2019 Mille Lacs Reports

ML is silly right now. Best word I can come up with for how the bite is. Lol

Charlie W wrote:

ML is silly right now. Best word I can come up with for how the bite is. Lol

Was up Friday and no matter where and how we fished we didnt go 10 minutes without a bite. The big ones came right of the first break on the ne side trolling cranks.

We fished from 6/15 to 6/22. Ridiculously great fishing for walleye and smallmouth.

I plan on going this coming Sunday…please stay away mayflies lol

Walleye Hungry wrote:

I plan on going this coming Sunday…please stay away mayflies lol

Ha, the mayflies were just starting to float on top the water Saturday afternoon. Those should hatch and be gone be the weekend, but there will be more, it’s not if it’s when.

The bugs were flying around plenty at the boat access. We actually struggled a bit on the three or four flats we tried, just a handful of fish on leeches/spinners. We did much better in 18-22′ working the north shore. Nothing big though. I wanted to try cranks because a lot of the fish were off the bottom, but we never did try em.

Nice pics, B Man. My kids like to nap on the boat too, LOL

My kids will wake up from a nap and realize they aren’t in their bed anymore….

Thinking about heading to the lake Tuesday or Wednesday after work this week for two or three hours of fishing. What do you guys recommend right now? Drifting/ Dragging a lindy rig with live bait or just trolling the edges of the flats with leadcore or long lining a rap? I was thinking about grabbing some bait as I prefer to rig, but for the short trip and not being able to get back out for a bit, might not be worth buying bait if the raps are picking them up.

My group tried everything. We fished out of garrison and liberty beach and caught fish everywhere we went with everything we tried. Jigs and plastics is all I used but the rest of the group used jigs and leeches, live bait rigs, cranks, and floats. We caught walleyes in 8-25’ with 15’ being best. We found sharp breaks with gravel to be the best.

How early would one have to get to liberty beach to find a parking spot on the weekend? Also will be launching on my own so i would prefer to not be there at a hot time to hold people up…yes, i know to have everything ready to go prior to launching.

First time launching the rig on my own as well…

Walleye Hungry, that answer depends on the weather and the wind. If the wind is stiff blowing from the west, there won’t be many boats launching from the east side in 4 footers. If the conditions were good, I’d get there shortly after you legally could, 6am (since the night ban runs from 10 pm – 6am).

gimruis wrote:

Walleye Hungry, that answer depends on the weather and the wind. If the wind is stiff blowing from the west, there won’t be many boats launching from the east side in 4 footers. If the conditions were good, I’d get there shortly after you legally could, 6am (since the night ban runs from 10 pm – 6am).

You can launch your boat at 4am if you want, just can’t fish until 6am.

I agree though, it’s light about 5ish, so being there at that time gives you the best shot at having an open launch. I would think with decent conditions it will be pretty busy by 7am.

wait i could launch at 5:30 than cruise to my spot by 6? Then wet a line exactly at 6:00:01 i missed that one when i read the rules hahaha

I could fish for muskies though with an 8 inch lure prior to 6am

Or go to Cedar Creek landing just a couple miles south of Liberty Beach and not have nearly as many people to deal with.

Walleye Hungry wrote:

wait i could launch at 5:30 than cruise to my spot by 6? Then wet a line exactly at 6:00:01 i missed that one when i read the rules hahaha

I could fish for muskies though with an 8 inch lure prior to 6am

2 or 3 years ago you couldn’t be on the lake with fishing gear in the boat between 10pm and 6am. A lot of people still think that is true, but it is no longer how the rule reads nor is it true.

Not sure if you can fish for muskie before 6:00 with smaller tackle in the boat.

Dusty Gesinger wrote:

Not sure if you can fish for muskie before 6:00 with smaller tackle in the boat.

As I read it, the lure in the water is the only one that has to be over 8″. Here is the rule on that.

Muskellunge and northern pike may be targeted with artificial lures longer than 8 inches or sucker minnows longer than 8 inches. While fishing during the night closure, you may not possess or target any species other than muskellunge or northern pike.

As I read that, you better not have anything other than muskie tackle in your boat during the night ban on the water. Having a tackle box full of walleye gear would be grounds for a citation. If you have it, you can use it. Why even bring it? Either that or wait until 6am to head out.

well i also have all the gear to musky fish so if i already up with a newborn at 3am and get him back to sleep i could just head out after that and maximize my fishing time. If i can fish for muskies 4-6am and its legal…why not

Nothing in the rule says you cannot posses tackle other than 8″ or bigger in the boat while fishing between 10pm and 6am., it simply says you can’t use it. I know for a fact you can be on the lake with walleye tackle before 6am.

Another good weekend of fishing. Although there was a pretty good mayfly hatch going, but we still caught a bunch of fish. The mayflies were more of a nuisance at the beach… floating in the water and grossing out the girls. Kids didn’t seem to mind.

We mostly did slip bobbers and leeches in the evening and did some bass fishing in the mid morning. Got some bass on the bobbers/leeches too.

Fished Monday after the big rains for five or six hours. Pulled spinners and rigs on the flats. Got some fish early, but worked pretty hard for them. Finally about the 4th flat we tried we got into them. Think it was more of a window than that specific flat though. Got about 30 on rigs on top of that flat. Edges were pretty dead. Only caught a few on spinners all day. Pretty fun about 1 in 4 was a 25 or 26 and had quite a few doubles