Thinking of heading up early next week. I have a smaller boat so the low winds are intriguing to me. Helps me get my boat on the water up there but, probably hinders the better fishing. Looking at fishing from probably about 8am until 3 pm. Spinners?? Any help on recent bites would be appreciated.
if you are into YouTube watch Tom Boley as he just put out a video in the last couple of days of him pulling spinners.
There is also a video from 9-10 days ago where he was drop shotting and catching Walleye.
Good Luck
rwilliam,
Seen that. Also seen the one from today where he was using hyper rattles. He sure makes it look easy. Thanks!
I’ll have to watch the one from today. You are right about him making it look easy.
I’m heading up Saturday. We’ll either pull spinners or cranks on lead to start and go from there. Sounds like bite has been tough, but lots of fish being marked
Craig – look forward to your report!
On Tuesday from 830-1200 am we got goose egged. There was a hail and T-storm at 400 AM Tuesday though. Tuesday from 230-530 we got 15 biggest 26″ but most were cookie cutter size which if you fish Mille Lacs you know what I mean. Tuesday night 7:30-9:30 got another 15 all on slip bobbers in 22′ on rock sand break. So phenomenal Tuesday. The previous day Monday was slower. We had a decent morning with I think 8. Then brutal Monday afternoon on the mud flats with 1. Then 4-5 slip bobber at night near 2 mile.
On the hot Tuesday bite they were passing on lindy rig but smashing slip bobber. I think if we stayed lindy we catch a third of those fish. My advice if up there this week and stays hot – spend a little more time locating that larger school as opposed to settling on the 3-5 fish schools. The larger schools are there if patient and they are clearly more active as far as feeding. Also on the slip bobber night bite move quickly if it’s not going well. If from 800-830 your spot stinks, reposition, and anything less than 20′ even at night was too shallow for the Walleye bite for us.
Good report Raptor. Sounds very similar to my experience a couple of weeks back. May head up this weekend and possibly next.
Haven’t tried the lead yet, Craig. Sounds fun and may have try. New territory for me this year.
Fyi, Saturday looks breezy out of the north 10-15 with gusts to 25. Add 15%. Ha!
See you out there boys.
Thanks Raptor. Erik let us know how you do. I am planning on going up Monday. Day trip for me. Probably will be fishing from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm or so. Very low winds Monday. Hopefully not too flat calm.
In the vid Boley said he struggled out there for at least a couple of days b4 he caught enough to make the vid.
What are you seeing out there for water temps?
Went up today, fished 8 hours, fish everywhere on mud. Top, bottom, off break, on bottom, suspended…we tried leadcore, spinners, bobbers, jigging raps. Boated 4 fish
Bummed at your report Craig. I was planning on going up Monday.
Anybody else catching them or did you fish away from others? Leeches or crawlers on the spinners/bobbers?
Boley like anything on YT makes it look easy, he has mentioned that he will spend as much as 2 hours just scouting, he usually goes threw his process too which is way better than most who just jet to a spot on a nameless lake and start reeling in fish.
Craig – thanks for the report. Not what I wanted hear either. Hopefully a couple days of this stable, not as hot weather will turn the bite a bit.
Netguy – I will be up there on Monday. Probably starting on NE side mud.
Craig, how was the smoke. One app keeps showing the air quality index around Mille Lacs is below 50 and 5-10 miles away it gets bad. Maybe the evaporation from the lake is creating a bubble.
Gerty, I’m planning to launch out of Terry’s Boat Harbor and will be hitting flats out from there to start. Probably give the lead core set up I bought from an IDOer for the first time as one of the presentations.
Smoke was not an issue yesterday, ended up being sunny and calm yesterday, which is never a good thing
I called a few resorts and they said the smoke can be bad depending on the wind. I guess the one weather app is not accurate. That will probably push my trip until after the smoke clears due to my asthma.
Just got back. Me and a buddy launched kayaks on the south end out of cove. Smoke was pretty bad.
Targeting smallmouth so of course I only caught walleye. Got an absolute pig right away. Don’t carry a bump board or anything but my previous best was 24″ and this one dwarfed it. Got two more that looked to be in the 20-22″ range. All on a jointed size 7 flicker shad in 10-14′. Buddy picked up a tank smallie on a slip bobber with a worm, but couldn’t manage anything else.
Well, I wish I had a better report but, mine sounds like a repeat of Craig’s. We too marked a lot of fish and didn’t have much luck. We pulled spinners, slow death and lead core. Caught 3 walleyes and one nice perch. All the eyes came on a hammered gold spinner. Caught one on top of the flat, one coming down the break and one on the bottom. Nice pattern!! Was a beautiful day on the water, but by noon it was almost flat calm on the north end where we were. Not good for being on Mille Lacs. Don’t have a real big boat so didn’t spend a lot of time driving around, but fished multiple flats and it was the same on all of them. Marked plenty and caught none. All 3 fish came on the same flat.
Sorry guys. I never made it up and sounds as though I didn’t miss much. Air quality terrorists scared me off and ended up making other plans…ha. Never again. Still would have rather been up on the lake.
Anyway, last time I was up it was the same deal. I caught one on the mud at 11 am and then nothing until I left for the gravel at 2:30. Frustrating first part of the day. Gravel caught fire that day and I lost count by 5:30. All slip bobber fish.
I will be up this coming weekend. Sounds like I’d better have a full bag of tricks…
What water temperature are you observing up there Gerty?
I had 75.6 yesterday.
Wished you would have had better catching Gerty, then I would be headed up yet this week. Maybe give it a couple of weeks and give it a go.
The only thing I thought of trying would maybe be to drop shot those fish?? Or head to the gravel and try your luck over there. I’ve not spent much time on the gravel and need to expand my horizons a little bit. Oh well, always a next time.
I haven’t been molested by perch too much this year, but I did catch and keep a 13 incher last time up. Died on the way up after it fought like crazy for 15 seconds. Thought it was a smallie for a moment. ha
Most perch that I have seen have been in really shallow amongst sand, rocks and reeds even in the earlier afternoon hours. Some nicer ones swimming with the new stock too. That was 3 weeks ago, but also observed very same thing up to Leech at the end of June.
Not surprising that the kayakers fishing in shallower tagged a few nicer ones that one evening.
Hey all don’t post much, but fish a bit. Headed up this weekend. Taking my father in law fishing. He’s from AZ so Walleyes aren’t a word in his vocabulary.
Not sure its helpful but will post a full report when we get back. Typically we log everything. Screen shots, locations, fish, what they ate, speed, conditions etc. Maybe (even if fishing is slow) helpful for some.
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Anybody been out dragging lead core in the basin? Might give it a go tomorrow. It’s been quiet here so not sure what that means:)
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