Though our days have been warm in the Minocqua area, the nights have been cool and have kept water temperatures from becoming excessive. Water temps are in the 70s, and muskies are everywhere — in weeds, fallen timber, off breaklines, on deep rocks during the day and shallow rocks in the evening, and suspended over open water.

With that widespread of musky activity, a large spectrum of lures is working. Mepps Musky Marabous, Slammer minnowbaits, tubes, Suicks, topwaters, Baby DepthRaiders and Triple D’s all generated strikes in the past week.

Feeding windows have been short and there have been a lot of short hits. The best way to deal with that is to keep your hooks sharp and check them occasionally as you fish.

Curiously, the muskies have been running small ahead of the full moon this week. However, some big fish should show up this weekend.

Tune in to WJJQ-FM Radio (Tomahawk, WI) for my weekly Northwoods Musky Reports. If you’re out of the WJJQ listening area, click here.

— Steve Heiting, steveheiting.com