Anatomy of a fall trolling trip to Mille Lacs

A newcomers perspective:
For those of you who haven’t experienced this bite you should try it at least once. This was my first time and I was impressed with how many big fish you can catch. Basically every fish was big. The hours are terrible though. The first night it’s easy since your excited but after that it’s just plain gritty for those of us that don’t adjust well to switching our sleep vs awake hours of the day. Unloading and loading the boat can be a challenge depending on the ramp you use and how rough it is. Once your on the lake your home free. You can go a long time between hits but when you get one the fish is usually very big. Compared to river eyes the Mille Lacs fish are giants. Unusually bulky.
A few of the firsts for me were:
1. Drinking my first beverage of the previous day
at 3:00 am.
2.Cleaning a pile of huge walleyes at 3:30 am.
Going to bed at 4:30 am was just plain cruel for me but it’s what you gotta do to get in on that amazing bite…
I have a new respect for those guys on this site that do it all the time. I’d like to thank my partner Terry for putting up with me on night 2. I can’t remember his site handle. Speak up Terry. Also thanks to Crossin Eyes for inviting me although I’m sure he’s going to burn me on a response to this post…………

Last fall was my first time to try this fall pattern. @ nights out with James in a row was fun but that second night I was woken up several times by the words. “wake up Mike. You have a fish”
Trying to get back to town after a night of fishing is tough also. I would recomned some sleep before the trip. One thought I had was trying to line up one of the resorts to maybe open up some fish houses or cabins for us guys trying to fish this bite. The hotels just dont seem to fit the bill with there check in/out times. I was really suprised to see one of my favorite resorts vacant last week. Seems like a good way to fill in a slow time of year. Greg, Dean are you listening?

Who was it that had beds for rent up there?

Nice fish.

Suzuki.

Not sure if I agree with your thoughts on river fish compaired to Mille Lacs fish. Maybe its just pool 2 eyes but I think the eyes down here would leave them fish up there looking for there wallets in a heart beat. Granted on this fall pattern you hook into good numbers of large fish up there but if you look at a 30″ fish on the river in december or january she is going to be well over 10#. And mad as hell with you.
Nothing against Mille Lacs eyes but I would call them pretty compaired to a pool 2 eye.

Your probably right Mike. I just don’t see so many big ones on the river. Maybe we were lucky but every fish except one was over 20. I have personally not had that kind of luck on the river before but I know it happens. Maybe I should fish pool 2 more often! As an example my 2-man boat caught 10 or 12 Friday night. 8 were small enough to keep and they were all over 20 except for that one puny 18 incher. It was the biggest overall limit I have ever been involved with. I felt a little guilty because I normally don’t keep fish over 20 on the river but we had several people in the group and everyone really appreciated taking enough fish home to feed their family and more. It was cool.
I just finished a meal of them but I still prefer blue gills.

It’s pretty cool isn’t it Mike. I know it’s a lot of money, but if you save your pennies all year long, a trip with James, Dustin or Deezee is worth every cent. When everyone else is having 30 fish nights, I’ve had 50-60 fish nights with James. Simply phenominal!!! I can’t wait to see James first report for Oct. I’m fishing with him on Thursday night. If it goes well, I’ll probably heading back up for one maybe two nights this weekend. I’ve been trying to get one of my buddies from SD to come join me, but he’s still on the fence.

Just got back from a trip with James on the big pond. We boated over 30 fish – largest was a tad over 29″ followed by a 28″ and more 25″ and 26″ fish than I could count. Quite a statement when a 23″ fish becomes just a little guy and gets tossed back as quickly as possible. These fish were FAT. Would challenge any river fish of the same length this year. Great trip and even better guide! We were catching more fish than anyone around us. Icy mike James!

I just got back from last night’s trip up there w/ Eye Guide. We didn’t get into the numbers, but it was a great experience anyways. Our 2 biggest were around 26″. The amazing thing is that they look closer to 28″ because they are SO FAT. Pictures won’t show their true dimensions. They look exactly like a prespawn female right now.

Im hitting up pool 2 again for the day on wensday. Then friday night is going to be spent with Plungepool and DeeZee on the pond. Lokking forward to both trips. I will have to take a closer look at these fish from both areas and maybe do a comparison on them.
Big mean eyes on pool 2 or big pretty eyes on Mille Lacs. Thinking it going to be a great time catching both.

Suzuki,
Glad you had a good time. Who cares about sleep, food or drink when you catch multiple fish over 25 inches in the same night. Your right that it is a totally different experience trolling at night. I am guessing you are hooked as many of us are after catching walleyes like you caught trolling at night. Can’t wait to get up there again!