Fall Tactics?

It’s been a couple years … what tactics do you use in the Fall on Mille Lacs?

I haven’t fished it that much in the fall (avid bird hunter) but I’ve had decent success trolling crankbaits during the full moon phase in September and October. All I’ve done is gone back and trolled the lines that produced for me in the spring when the water temp was similar and I’ve done OK. I haven’t gotten into the big girls like the fall full moons are known for but I’ve done alright boating some nice fish in decent numbers.

I plan on devoting a lot more of my time this fall to fishing so I’m also interested in learning what some of the experienced fall die-hards employ for tactics.

Trolling with crankbaits is a great tactic at night with a full or near full moon phase out there. However, there is a full season night ban so that won’t be an option. Also, they planned to close it for walleyes right after Labor Day too so your question may be moot.

Grant … Walleye is not closing after Labor Day. Last year it did, but this year it is open. Night ban lasts until November 30th. New walleye season and regs start Dec 1 … tbd. I bet there will be a two fish limit this winter … only my guess.

gimruis wrote:

Trolling with crankbaits is a great tactic at night with a full or near full moon phase out there. However, there is a full season night ban so that won’t be an option. Also, they planned to close it for walleyes right after Labor Day too so your question may be moot.

Technically it’s a 10pm to 6am ban.
If my memory serves me right from fishing it last year, sundown will be a little after 6pm during the full moon phase in October. The sun sets prior to 8pm right now, giving fishermen two hours of night currently to fish for walleyes. If you’re trolling crankbaits 8″ or longer you can fish all night.

So there are plenty of opportunities to troll crankbaits at night even under the present restrictions.

Go get a bunch of monster creek chubs and pull them around structure. You want to talk about a fun..

The smallmouth also love them.

Get a 7ft Medium or even medium light rod and once you feel the 6-9″ minnow start going nuts you know the chase is on. Its a technique that requires a ton of patience though. Because you can’t just go setting the hook otherwise you’ll be losing fish a lot.

Fall is my favorite time to fish because I get to do this.

Chris Messerschmidt wrote:

Go get a bunch of monster creek chubs and pull them around structure. You want to talk about a fun..
The smallmouth also love them.
Get a 7ft Medium or even medium light rod and once you feel the 6-9″ minnow start going nuts you know the chase is on. Its a technique that requires a ton of patience though. Because you can’t just go setting the hook otherwise you’ll be losing fish a lot.
Fall is my favorite time to fish because I get to do this

x2 but I usually use big suckers. You’ll catch a bunch of big smallies and eye’s!

How do you guys rig up a creek chub? The ones I trap are pretty big. Jig through mouth….tail? Plain hook with split shot? Bottom bouncer with a lindy? I’ve used the quick strike rigs when I ice fish but I find it difficult open water to have a natural looking presentation. Maybe I’m over thinking it but I have not had much luck with them, but that could be a confidence thing?

My mistake, the regs do say it will be open through November 30 based on its current rules (so there is no closure post Labor Day). But the night ban is still in effect.

eyeguy507 wrote:

How do you guys rig up a creek chub?

Slip sinker and a 6’+ snell. Creek chubs I’ll occasionally tail hook, suckers I usually lip hook.

I have tried suckers, but they don’t seem as hardy to me. A creek chub will swim with the boat forever as where a sucker eventually ends up being dragged.

I have run bottom bouncers and egg sinkers and prefer egg sinkers.

So I run 8lb Berkley sensation as my main line (some prefer braid which is fine). Then I like to run a fluoro 8lb leader.

For egg sinkers it depends how deep you run. Usually in the 1/2 and even up to 3/4 oz range. I don’t want a lot of line out. Try to keep the line vertical or at most a 45 deg angle from the rod tip.

From the swivel I run about 40″ or so of a leader to a double wide hook. I have yet to really see a difference between a red hook or normal color. I hook the creek chub through the top lip and out through the nostrils.

Troll around at .3 – .8mph. Keep the sinker up off bottom maybe a foot. Once a walleye gets behind that creek chub it will go nuts and start to swim away. Once in awhile that’s your sign that a fish is close. (I troll around with bail open and finger holding the line). If you feel a thud just let go of the line. You’ll know right away if a fish has it because you will need to start pulling line fast off the bail. I usually wait 30-45 seconds, or sometimes you can see a quick pause in line coming off the bail then it takes off again. That’s the fish adjusting the bait to swallow. Then either start reeling really fast to pick up the line and set the hook or if you don’t have much slack set the hook.

Again, most people look at me weird when I take them out for the first time doing this. Like what the heck are you doing with such big minnows. Walleye are putting the feed back on before winter and big baits they can get like that go farther than a little minnow.

Zander Nordby wrote:

If you’re trolling crankbaits 8″ or longer you

I still think it’s gotta be legal to add a trailer hook to any crank to exceed 8″.

The body of the lure itself has to be 8″. Emailed the dnr last year on it.

Obviously lots of grey area there which I don’t care to speculate on but throwing the one fact out there I do know.

Thanks for the tip and all the info on the creek chubs! I’m excited to give it a try!

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Zander Nordby wrote:</div>
If you’re trolling crankbaits 8″ or longer you

I still think it’s gotta be legal to add a trailer hook to any crank to exceed 8″.

A few of my muskie lures. They were 8″ out of the box with the back treble straight back; “body” on them is 7.” Figured I’d rather not chance it so I tied some skirt/bucktail to the last treble in order for it to go from being a hook to specifically being an attractant and thus part of the lure and added to it’s overall length.

I’ve never been stopped or checked while fishing 10pm to 6am, but I did ask the warden that does a lot of the open water patrolling when he stopped by my cabin one day (neighbors called me in for legally shooting geese out front). He’s a really nice guy and a great warden…knows how to be concerned about enforcing things big picture and not get too tied up with concern over the little stuff when there is no intent to blatantly poach or disrespect the resource.

Anyways, the conversation at that point was pretty light and he started off laughing and teasing me that I was really trying to make his job difficult. He said if stopped, he would view my lures as being legal and compliant with the regulations…kind of alluded to as long as there wasn’t other stuff like a cooler full of walleyes, in that case he’d be writing citations for anything and everything even if he thought it probably wouldn’t stick (understanding in a blatant case a lot of that stuff gets pled down or dismissed to get the big stuff, but it’s still good to have there to make more of it stick).

In the end, he said I was legal but to not push it.

It’s one thing to add an inch to a lure that’s already close to being legal….it’s another thing to add a single streamer several inches long to an sr-5 and think that will make it compliant.

Attachments:

1. 

   Screenshot_20180831-165936_Gallery.jpg