Minonk Lake

This Vilas County water is Minonk Lake, a lake and the useful numbers here are about 100 acres and a maximum depth of 27 feet.

Start with the basics

I would make the first trip about learning the water, not conquering it by putting the first hour into shoreline cover, weed edges, and the first clean drop away from the bank because a few careful stops usually teach you more than a pile of random casts.

What you can fish for

For this exact water, the recorded fish are Black Crappie, Bluegill, Largemouth Bass, Pumpkinseed, and Yellow Perch; and that makes me think first about weeds, wood, rock, or docks for bass and weeds and easy cover for panfish, and leave room to adjust if the first idea is wrong.

Keeping the first trip simple

If a buddy asked me how to start on Minonk Lake, I would make every move change one big thing, like depth or cover, instead of just driving to another pretty spot, then I would read the current Wisconsin DNR rules so nothing about the trip is based on an old limit.