Crank Baits?

Heading up Early Thursday morning for the rest of the week. Will be staying on the Eastside next to Liberty Beach. How was the Bobber Bite on Big Point or Shaw’s?

The real question is: Is it to early to Pull cranks during the day? Will have the Wives with Friday and Saturday. I’ve never pulled cranks on Mille Lacs (Lots on the River). I will be bringing up a couple Leadcore rods and a couple board rods. Is it worth it? What size Shad Raps/Flicker Shads? 5’s, 7’s, 9’s? Reef Runners on the boards? Sand/Rocks or Mud.

I need a back-up plan, when the ladies get tired of rigging. Happy to share my results when I return. Any info is greatly appreciated. Haven’t had the Warrior on Mille Lacs for 5 years!

I seen a couple boats this weekend pulling lead core on the north sand also seen them catch a few fish, mostly bigger fish like 25 or 26 inches. You can certainly cover a lot of ground this time of the year with lead core, but I personally would use smaller stick baits to mimic the perch forage in the lake right now. Smaller tighter wobble baits like #4 or #5 shad raps usually shine when the water temp reaches mid 60’s or higher. Slower wobble stick baits like a Rapala Husky jerk like #6’s or #8’s will produce now.
Don’t look past pulling spinners this weekend, I would imagine that if conditions allow and you fish the mud you should have a great rigging bite, spinner bite, and even lead core. Fish are scattered all over right now and feeding. Good Luck

I didn’t see many pulling cranks this last weekend. I know a couple of the boats in our group gave it a try and got a couple of slot fish but also landed a fat 20″ bass. Big Point lit up for about an hour at 8:30 on Saturday and was game on. Lots of fish being pulled. Some keepers some slots. Shaw’s didn’t produce much for us. Check the rocks out at 3 mile as well. We had good luck there with leeches on snells.

Good luck to you.

Trolling during the day will probably put some fish in the boat, but not your best bet. The spinner bite should be pretty good if you want to put the rods in the rod holder and go.

Might want to try bobber fishing if they get bored of rigging too.

We have 2 groups going this weekend and all we do is pull cranks. Last year we had 25 fish over 24 inches and many of those were 27 28s.All during the day. Pulling cranks on the north end on the sand was best last year, this year is different. Make sure you have line counters it helps dial in the perfect number. I have noticed running baits up even 5 feet off bottom produces more fish than the ones on the bottom. Ticking bottoms is not always best is what we have found. Good luck this weekend.

We had great luck pulling shallow cranks during the day on the rocks(east side). Not too many keepers but lots of action. I didn’t get to the lead core, but I will this Friday morning for sure

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll be out there first thing tomorrow morning rigging.

When you say trolling the rocks during the day are you talking deep rocks like, 3 Mile or 4 and 5 mile. Or are we talking the shallow roof reefs closer to shore?

Sounds like there’s going to be really good breeze out there this week. With that push fish back in, even with this warm weather?

Shallow rocks 10′ or less like 3 mile type reefs. I think they will stay shallow for a while.

Well. Never got to pull cranks this weekend. Just rigged for the most part. Had a solid bite on Leeches and Crawlers out in 24-27 ft on the Rocks.

Friday we head trailered the Boat to cover bay to get out of the wind. Hooked some nice fish in 15-18 ft over there as well lindy rigs with 10′ leads.

Nice fish and thanks for the report. Too bad she is a Sioux fan.

She’s not. Just a old sweatshirt that’s been in the closet for years. Time to throw it out.

I’ll be heading up the Middle of June. Anyone have thoughts on types of Cranks? I see Fleet Farm has Salmo’s and Shad Raps on sale this week. What sizes for Mid June?

Are you going to run lead core or just straight mono? I like the salmo #5 myself.

ps. Hold on to the sweatshirt, it’s a good one!

Number 3,4, and 5 Salmos work well. For big fish in the open basin, I like to troll deep taildancers. Flicker shads and Shad Raps work good too. Bait colors are anything that mimics tullibees, shiners, and perch. I’m sure there will be a bunch of trolling reports by that time.

Nice fish Eric!

Will be running 2 leadcore and probably 2 boards.

What size Deep Tail dancers on the boards? 9’s or 11’s?

I run 7’s 9’s and 11’s depending on where I see fish. Also wouldn’t rule out deep thundersticks