Mille lacs Report

Well nothing like rain so hard it penetrates Gore-tex. It was one wet weekend. Ive never seen a weekend with more fronts come one after the other. The bugs didn’t even know what to do. We fished most of the day yesterday and found some nice schools of fish on the deep gravel and mud flats. We caught three fish on slip bobbers in the afternoon in 26 feet of water and three more towards dark in the shallows. 13 some pounds won the MTT yesterday.
We fished the MTT today and woke up at 5:00am to the sound of thunder and lightning. The tourney was delayed a half hour and we took off at 8:00am screaming to the deep gravel. About 2 miles out the fog was extremely thick and visibility was probably less than 500 yards and a few boats had stopped in their tracks and we had to motor down until we got out were the fog had ended. Most boats in the tourney had fished the north end sand yesterday and most went that way today. We fished the 4 and 5 mile gravel and those same schools of fish were there today but would not bite. The winds were very light and we worked most of the fish with the bow mount and long snells. 1pm rolled around very fast and I decided it was time to pull blades to wake these darn fish up. Bam,Bam, Bam three fish in 30 minutes on spinners. One 18 incher and two just under 14 in 28 feet of water. Hammered nickle and chartreuse blades with green crawlers. I could kick myself for not starting with those blades in the morning. I haven’t really pulled a lot of spinners in the last couple of years but I think one needs to start focusing back on them especially when the bite gets tough. Lightning and heavy rains forced us towards shore just after 2pm and we weighed our one fish. Again 13 some pounds was in the lead when we left. Its a matter of finding fish willing to bite during the day. Look for those fish off bottom a foot or two and ride a spinner at the same depth.
The night bite remains good in the shallow rocks from 8:30-10pm.

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Well nothing like rain so hard it penetrates Gore-tex.

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I’ll second that one. I was just north of you in Aitkin with my wife for a weekend of fishing. I think we both changed out raingear midway through Saturday (that would have been a five hour shower by the way and three more after dinner).

Anyway, we caught oodles of pre-spawn male sunnies just oozing to finish their business or start it, or whatever. There were still a few nice crappies around in two-three feet of water. We kept a few for the pan, and the rest were just for fun…even if it raining like the second coming of the Ark.

I’ll be back Wednesday-Monday of the upcoming week on an annual guy’s trip. Hopefully a few more nice panfish will be around.

Thanks for your report,
D.A.

Today was not very productive for us on the big lake. Fished sand, mud flats, and gravel. Just a few fish to show for it. Had no problem marking fish. Just couldnt get them to go. We did try a quick pass trolling spinners and even stick baits out on the flats. Sounds like we should of explored this a little more.
Think I will take my 3 ways and stick baits back to the river this week.