Are there any Walleyes left in Mille Lacs…

Yes there are…but you wouldn’t know it by the number of boats out after dark. Saw two on Friday night and two on Saturday night. Maybe the weather had something to do with it. Pretty quiet for Mid-Oct on Mille Lacs. Oh well, more fish for me. Found our fish in 5-9 fow on rock/weed transitions. My usual spots produced. The bite was by no means on fire (2-3 fish per hour) but slow and steady sometimes wins the race. All fish taken on #9 Rapala Tail Dancers and #7 SSR Jointed Rapalas. Color was all over, keep switching until something fires. 1.7-1.9mph…The water temps were 56-57, so getting there. No slot fish, all 20″ up to 27.75″ Hopefully the cooler temps drop that water temp to 50 or under and these fish really get fired up for the full moon ahead. Back at it Friday and Saturday. Good luck all and be safe. Here are a few from Saturday evening.

Nate
Very nice trip and Congrats on some very nice fish.
I think things will really pick up this week.
Jack

Thanks Grainbelteyes for the report!! Looks like a great start with better things to come with falling the falling temps. Congrats
Eyetime

Nice fish.

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Thanks Grainbelteyes for the report!! Looks like a great start with better things to come with falling the falling temps. Congrats
Eyetime

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Welcome to IDO

Great report Nate… Can’t wait to get back up there this weekend and see what we can do!

Great report and just what I was looking for… Can’t wait for Friday & Saturday night… Fish all night and sleep all day!!!!

Way to go, Nate! Beauties!

Good report! I love this time of year!

Nate,

Did you fish the shore line in 5-9 feet, or did you look for shallow reefs? What time did you fish?

Patrick

Great job! I am looking forward to the night bite on Thurs and Fri!

Great report…I also found a few fish this weekend. Sure is nice to feel that *thump* again.

I’ll also be back at it again this weekend!

You mentioned you were fishing “tail dancers” in your report.
I was under the impression that those were only made in deep divers. Did you mean Husky Jerks or am I missing something from my arsenal?

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You mentioned you were fishing “tail dancers” in your report.
I was under the impression that those were only made in deep divers. Did you mean Husky Jerks or am I missing something from my arsenal?

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Yes, Tail dancers come in smaller sizes. Your going to have to add another couple plano boxes to your arsenal.
Wallster ><((((>

Even the regular #9 Tail dancers I have would be pounding bottom in 9′ water. Maybe he had only 8′ of line out.

Definitely not Husky Jerks. While HJ-12s are one of my favorite baits to troll in the fall on ML, the water temps are just not there yet to make these lures super effective. There wobble is more effective in colder water. I did run some HJs for a while and never got a sniff on them this past weekend.

Rapala makes #5, #7, #9, and #11 Tail Dancers. They also make the #9 and #11 in deep versions that dive to 20-30+ feet by themselves. The standard #5 maxes out about 6-7 feet and the #9 will get down to 12-15 feet. You can long line the #9s with 60-100 feet out and manage your line to allow dive depths of 6-8 feet. That’s what pulled two 27″ fish on Sat evening, a #9 with about 80 feet out in 6-7 feet of water.

So short answer is yes you will need to add some to the tackle box.

Ok, This reply is a good excuse to see if I can post a picture! If you see me holding a walleye, I posted a similar report last week. Interesting as our bait selection was closer to the HJ’s as this one was caught on the largest Tiger Minnow 4 1/2″ Rattlin’ Rouge. Our catch rate was on par, 2 fish/hour. We’ll see what’s going this weekend.