“Do’s and Don’ts” for first time Mille Lacs Smallmouth trip

Hey Guys,
Greetings from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. My wife and I are hoping to make our first trip to Mille Lacs for some smallmouth bass fishing the weekend of Sept. 14th (weather permitting). We have never fished this lake so I am a bit intimidated by the vastness of it. However, from what I have read it sounds like for smallmouth we are going to want to concentrate on the southern third of the lake. I am hoping to get some advise on weather conditions to help determine if the trip up is viable based on predicted conditions as the date gets closer.

What wind speed would you say is not advisable to launch your boat ie. 15mph or greater?… Is is pretty difficult to fish the southern end of the lake with certain wind directions ie. winds out of the North, Northwest, etc.

Just looking for conditions that we should consider cancelling the trip up if necessary.

Any advice on expected depths or structure to target would be greatly appreciated. My wife loves to smallmouth bass fish so we are hoping to be out on the water all day on Saturday, and Sunday that weekend!

I’m totally new to this fishing forum. I hope to get to know some of you guys better.

Thanks!

Fish rocks, rock pules, reefs. Some days 8 ft of water some days 16. Just depends. But the timing your going is about perfect for the smallies.as for wind. It depends what you fish out of. 15mph wind is usually 20 plus out there and the lake can get rough fast. Some days we have to fish opposite sides as planned due to higher winds then forecasted. Yesterday it went from dead calm to 1.5 to 2 ft rollers and I don’t think the wind was over 7mph.

The type and size of boat will greatly factor into this. A 17 foot tin boat is gonna get smacked around a lot more in sizable waves than a 21 foot fiberglass rig would. If there’s a decent wind from the west, launch on the west side. If its from the south, launch from the south, etc.

If I could go anywhere without wind being a factor I would generally stick to the southeast/east side of the lake. There just tends to be more rockier habitat on that side of the lake.

Make long casts with your lures as the water tends to be on the clear side.

As others have stated, you can play the wind and move around the lake. Don’t rule out the North end if you have North winds. There is good structure up there as well.

There is a good bite on sucker minnows that time of year as well.

What type of boat are you fishing out of?

I’ve caught a ton of and all my PB smallies on ML, and I basically never fish the southern 1/3rd. I’m sure that’s good too, I’m just more familiar and there’s generally less pressure on the rest of the lake in the summer. Add 10 mph to any wind forecast, and then plan accordingly but you should almost always be able to get out by trailering to the windward side of the lake. x4 on finding rocks, and don’t be afraid of using sucker minnows and basically a lindy rig.

Thanks for all the insight guys!….. I have a BassCat Caracal. It does a very good job of handling rougher water for a bass boat (just under 20ft in length). Not sure my wife is going to enjoy fishing a lot of wave action. She loves to smallmouth fish but doesn’t care much for the rough seas.

I’ll echo the wind concern for a first timer. Give it a heathy dose of respect!

Also, not every shallow water rock pile is marked with a Bouy.

On the same page as Bigwerm. There are smallies all over the lake. Heck, there were launches out of Garrison for smallies when the lake was shut down to walleye fishing.

Good Luck!

-J.

Garrison reef if the wind is out of the West or North/West, seems this time of the year thats 80% of the time.

I suggest as others have alluded to NOT keep yourself to the south 3rd of the lake. There are bass all around the lake. Fish the calm side if the winds pick up. There is currently a good shallow bite with chatterbaits going right now, less than 8ft water. There is also a boulder bite in 14-22ft. The smallmouth bite will pick up in the coming weeks. Cool to cold fronts actually make the bite better for smallmouth this time of year. In a couple of weeks if the water temps fall to the mid 60’s to upper sixties look for bass move a bite shallower 8-12 ft and dont overlook the main lake weed edges, thinking northwest and west bays here. Swimbaits and live suckers and redtails will fire up large fish starting about when you arrive there. Dropshots should always be rigged up and jerkbaits should play as well.

As others have said there are bass on all sides of the lake. Looking at the wind forecast this weekend the SE side of the lake will be your best bet. Sundays forecast of 10-15 out of the South will make the north side unfishable. Be careful out there the wind on that lake is no joke. That said have fun, great thing about Mille Lacs is every cast could be a 6 pounder.

Call ahead to locate sucker minnows. Last weekend it was slim pickings on the north side of the lake.

Gonna be a GREAT weekend to be on the water it looks like too! Report back on how it goes.

This report was just posted. The Mille Lacs report is the first segment until the 5:30 mark.

Hey Guys,
I really appreciate everyones insight and suggestions. Unfortunately, I was unable to make the trip to Mille Lacs this weekend. I have scheduled some time off work for the first weekend in October. Planning on heading up the morning of Thursday, Oct. 3rd fishing thru Monday the 7th. I will certainly let you know how it goes once we are able to make the trip.