2019 Mille Lacs Reports

We were on the north end and caught fish on bigger rocks from 6 to 14 feet deep. Most boats were further out, and I saw a few nets here and there, but it didn’t appear to be fast and furious on Sunday.

Great pics, Nate!

-J.

I was up Friday for the day. Fished shallow rocks and mud flats. Was not fast and furious but we caught a couple walleyes and smallmouth at each stop. 7 walleyes and 2 bass total. Fish seem really spread out. Water temp closer to shore was low 60’s by the end of the day and main lake 57ish.

On the bright side got my pb walleye and smallmouth in the sameday!!!

Anyone fish over the weekend have an updated water temp?

Thanks, Matt

We Had 58* Saturday on Sherman’s, and 7 mile. Fishing for me and buddy was slow. But seems every body else in the small tournament we were in did pretty well.

Matt M wrote:

I was up Friday for the day. Fished shallow rocks and mud flats. Was not fast and furious but we caught a couple walleyes and smallmouth at each stop. 7 <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes and 2 bass total. Fish seem really spread out. Water temp closer to shore was low 60’s by the end of the day and main lake 57ish.

On the bright side got my pb walleye and smallmouth in the sameday!!!

Anyone fish over the weekend have an updated water temp?

Thanks, Matt

Actual Water temps low 50’s north and mid to upper 50’s south. Temps are 3 ft down from the trolling motor. Surface temps on sunny days read much higher but once the water mixes it will drop back down.

I found several nice smallies like this one this weekend. Man was that fun!

I went fishing with my Father last Thursday on the east side. Smallmouth fishing was pretty good. We caught all of the fish on one of 2 lures: a perch colored jerk bait or a small green stick bait fished slow on the bottom. I saw some beds but very few fish on them yet. Water temp was about 60 degrees.

Nice smallies guys.

We spent a good chunk of our time fishing off the dock again. My son got a bass, couple perch, and a bunch of pike. He was having a blast picking different bait combinations and being creative with stuff in his tackle box now that I am letting him handle his own hooks.

That’s a dandy perch there! Can’t remember the last one I caught up there.

Great pic too.

-J.

I was back up Wednesday. Fished shallow rocks and mud. Once again caught fish in both locations. Even caught walleyes in 6 fow in calm sunny conditions. Did better this time in the mud. Seemed like a bug hatch was starting. Surface temp on the main lake when I left was 65. Good luck this weekend. Fishing should be excellent.

Matt

We had a great weekend of fishing. Thursday night we got 15 or 16 walleyes with my wife and two kids. We were in about 15 ft of water with slip bobbers and leeches.

Friday night we had the 4 of us plus my mother and Grandmother and my good buddy. Space was a little tight but we made it work and hammered the fish. I didn’t even have a rod I just rotated setting depth and putting bait on and unhooking fish. We caught 30+ fish in about an hour and half including a 25” and 27”

Saturday morning Hemi and I got another 7 walleyes Lindy rigging in 18-19 ft. It was kinda fun to be out in the waves and rigging again.

Saturday evening was a clinic. Had another buddy come up and the 3 of us caught 60+ walleyes in two hours time. Basically nonstop action.

Good times!

Heading up Friday June 14th for the week with a buddy of mine. Will be fishing for what is biting for the most part. However I have all my gear ready for some musky fishing so we will go gunning for those some too to get the kinks worked out. Anyone going to be in the area that week or over the weekend for some beverages? IM me if you want to try to get together.

Solid day yesterday out of Father Hennipen Park and off Malone Island. My goal was to target smallmouth following guide Brad Hawthorne’s recent advice to work rocky points and bars/reefs in 7-10 FOW. Water temp was 63 degrees and no sign of bass but 10 minutes into it with a purpledescent Shadow Rap I hooked into a 28” girl. Recently spawned out, one of the skinniest walleyes I’ve ever seen. Still weak too because she came in like a pool noodle. I named her Olive Oil before I turned her back.

2 more 25s, a 23, 22 and 2 20s, all of which battle gallantly bulldogging with solid head shakes. All had hit very aggressively, most on a VMC google eyes whit jighead with a 4” Z-Man white Deizel Minnow Swim Bait (one on a green pumpkin tube). Overall 6 Eyes in about three hours before I got distracted by work stuff, the bite slowed and I spent more time cruising around looking for some deeper 17-20’ Volkswagen sized boulders I’ve heard about but could not find.

Only bass came from pencil reeds on a tiny mister twister while poking around for some crappies.

Ok that is by far the skinniest eye, I have ever seen that size. I think that is the Kevin Durant of walleyes?
Post spawn or not, something ain’t right.

My boat motor has been down since the 3rd of June. A buddy wanted to fish off of Eddy’s Jetty on the 8th. I’ve been back every day since. The bite has been pretty good. If there is wind the bite starts before 9:30PM. No smallies for the most part. On Thursday the 13th I didn’t get a bite until 9:35, but holy cow did the fish move in that night. When I left at 10:15 there were eyeballs everywhere. Not so much the next night. I’m about to head back.

Update: Caught 7 Eyes tonight 4 of them were between 4 and 5 pounds, so they ran big tonight. Smallest fish was a 20-incher. They really didn’t turn on at 9:30 tonight. I didn’t catch a fish in the final half hour.

We’ve been here since the 15th. Best fishing has been shallow. Walleye and smallmouth both biting Ned Rigs. Some fish on leeches

Got out on Sunday and finally got some bigger fish. We pulled spinners with crawlers in 28-32 fow. Biggest was just over 27” and we also managed to get a 13.5” perch.

Had a good shallow rock trolling bite Sunday morning on wind blown rocks. Caught 25 in 3 hours. Ranged from 10-20 inches with most 15-17 inches. All healthy looking fish. It’s amazing how hard a walleye can hit a trolled bait!! As expected, the bite tailed off as the wind dropped and the sky cleared.

Was our first time open water fishing mille lacs last weekend and boated 40+ eyes each day. Only really fished the middle hours of the day. Slip bobbers + leeches over rock in about 14 fow along a small break on the west side. 100% walleye, not a single other species. Just about all of them 17-21″. Had never been on a hot slip bobber bite before.. WOW was that fun.

Is it me or do the walleyes in this thread look just awful? The smallmouth all look like overgrown footballs and the walleyes are skinny as can be. They must be starving again…

gim wrote:

Is it me or do the walleyes in this thread look just awful? The smallmouth all look like overgrown footballs and the walleyes are skinny as can be. They must be starving again…

It’s you. Not trying to be a prick, but a lot of people say that. ML walleyes have never been fat fish, they just haven’t. The forage in Ml is just not high enough in protein and fat/oil to produce fat walleyes. Sure some get fat, some are skinny and even really skinny, but the majority of the walleyes don’t ever get fat. The majority of the walleyes in this thread look like normal size ML walleyes to me.

tbro16 wrote:

Was our first time open water fishing mille lacs last weekend and boated 40+ eyes each day. Only really fished the middle hours of the day. Slip bobbers + leeches over rock in about 14 fow along a small break on the west side. 100% walleye, not a single other species. Just about all of them 17-21″. Had never been on a hot slip bobber bite before.. WOW was that fun.

We did the same thing Saturday in 18-20′. There’s no doubt about it, a hot bobber bite is a blast!! Half pound of leeches gone in 5 hours.. We even recycled them if the walleyes were nice enough to give them back once in the boat. I got 3 nice eyes on the same leech within 15 minutes of each other!

sticker wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>gimruis wrote:</div>
Is it me or do the walleyes in this thread look just awful? The smallmouth all look like overgrown footballs and the walleyes are skinny as can be. They must be starving again…

It’s you. Not trying to be a prick, but a lot of people say that. ML walleyes have never been fat fish, they just haven’t. The forage in Ml is just not high enough in protein and fat/oil to produce fat walleyes. Sure some get fat, some are skinny and even really skinny, but the majority of the walleyes don’t ever get fat. The majority of the walleyes in this thread look like normal size ML walleyes to me.

I agree with Sticker.

Sure, a couple of the photos in this thread aren’t the most flattering angles of the fish. Maybe even a couple of them are skinny. But the vast majority of fish we’ve caught this year are very healthy looking.

Here’s a couple recent pics, one of my Mom and the other of my wife and daughter.

Made it out sun and mon. Pulled spinners a little bit mostly bobber on and around some north east end gravel. We caught somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-40 walleyes. Biggest was around 24”. A lot of fun for us.

The 28” I posted above was very scrawny and very week but that was the exception. The 5 others were very strong and pretty average health wise.

Went out yesterday with my folks in the Warrior. Boated 34 in 6 hours, 11 over 24 inches. All skinny fish again. All in deep water on the mud flats. Sure was glad to be in a 20 foot fiberglass boat. A lesser vessel would have sank. They’re pretty easy to catch right now. Just drag around some live bait and you’ll get bit.

Took the kids and a buddy with his boy out on Mille Lacs today. Had a good time and caught a bunch of fish.

It was a little bumpy but the kids hung in there

Trolled shad raps on lead, biggest was 25″

…

Got 47 fish yesterday. 40 of them came pulling blue perch or purple crusher blades in 25’-30’. The other 7 came bobber fishing out on the boot.