Fishing Mille Lacs Lake for the opener has been something we’ve done now for more years than I care to admit. It’s usually family members and those members change from year to year. Some years are good for big fish. Others are good for numbers. Some years the weathers good. Other years the wind and rain is bothersome. But no matter what, it’s great to be on the Big Pond again, for a right of passage in early May. With it being an hour drive from my front door, it’s hard not to enjoy a day trip up to it’s big beautiful blue waters. On the ride home we talked and shared memories about the day as it’s come and gone. I am more content to just listen. Listening to my dad who’s getting way to close to 80, my second oldest son Eli, who’s almost 16, his cousin Justin who just turned 16 and too not hear my 10 year old Ethan, passed out in between the two of them is precious. The more I listen, the more I realize, we just made a great memory. Even with Ethan passed out from the Benadryl.
The fishing started off with my brother having to miss the fun with a sinus infection and his wife having strep throat. Yuck! Yikes! Be ye selfish with that stuff and keep it to yourselves.
We didn’t get rolling till mid to late morning, our normal time frame. Early birds get worms. I’ve never had worms and don’t want them. Early birds also have to take naps. On Mille Lacs, we’ve never had a reason to get up too early. Liberty Beach’s public access was as packed as we’d seen it around the lunch hour. Normally we’ve had good luck finding a parking spot. When the morning crowd thins out a bit and before the late shift starts, there’s a nice gap. But not on Saturday. And I am guessing it had to do with the awesome weather. We got launched and it wasn’t long before we were motoring out onto the big lake for Ethan and Justin’s first opener on the Big Pond. Sunshine and mild winds greeted us for our boat ride to the North East end of the lake. Ethan had poison ivy on his hands. It’s no stranger to him. Was hoping that wouldn’t be to much of a problem for him.
We started off fishing what we call the Canadian side of the lake. The break line and a bottom transition area we’ve had success on over the years. It’s yielded good numbers of big fish. It didn’t yield much, to no surprise with the water temps. Next we moved to what we call the School Bus. It’s a small rock pile about the size and shape of a school bus. It gets fished around. But it’s just not good unless you find it’s G spot. That spot changes depending on wind, sun angles and time of day. On arriving to it, to no surprise there was little traffic right on top of it. Around it but not on that irritating “spot on the spot” people talk about. First anchor drop we got a few corks down. Lost our first fish right by the boat. The line broke. Was trying some new line and needless to say will not be using that brand anymore. I’ve never liked having initial success anyway’s. When I was a kid on fishing trip we caught a nice fish, off a first cast. We all thought it was going to be great. It was one of the worst trips. So now I would rather not catch fish right away. I like having to figure it out a bit first. Knock on wood kinda stuff I guess. Got a keeper, an over and a jumbo perch. Now this is mid day in less than 12′. It slowed and we made a few moves with little success.
Decided to go rig on the edge of a flotilla. With few nets coming out we didn’t give it long. The big pond will usually give you something, even at the polar opposite of prime time. Not so. It was getting later in the afternoon. Had the gut feeling that the conditions were perfect for the School Bus. The sun angle was getting right, so we went back. I had graphed a good amount of fish off one side of it. We re anchored a dozen times, to get on the right drift. I wanted to get us off of the wind blow shaded back corner of the Bus or maybe its hood, I’m not quite sure yet. Eli was getting a bit irritated by my dysfunctional boat control and depth finder reading ability or lack there of. We moved and moved and moved around a very small area. The boats around us got to see a great show. They probably got a good laugh. I felt like a dog spinning in circles trying to get that just right spot. Finally thinking for sure we’d found the edge that would give us a good drift, right off the top corner that lead into the only fish we’d marked on it, we settled in. Waiting for it to settle down, it took a lot longer than I wanted to give it. Giving in to the urge and pleading grown’s of our stomachs, we decided to eat. Duck or deer hunters know what happens when you decided to take the waders or the blaze orange bibs down. You just know it. First bite of the sandwich in the mouth and enjoying it, down goes a cork.
Over the next hour and a half to two hours, I couldn’t tell you what anyone else on the lake was doing or even if there was anyone else on the lake. We had 3 fish on 2 different times. Multiple doubles. A 25″er got lost in the chaos for Eli and he didn’t even care. It was comical how dirty the floor of the boat got. Cork counting was hysterical and trying to figure out who’s was down was like bop a mole or something like that. Just grab your rod and start reeling. Through all the chaoticness, we never once actually witnessed anyone’s bobber go down. There was just to much going on. A couple hours of boredom, followed by a couple hours of exhaustion. I don’t think I caught but maybe a few fish. My nephew said how could you, you were always netting a fish, handing a rod to someone or measuring a fish. The smiles on the kids faces made it all worth the re anchoring a dozen times in 20 minutes and the floor of the boat looking like a bomb went off.
Minnows worked. Red hooks worked. Gold hooks, Aberdeen hooks. It didn’t really matter all that much. But a smaller leech still gets my nod for being the easiest to set the hook on, under a float, on a red hook, with a bead. The depth that was the best for us was 11′ right on the edge where it dropped down to 13′ to 14′. If we weren’t right on that edge, there wasn’t much activity other than the bigger ones. They were snapping in the boat. Even had one snap down on my index finger. The kids got a good laugh at that one. They all seemed like very hungry, pretty, healthy fish. The size structure on this lake and the amount of pressure it endures is A+ with a capital AMAZING to me. The DNR takes a lot of crap but I’m not sure right now what they could do to this lake to realistically make it any better.
By the end, my sandwich or what was left of it, was a soggy mess, of good for you, poop your pants, whole grain bread that never tasted so good. With a little fish flavor as an added bonus! Ethan’s hands didn’t bother him much at all as he troopered through his first opener on the gracious Big Pond. Even as he was passed out from Benadryl, with poison ivy all over his fingers and hands, sitting between Eli and Justin talking in the dark on the way home. I listened to them. Talked with my dad sitting next to me and pondered what a great memory this already was.
Thanks again Mille Lacs for all the great memories!
