Anyone see the results for this past weekend? One of the toughest bites I have been on up there.
11 fish weighed on day 1 and 18 fish weighed on day 2. No overs caught at all.
Tough bite but still fun and beats work…
Some good friends got 2nd I believe!! Congrats Chris and Josh!
Wow. Lots of good sticks blanked both days.
Whats your thought behind all the zeros Richie? Are the slots getting tough to come by or was the bite just tough in general?
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Some good friends got 2nd I believe!! Congrats Chris and Josh!
Congrats boys! 
Wow, 29 fish weighed, 2 day tournament. Ouch 
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Wow. Lots of good sticks blanked both days.
Whats your thought behind all the zeros Richie? Are the slots getting tough to come by or was the bite just tough in general?
Both. The bite has tanked out the last week and a half though with a cold front then bug hatch then the excess of small 2″-4″ perch. I try not to get caught up in how the lake is doing and what’s still in it. Sensitive subject for a lot of people.
We only boated 4 fish on day 1 and 5 fish on day 2 but had 1 to weigh each day and managed to take 4th. Granted we were grinding on a small fish spot and didn’t expect many bites.
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Some good friends got 2nd I believe!! Congrats Chris and Josh!
Congrats boys!
Congrats guys! 
-J.
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Some good friends got 2nd I believe!! Congrats Chris and Josh!
Congrats boys!
Congrats guys!
-J.
Nice job guys…. 
(suppose they won’t talk to us for awhile again) 
Congrats Richie and Blake. I knew the bite was gonna be tough when Mark text me saying not to bother with Mille Lacs this weekend.
Congrats to Josh and Chris for the 2nd place finish. Schneider and DeCamp are also on fire this year. Good Luck at championship 
The fish look to be fattening up. Several over 3lbs. They are eating well.
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The fish look to be fattening up. Several over 3lbs. They are eating well.
There is more forage in that system than I have ever seen. Got a nice perch up there last Tuesday that had 3 leeches in his mouth. Between the minnows, leeches, perch hatchlings and bugs there is no lack of food for those fish this year. Gonna be some fat hogs caught this fall 
Congrats to the winners , what tough bite for sure
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The fish look to be fattening up. Several over 3lbs. They are eating well.
There is more forage in that system than I have ever seen. Got a nice perch up there last Tuesday that had 3 leeches in his mouth. Between the minnows, leeches, perch hatchlings and bugs there is no lack of food for those fish this year. Gonna be some fat hogs caught this fall
Congrats to the winners , what tough bite for sure
Jesse,
How long have you been fishing the lake? Personally, I consider the forage to be pretty low at best this year. Especially the perch numbers.
Edit to add DNR survey data:
Scroll down to page 42:
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Mean yellow perch CPE was 165 fish/h for YOY and 5 fish/h for older fish. The YOY CPE was the lowest observed
since 2001 (Table 23). The geometric mean CPE for YOY yellow perch, which is probably a better measure of the
average catch, was 30 perch/hr, and ranks as the third lowest observed in almost 30 years (Figure 22). Average length
of YOY yellow perch in the trawl was the highest ever observed at 3.4 in, which is an inch above the median length
(Figure 23).
Your comment about finding “Nice Perch” is valid. I too have bumped into a few. However those keeper size perch are not considered forage. Also, in a typical or “Good” year I would be catching more along the lines of 25-50 per day releasing many smaller fish. That is just no the case this year.
-J.
In the last few weeks the small perch in the 2″ to 4″ have been going crazy. In the areas we have been fishing it has been as bad as fishing Winnie. By far then most small perch I have seen in these places in quite a few years.
Here is a pic from Sunday of what happens when its to rough to watch your rod for perch. Walleye was about 22″ and not sure if it was trying for the perch or the bait.
In the areas I’m fishing, I have not caught a small perch in 2 years. 
Got one nice keeper in the boat so far. And I spend a lot of time pulling crawler harnesses and rigging live bait!
-J.
Fished the event as well. I by no means consider myself an elite stick but I have been fishing Mille Lacs pretty hard for the last 8 years.
Two of the touger days I have had on Mille Lacs in years. We landed 4 eyes and a handful of jumbos in 2 days.
I am seeing as much or more balls of bait and forage in the lake than I have in years past. I don’t think that is an issue. The fish also appear to be healthy.
I knew getting after the 18-20 inch fish was going to be tough but I was taken back that we didn’t bump into more big fish willing to cooperate. We didn’t spend much time in the basin but we fished sand, gravel, and mud and struggled on all 3. Sucks but that is fishing and it was still fun to be on the water.
57 teams = 114 fisherman
8 hrs a day = 16 hrs fished a piece
1824 man hours fished yielded 29 fish to the scale – WOW–Very Sad
Congrats to the guys that did well
Congrats
Wow, An under 20″ fish that went 3.41. That’s a chunker.
The lake is full of forage right now. Very tough bite when you have to compete with natural forage. Add to that a lower number of walleyes than we are used to the last few years and it will make a huge difference. The last three weeks I have seen more bait pods on my depthfinder than I have ever seen in mille lacs. In the morning when its been flat calm I have went 1/2 mile with bait jumping on the surface in from of my boat the whole time. I have even casted for skies a couple of mornings and seen lots of small perch hanging in the weeds. All of the fish I have caught the past couple weeks have had a nice golden color and been very healthy looking.
Wallster ><((((>
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The fish look to be fattening up. Several over 3lbs. They are eating well.
There is more forage in that system than I have ever seen. Got a nice perch up there last Tuesday that had 3 leeches in his mouth. Between the minnows, leeches, perch hatchlings and bugs there is no lack of food for those fish this year. Gonna be some fat hogs caught this fall
Congrats to the winners , what tough bite for sure
Jesse,
How long have you been fishing the lake? Personally, I consider the forage to be pretty low at best this year. Especially the perch numbers.
Edit to add DNR survey data:
Scroll down to page 42:
Quote:
Mean yellow perch CPE was 165 fish/h for YOY and 5 fish/h for older fish. The YOY CPE was the lowest observed
since 2001 (Table 23). The geometric mean CPE for YOY yellow perch, which is probably a better measure of the
average catch, was 30 perch/hr, and ranks as the third lowest observed in almost 30 years (Figure 22). Average length
of YOY yellow perch in the trawl was the highest ever observed at 3.4 in, which is an inch above the median length
(Figure 23).
Your comment about finding “Nice Perch” is valid. I too have bumped into a few. However those keeper size perch are not considered forage. Also, in a typical or “Good” year I would be catching more along the lines of 25-50 per day releasing many smaller fish. That is just no the case this year.
-J.
i agree with jon. i am seeing some small perch around, but not like 6-7 years ago when they were everywhere. back then you could measure the schools in square acres, this year it is square feet. hopefully the lake is starting a comeback
Congrats to Paul Schneider (btw – thanks for the beer Paul) and Kirk Decamp on their 1st place finish and congrats to Josh Hukreide and Chris Bauer on their 2nd place finish! It was great talking to you guys on Sat. 
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