Mille lacs ice first timer

So a friend of mine and I are planning on fishing the lake for the first time. I honestly have never even seen the lake but the opportunity at perhaps nice walleyes and perch have peaked my adventurous side to say the least. Anyways, what I’ve gathered is that I should be trying to find the points and irregularities in the mud flats to find fish. If this is generally the case, which resort gives the angler without ATV or snow mobile the best access to some of the productive flats with the current ice/snow conditions? I’ll have a GPS and navionics chip and am all for pulling my portable around and drilling a lot if thats what it takes. I do want to try it on my own once, even though i know a guide would greatly simplify things.Any tips,pointers, or recommendations are very much appreciated.

Try leech lake

Red Door resort has plowed roads to some of the mud flats.

x2 on the red door out of the north end…..

Roads to the flats this year are few and far between. It has been really tough ice conditions and the blowing snow is making it really tough to keep roads open. If your making a long drive to Mille Lacs its a good idea to call which ever resort you plan to head out of that day to make sure there roads still go that far and check the wind forecast. There is a good amount of snow on the lake and it has been changing every day. Last weekend was crazy once again with the blowing snow!

On the south end KJ’s looked to be on the gravel humps SW of Spirit Island, Wilderness Warmth is just short of Kings, and Brandt’s looked to stop around Sloppy Joes. For this time of year this is a short route for all they guys with how hard they have been working!

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Try leech lake

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I agree, I would head elsewhere.

Kinda agree too. Assuming you might want to keep some fish. Remember, you have a 2 fish limit with a keeper slot that has been hammered down to almost nothing. Sure, if you want to pull a couple release fish through a hole, have at it. For now, I’m looking elsewhere.

Keeping fingers crossed there will be some decent perch in the lake’s near future….

-J.

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Kinda agree too. Assuming you might want to keep some fish. Remember, you have a 2 fish limit with a keeper slot that has been hammered down to almost nothing. Sure, if you want to pull a couple release fish through a hole, have at it. For now, I’m looking elsewhere.

Keeping fingers crossed there will be some decent perch in the lake’s near future….

-J.

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The shame in this whole thing (and John I don’t think your wrong in saying he should go elsewhere…) is that we are steering him away from our friends that are trying to continue to make a living on that lake. DNR, I hope you are happy…RR

Thanks for all the input guys. Seems as though the north end is my best bet. I’ll call ahead to check roads later in the week. I don’t plan to keep fish, just wantvtge opportunity at a few walleyes especially if they have some size! Expectations aren’t too high but we’ll work hard to try to make something happen. Thanks again…

I was up two weeks ago on the South end and as stated, travel on the lake is sketchy this year. In the past I have stayed at the Red Door, but sounds like fishing has not been very good any where this year. When the resort owner actually tells you things are off, you know it is bad. You can catch VERY tiny perch, but walleyes are tough. Good Luck

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Thanks for all the input guys. Seems as though the north end is my best bet. I’ll call ahead to check roads later in the week. I don’t plan to keep fish, just wantvtge opportunity at a few walleyes especially if they have some size! Expectations aren’t too high but we’ll work hard to try to make something happen. Thanks again…

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Like others have said the conditions are tough up there this year for being able to get around on the lake. Red Door is your best bet to have a road to the flats, but you most likely won’t have any chance for off road travel unless you were able to find a snowmobile.

On a positive note, while the bite isn’t as hot and heavy as many would like there are a few very nice fish being caught. Because there is so much forage in the lake right now when you do get fish to commit they are FAT. I personally would rather be fishing Mille Lacs right now with the chance at a true trophy than say hitting Red Lake knowing the biggest fish I’ll see is going to be around 20″. Your best bet for walleyes is probably going to be tip-ups. I’ve heard differing reports with some doing best on big minnows set 3-4′ off bottom and others saying the only thing that worked were smaller minnows set close to the bottom so if possible I would start by running one or more of each and see which gets hit first. I’ve also of some nice jumbo perch showing up on jigging spoons tipped with a minnow head. Again, you’re not going to fill up a bucket but definitly worth your time to go up for the chance at some high caliber fish

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Kinda agree too. Assuming you might want to keep some fish. Remember, you have a 2 fish limit with a keeper slot that has been hammered down to almost nothing. Sure, if you want to pull a couple release fish through a hole, have at it. For now, I’m looking elsewhere.

Keeping fingers crossed there will be some decent perch in the lake’s near future….

-J.

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The shame in this whole thing (and John I don’t think your wrong in saying he should go elsewhere…) is that we are steering him away from our friends that are trying to continue to make a living on that lake. DNR, I hope you are happy…RR

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I agree completely. Having brought close to $2,000 in business to the resorts on Mille Lacs in the last two weeks, a group of 10ppl, and a group of 9 ppl, in 6 man houses (Yep, a few ALWAYS BACK OUT ON US! ) We caught 7 fish combined.

6 days of fishing and i was skunked! But the 19 guys that accompanied me, caught a combined 7 fish. Biggest was 16″. Reports from the resorts while staying up there has been very very limited catch throughout the houses.

I’ve brought a lot of business to mille lacs in the last few years…But i’m done. Moving on. Hope i’m back sooner than later. The snow and lake conditions are only exagerating the already poor fishing.

I hate taking business away from the good folks up there, but i can’t bring any more of my friends up there and tell them ahead of time that they’re dropping a few hundred bucks to maybe catch a fish. They’re not impressed, and i haven’t been for quite a while, though i am and have been understanding.

Sorry mille lacs.

Try Leech, or other.

Real good info for me, thanks Will! Like I mentioned earlier, I’m gonna work hard from dark to dark Saturday putting this info to use and hope for the best! I will report what I find asap. Very excited for the opportunity honestly. Thanks again!