My daughter A.J. and I fished Mille Lacs Saturday morning, up at 0330 and on the road at 0400. Our intention was to fish walleyes for a bit in the morning and spend some time around midday fishing bass. We arrived at the landing around 0620 and in the process of launching the boat I destroyed the right rear tail light. We got ourselves settled in the boat and are looking forward to motoring down the lake to begin our day on the lake. I turn the key and the Merc fires up and dies after about 3 seconds. This is typical for the old motor. I turn the key again, and nothing, I try again nothing, not typical. I never did get it to fire up all day. Irritated to no end we put the walleye gear away and grab the bass tackle.
The new Terrova I-pilot was at least something I could rely on to perform, and it did all day long. We fished the shoreline along the west side of the lake. The wind was mostly calm early, and when it did blow, was from the north. It varied in velocity throughout the day up to when we called it day at 1415. The water temps were 59 degrees on the Lowrance and 60 degrees on the Humminbird. Water clarity was pretty good as I was able to see bottom out to around 5’-6’ deep, maybe more. Warmer water can be found up along the bank or in shallow bays were there are probably some bass spawning and bedding. We did not boat a lot of fish (11 total), but we were satisfied with what did catch, and with the quality of those fish. A.J equaled or bettered her PB smallmouth, with 3 of the 4 fish she caught in the 18.5”- 19.5” size. She mostly threw a 4” smoke colored grub on 3/16th jig. All the big fish we got were taken on the smoke colored grub, and A.J. caught all of them. I got a good fish on a chartreuse ringworm, but caught most of my fish on a white fluke jr. and 1/8th jig. The fish seemed to bite better as the day went on and we got all of the big fish around noon or later. The best fishing was around the numerous rock piles that are to be found along the shoreline. The rock piles topped out around 3’-4’ and had a lot of spatial complexity. The best spots in the rocks were large holes, which were at times 7’-9’ deep in the rock pile complexes. The fish really rocketed out of that slightly deeper water to take our jigs. We may have been able to take fish with other more efficient presentations, but I really enjoy jig fishing and that’s what we did. We had a really enjoyable day and look forward to our next trip to Mill Lacs. Hope you all had a good weekend.
Does anyone know a good Merc mechanic in the SE metro?
Her smiles say she had a great time!!!
