Mille Lacs 1-24

I was up 2 weeks ago and had a great trip. I’m going to give the Red Door some business tomorrow. I’ve read some nice things about them and the fishing up there over the years. When I called them they ok’d my 3/4 ton diesel to go out and gave me some starting points for depths. I’ve never been up this way. I’ll be driving out early and only to where I was told to drive, after that I’ll be pulling my portable and drilling as much as needed to find some fish. I’m planning on being on the lake before 7, to be set up for a low light bite.
Any suggestions on starting depths? It looks to be a gradual drop off, eventually going from rock to soft bottom from what I was told. Should I stay closer to 19-20ft to stay on the edge of the rocks? Or should I just start deeper, looking for perch activity on my vex?

Anyone else going out or want to meet up? let me know, strength in numbers as they say.
I’ll give a full report when I get back. I plan on fishing the hole day.
Thanks,
Dan

A friend has been doing real well up there. He said the key depth has been 17-19 Ft.

I would start by hitting the 18-20′ rock to sand transition for your initial set-up to try and catch the sunrise bite as they head off the rocks. If you get there early enough and are interested in looking for picture fish you could also run a tip up over the top of the shallow rocks

Then as soon as the bite slows head for deeper water. 26′ was the magic number last time I was up

I have a shack at the red door. I’m confused, I didn’t know there was any rock in front of the red door.

Most of the “rock” are to the west out from the Knox Point area, but there is a ledge of rock just to the east of the harbor and out to about 21-22 ft. The shallow water to the east (less than 16ft.) is rocky in places as well, for about a 1/4 mile.

Thanks for the help guys. I’ll start shallow and work out deeper. I’ll have to see if I can find some rocks before light. I’m going to start shallow early. I’ll get the camera down as soon as it’s light. If you see a grey chevy, stop by. I’ve got an older fish trap 2 with a few patches on it.

Dan

I was out on the ice from the Red Door at 6:45. I found a spot to fish and got set up in 18-19 fow. I had fish moving through as soon as the sun started coming up. They got more active as it got lighter. Most were barely coming off the bottom. The ones that did come up to check out my jig or the dead stick quickly sunk back down when I jigged even the slightest bit. After trying every jigging style and profile of jig, it dawned on me to do one thing I hadn’t thought of, pound sand!!

I was using a lightning jig in black/silver with a red spot on the bottom near the head. 3-4 bounces on the bottom and a lift triggered a very aggressive hit. It was a slot fish, not to big but a nice fish. It just let go 2 feet from the hole, no head shake, no run, just gone. I got my bait back down a had another hit a couple of minutes later. That got me a nice 17″ eye on the ice. It inhaled the jig and I was worried about getting the hook out (still hadn’t measured the fish). When I put the needle nose on the jig it was just sitting in the back of the throat, no signs of being hooked. I did get another fish on the dead stick, 15″ for the bucket. I had lots of action til about 9 am. Two more quick bites was all I had after the 15″.

I have a large truck and I get nervous on any ice under 24″. I stayed on their roads and got out to 26- 28′ fow and started drilling holes. I knew I wanted to fish the morning area again towards dark so I didn’t drive around too much. I worked the area over pretty well marking some fish but the only fish I managed was one 12″ tulibee.

I started working shallower and ended up back at my spot about 3:30. Fish started showing up scattered about 4. By 5 they were getting more active, but still no biters. Just after 5 I got one nice hit and figured I had another slot fish on. A great fight, zipping past the hole a few times I noticed no white spot on the tail. The I saw the red eye.

A great looking 18″ smally was on the ice. Another pb. I’ve haven’t caught that many small mouths in my life.

Packed up and headed home at 6 after stopping in and paying for my road pass.

Another great day to be on that lake. I need to make more time to fish this, summer too.

Dan

Sorry we missed you early! Thanks so much for stopping by on the way home! We really appreciate that.

Glad you had some action! Great smallie. Not many get caught through the ice!

Hope to see again soon. Thanks again!