while in other lakes they’re favoring cisco and yellow perch where these baitfish dominate the biomass.

Fish are now taking up residence along deep rocks and wood 10-15ft depths. Midlake rock bars and humps (topping off at 5-10ft with rock and boulder) have been money spots, and we have been finding fish loaded on a few of these locations on some lakes. So too are ledges that go drop down from the shallows towards the lake’s deepest basins. On hot days when nothing is going, check out the basins and sand grass beds if your lake has them. They hold baitfish, preyfish, and gamefish of all species.

Most bass, daily, have been located in wolfpacks, and if one is caught, the potential for several others nearby is often a strong possibility. Use your electronics (LIKE BELOW) to catch majority of these deeper water cruising fish.

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Bass Bling

We’re in the dog days of summer, and that means just about everything in your tackle box could be working. On some days, all it requires to catch smallmouth is just a few of the showcased lures. However, some days it’s required the entire boat and kitchen sink. While I do keep about 30 rods and reels rigged and ready at all times, I can only use one of them.

Smallmouth BLING – Some fishing days good. Others mediocre. But the one constant these past two weeks are leech bites and crayfish bites. Most smallmouth lakes have one or the other currently going.

I have not observed much crayfish activity in the shallows, and this is likely a result of the weather and cooling temps. They should be molting. On my decks, you almost always see a heavy dosage of craw imitating plastics and crankbaits. All are working depending on your lake selection and venue. Bizz Baits Baby Bizz Bugs worked as jig trailers or by their own are on fire.

Keep it stupid simple. Rig your tubes and craws on ned heads, swinging head jigs, or with a simple tube insert. For the leech bites, a wacky rigged drop shot has been unbeatable. And when everything fails, an AR ned won’t.

On some waters too, ciscoes are preferred forage, and you see a few swimmers I have posted. Awesome success with Kalin’s Fishing Tickle Tail Swimbaits.

New to the armory is St. Croix Rods Legend Elite and Legend X spinning rods. I favor 7ft medium heavy fast action rods. With this length and action, I have the sensitivity to detect bites jigging, and the power and length to overpower big smallmouth. Likewise, we are still working the 7ft1 MHF Mojo Bass Power Spins, and 7 footer medium fast plastics.

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When search baits, cranks, and topwaters aren’t going, tubes and my variation of big oversize ned rigs (4 and 5 inch models) dragged and popped have been most effective.Jigging and dragging tubes has been money. I consider this method precision structure fishing as the objective is maintaining bottom contact and running baits right thru the dwellings of fish. But when these two aren’t going, then the going gets tough and fishing isn’t good.

Every day on trips, I have been experimenting with a variety of baits from the back end of the boat, and there’s still an overwhelming preference for jigs, drop shot rigs, or some type of finesse plastic during the hottest midday periods. However, early mornings and evenings, paddletails, topwaters, and crankbaits have been best producers.

Largemouth BLING – Largemouth bass are present in areas with the highest concentration of juvenile bluegills. The best locations are offshore, and deep weeds. Presently I’m catching many fish on all of the above – surface frogs, topwaters, swim jigs with craw or paddletail trailers, Rapala DT 6’s, casting jigs with Bizz Baits craw trailers and Missile Baits D-bomb creatures.

The Mojo Bass series of rods are the penultimate largemouth lineup of rods for their strength, durability, actions, and loading when hauling these fish from their cover-filled dwellings. I turn to these rods before any others if I have to pick apart deep weedlines and near-shore cover.

If fishing shallows, you will find steady action around docks and flooded tamarack bushes. My go-to rods of choice for this target shooting are Mojo Bass Dock Sniper, and the Legend Tournament Dock Sniper. At 7 foot lengths and heavy actions, these rods can handle pitching, flipping, skipping, and long distance casting duties. I have both working in tandem with either casting jigs, or swim jigs. In my hands, the only difference between the two are flex and sensitivity. The Mojo Bass Dock Sniper with its IPC blank has more flex and loading capacity, while the Legend Tournament Dock Sniper and its SCIV blank provides more sensitivity which is excellent for feeling pickups and bites around docks and wood.

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Buy Mojo Bass ✅ – https://stcroixrods.com/collections/freshwater-mojo

Pay attention for bluegill activity. You will see them breaking the surface early and late in the day, as well as sub-surface on your screens. I have been experimenting with bluegill pattern glide baits, and Freedom Tackle’s Pro Series Stealth swim jigs in bream and bluegill.

If fish are offshore, then I’m looking for deep grass and any visible signs of offshore schools of juvenile bluegills that packs of largemouth will gang up on. Bluegill swimmers like the 5″ Kalin’s Lunker Grub(bluegill) I have rigged up on a Freedom Hydra head is all it takes sometimes, fished with a slow steady swimming retrieve. Last, a creature rigged on a plain weedless jig and worked slow thru the grass and edges, and DT-6 Parrot for covering water are my best producers.

To really load up on the LMB’s right now in the easiest possible way, all you need is a couple of Kalins wacko jigs and a bag of 5″ Wacko worms in baby bass. Less is more, and this is simply fishing.

Current Fishing Report and August 2020 Fishing Forecast

From now until Labor Day, fishing will be as steady and predictable as it can be. August is typically one of the most stable weather months of the year, and it generally leads to consistent and predictable fishing. However, time and effort is required, as multiple feeding windows will be taking place daily. Recently, early AM post-sunrise has been awesome, and so too are evenings. Midday can be good just as well, but only if any weather events and changes are taking place.

Smallmouth will be found using a variety of structures and habitats throughout the lake. Fish can be located everywhere from open water schooling, to deep rock and gravel humps, first and secondary points, sand bars and flats, fish cribs – usually most at 12-15ft level, some 20ft or more, deep weedlines where perch and baitfish present, and the shallows. That’s a lot of likely places they will set up on. In mid summer, smallmouths can be caught as shallow as 2 feet to as deep as 30 feet depending on water temperatures and the developing thermoclines and summer stratification. Weather and water temperatures will drive their feeding movements and locations.

If water temperatures cool down into the low 70’s, look for smallmouth shallow early and late in the day. They will be feeding. If crayfish aren’t around where they should be, then don’t bother with the shallows unless baitfish have a presence. Fish will only be shallow for feeding. If water warms and midday fishing is unsuccessful, fish early or late. It’s very difficult to catch big trophy smallmouth when water temps are 78-80 degrees midday. Too hot for me.

Night fish especially, with topwaters, loud surface baits, and crankbaits. High humidity helps make this bite magical. When weather is consistent, smallmouth locations are more centered on presence of forage rather than ideal habitats.

As we progress into August and head towards Labor Day weekend and into September, there will be continued movements of smallmouths into the shallows as long as water temps remain in the low 70’s and cooler. This will relate to presence of forage and cooling water temperatures. Rock bars and offshore points are great areas to start. Then we will have the perch migrations, and a lot of smallmouths will be found utilizing large flats and deep weedlines.

To be successful, take what the fish and the lake you’re fishing will give you. If the smallmouth or largemouth bite is slow or nonexistant on one lake, move to the next lake on your day’s list. All summer long I’ve been averaging 2-4 lakes fished per day. Pick a region to fish in, and work the available bass fisheries within it, or within close driving distance to maximize productivity and best bites.

If I could redo majority of my July trips and fishing days, we would have been traveling and adventuring a bit more to farther located fisheries.

Lately, the largemouth bite has been more steady and reliable. Right now on many of the weedy lakes, their locations are correlating with YOY bluegills and bluegill activity. What I’ve found on our weed oriented lakes around Minocqua is the bluegill pattern. This is taking place on all of the area lakes where biomass is predominantly bass & bluegill predator & prey relationship in weedy environments. Lots of juveniles and young-of-years are in the weeds this year, and packs of hungry largemouth are setting up on the deep edges and eating everything that comes within range.

Offshore, and deep weeds. Catching them on surface frogs, topwaters, swim jigs, deep diving cranks, and swimbaits is a blast. If fishing shallows, you will find steady action from pads, slop, piers, and wood. On any hot and humid calm day, my favorite method to fishing is working a surface frog thru pads and slop, and finding schools of juvenile bluegills along deep green weedlines in 10-15ft depths that largemouth schools will gang up on.

My recommendation is to fish LMB’s during coldfront and high heat days. The species always responds best to adverse conditions.

On any new or familiar body of water, the areas I look for are isolated weed humps & bars, offshore points and extensions leading into deep water, the weedlined mouths of bays and pockets, and deep weedlines that drop down and extend into the lake’s basin. Green cabbage & pondweed, and coontail have been best greens. 10 to 15 foot depths is all to look for. However, on some lakes look deeper, and others shallower. Waters that develop a slight green tint and bloom from algae and all the nutrients can deliver the best action and aggressive bites – non spooky fish.

To catch them from the deep greens, I first search out with a DT-6 crankbait (Parrot, all the time), and a swim jig with creature or paddletail trailer. If I need to slow down, I then fan cast a casting jig or plain creature+weedless jig. If fish are surfacing, a topwater like Rapala X-Rap pop takes them early and late in the day. If lots of fish are present, I slow down and go in for the kill with a 5″ Kalin’s Fishing wacko worm (baby bass) rigged on a 1/8oz weedless wacko jig, or rigged up Neko style. For those of you wondering, I plan on experimenting the tokyo rig with creatures in August.

Largemouth bass in the Minocqua area continue to be underutilized and non-appreciated resources. I won’t bother fishing the infestation dink waters, but seek the LMB weed bowls that are populated by fewer but larger fish, and offer best trophy possibilities.

When a best bite is present, I don’t hesitate to drop one specie and fish instead for the uglier green cousin.

Trip Reports with Photos

Had trips nearly every day, but some were better than others. Lots of nice fish from June thru early July, with captions below:

July 28th – Finally a good day of fishing. Been on the water 24/7 since Friday. Poor conditions since then. We’re catching, just not the picture worthy fishes we’re after. Currently water temps 72-74, and fish are happy. The recent major rainfall shot up water levels on all lakes, and has given some of them poor visibility. Additionally on some of these high water lakes, I have been unable to launch on them as the holes are now unreachable depending on rig/vehicle.

Yesterday I hosted Jason Norris. Some of you from the Chicago region might know of him. He founded the old fish forum site Windy City Fishing.com. Jason traveled for a full day, and he got a great day on the water.

We worked a trio of lakes from 545am to 415pm, and had fish going on each of them. Shallows vacant. Mid depth offshore structure, drop offs, humps, all had schools of SMB’s. Not much happening shallow, and we learned quickly.

We did the majority of our damage on the first lake, from 7 to 930am. An offshore point that dropped into a 50ft hole held several of our fish. Mark em below, catch em. We caught about 20 of our day’s fish from this one area, all 15 to 20 inches in size.

Fish were up as shallow as 10Ft, and as deep as 25ft. Power shotting with plastics, the AR neds, tubes, and swimbaits caught them all. Jason was rocking our St. Croix Rods Mojo Bass lineup, having a blast with the 7ft1 MHF power shake and 7 footer plastics. Meanwhile, my new 7ft MHF Legend Elites and Legend-X got a great first workout too.

Never leave fish to go find other fish because just as I had predicted and mentioned to Jason, you could hit a hot window and you likely won’t be able to replicate it again for the next several hours. We camped until they conditioned. We didn’t get another window like it.

For the rest of the trip, we’d fish dozens of other similar spots, and some humps. Fish were piled everywhere on them. And we’d pluck 2 to 3 fish per spot before they told their buddies down below to refrain from eating our fake stuff. 😂

Without electronics, we wouldn’t have caught much, and our fishing would have been a complete guessing game. Our success depended on it, as you can see the one screenshot I share. Right after that photo, Jason caught a 20 incher.

45 fishes caught. Several 14-18’s. A trio of 19’s, and a 20.

Great fishing Jason!

July 29th – Fun trip with windless and challenging conditions hosting Nick and Steve. We fished from 6am to 230pm, catching 22 smallmouth, and losing probably the same amount too. A handful of fish went 18 inches, and the largest of the day was a 19.5”

Since the end of yesterday, fish had been inactive and not chasing much. Likewise, the food chain is inactive as well. When bait isn’t around, smallmouths aren’t either.

Due to lack of wind, bites were light and it was another day of Neddin’ and Tubin’……. fun fun. I tried tinkering with a bunch of other things from the back and nothing else was going. Bites on both were light and hard to detect even with the sensitivity of our St. Croix Rods Mojo Bass and Legend Elites, and when fish can barely eat these two fish catchers worked with these lightweight rods, it’s a tough day regardless.

Surface temps 72 in the am, and 77 by mid afternoon. Smaller fish up shallow, bigger fish deeper. 10-15ft was the magic depth for the good fish. Rock and wood containing them all.

Despite the tough fishing, it was a second consecutive good day in a row. This is what we call a winning streak.

June 30th and 31st – Lotsa fish caught these past few days, but not very many picture worthy specimens. Lack of wind making fishing difficult and smbs very inactive, but that all changes as of today’s coldfront and who knows what the next few days will bring. Had full day trips each day with Roger and Kip.

Water temps 74-77. Mornings and midday hours containing best fishing and feeding windows. Evenings not so much. Most fish associating to any form of deeper structure available: wood, cribs, offshore humps, rock, boulders. All of this good stuff at the 10-15ft levels is attracting and holding them.

Baitfish everywhere. This is making it very hard to compete against. Can you blame the bass ?

Getting them to eat has been difficult. Light bites, lots of pickups and drops. Jig plastics, AR ned rigs, tubes, and wacky worm drop shots connecting with everything. St. Croix Rods 7ft MHF Mojo Bass, 7ft plastics, and 7ft MHF Legend Elite and Legend-X spinning rods are doing all the work.

With coldfront and cooldown this week, expect a push of fish and baitfish back towards the shallows. I think a lot of activity will pick up for both bass species as water temps cool down.

August 3rd and 4th – Haven’t posted too many pics lately, but looking back on recent fishing and how the conditions some days negatively impacts the feeding and moods of smallmouth bass, it wasn’t bad!

The last reports I posted were prior to August 1st, and that’s where I left off.

As of last week, the cooldown and recent weather has brought water temps back into the low 70’s. Right now it is in the low 70’s.

I hosted Eric for 2 days. What a fantastic and diligent/ thorough angler he is. Pull up to any spot, suggest what baits to try on it, and he’d go to work.

Day-1 was gross coldfront, so we settled on a mixed bag trip of smallmouth in the morning, followed by largemouth in the afternoon. My lake selections paid off nicely, with some 30 smbs caught in the am and a dozen largemouths in the afternoon. Fish of all sizes and year classes were going and responding positively to the changing weather.

Smallmouth were hammering football jigs with Bizz Baits Baby Bizz Bugs, and when they’d go conditioned a ned or tube caught more. Lots of 16-18 inchers, with a few swing and misses on larger ones to 19”. We had a great morning of whack and stack smallmouth from offshore locations that included deep rock, humps, and wood.

On lake-2, we found some big largemouth going in the slop. Swim jigs with paddletail trailers scored fish, as did Eric’s finesse wacky rigs. I can’t believe some of the nice fish he was able to skillfully and patiently extract from the thick cover on light 6lb. line. The afternoon produced a 23” Walleye, 20” largemouth, and a 22” largemouth for Eric. The big LMB is a recapture of the same one I caught at this time one year ago. Same spot, same fish. It’s just too bad as fish become ancient specimens they will shrink slightly in size. (More on this subject confirmed by biologists, coming soon)

After day-1 trip ended, I scouted and puttered around on a few waters on my way home and largemouth, pike, and Muskies were each going. On my last stop of the day, a 46-48” class Muskie tboned my pike. After a few minutes of chasing her around I got her to boatside to attempt a hand landing, but she ran deep once more and shook off. Would have made up for my entire Muskie-less season which has never happened up to this point …… in my life 😩 Oh well, memories at least. And I have a lot of make-up and catchup work to do the next 2 months.

On day-2, we were faced with tougher fishing conditions and the coldfront affected our beloved smallmouth a little further. We fished 3 lakes for the milk run day. Lake 1 produced only a few dink’s. We bailed after 2 hours. Lake 2 kicked out a few good ones. We stayed there for a while to slowly work and force feed fish in some deep wood and cribs. Eric force-fed a monster on a drop shot wacky.

We then ended our two day trip seeking a Hail Mary. Lake #3. Some days this plan works, most days it doesn’t work. But it’s the high risk and high reward we seek when trophy hunting. We had graduated from everything else, accomplished a lot, and had nothing to lose at this point. After 90 minutes of hawg hunting in overtime, we had 4 bites from big fish and could only connect with one 20.5” porker that’ll be a special fish in the future. Oddly, the coldfront shut off some lakes, while fired up others it seemed.

It was an enjoyable two days hosting a talented angler such as Eric. We couldn’t make it happen in 2019 because I was on my wedding week, but glad we were able to hook up and wreck a few fisheries together this year.

August 5th – I hosted John. John is one of the oldest anglers to grace the presence of my vessel, and in my vessel age and experience succeeds and outfishes nearly everything.

We had the most legendary of starts to any trip ever done. First spot, first ten minutes, a trio of 18-19 inchers are quickly caught. On fire we both thought. It’s a really good spot. Our day was going to be epic.

Off to the next spots we went to replicate it……

Not.

Each spot and location thereafter was unable to replicate the hot start. Few of anything marked, none others caught. Oh no, did the fish disappear on us? Yes they did. We scoured through the entire 500 acre lake to its entirety without any feedback. Shallow. Deep. Rock. Wood. Sand grass. Open water. The whole depth column and all habitat types. The entire boat and tackle box was deployed and offered to them.

Fishing is confusing.

Whatever happened in the atmosphere as winds changed from a warm SW to a dry north, it also affected the other waters we visited too. Very little bait and zero crayfish around. When food disappears, so will smallmouth.

The lesson I can share with this post is you can go from heroes to zeroes instantaneously! We fished our butts off. Whatever happened to the bite also had them shut down again for us on Thursday and Friday too.

2020 is weird. John and I were able to start a new article for next year at least 🙂 Always a pleasure to host John!

Fish humbly and smart.

August 6th – Fun and challenging trip last week hosting Dave CZ and fellow Loyola Rambler, Mark. Neither of us had the hot hand, and we each lost a handful of heartbreaker fish. Mark was able to connect with an 18” and 19” however, to attone for the boat’s misfortunes 🤣

Paddletail scored the 19, and a Biffle Bug on @Kalin’s Fishing swinging football head scored his other.

Fishing is contagious. If guide has bad luck losing a pair of 5-6 pound monsters from each of the two lakes we visited, it spreads to the front deck. And vice versa.

I’m still sleeping on the two giants we encountered, hooked and lost. And the blown hook sets that outnumbered the catches.

That’s why we call it fishing.

Despite the boat’s misfortunes, we all had a helluva fun time seeking bronze beauties. They won the game.

Summer Trips Finished. Fall 2020 Dates Now Limited

September 2020, Open Dates
23, 27, 28

October 2019, Open Dates
16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

My rates are reflective for up to 2 anglers ONLY.

Our focus at this time will be seeking big fish during early fall / pre-turnover. Midday and afternoon fishing times prioritized. On the water by 8am, and done by 5pm.

No live bait fishing. No “wintering” trips. Smallmouth bass fishing preferred only.

Contact to schedule your fall fishing trip. As the season concludes, we focus entirely on big bites and big fish.

Visit Availability Calendar

Free the fighter.Andrew Ragas
Northwoods Bass Fishing Adventures, LLC
Licensed and Insured
Specializing in Northern Wisconsin inland bass fishingtel: 708-256-2201
email: andrew@northwoodsbass.com
web: www.northwoodsbass.com

NORTHERN WISCONSIN BASS FISHING GUIDE - MINOCQUA, WI