Mille Lacs Flats

I fished the mud flats yesterday with marginal success but understand many did quite well. Two guys at the launch said they put 50 or so walleyes in the boat yesterday. I’m looking for advice on the specifics of fishing the mud. I understand and was using long leaders with leeches and crawlers with both 1/2 ounce and 3/4 ounce sinkers. I’m wondering if I was dragging through too much mud and taking away from the clarity of the bait. Do people generally lift the sinker off the bottom? What is the general approach? Help?

you CANNOT drag your sinker in the mud!!! It stirs up a mess that will spoke all the fish away!!!

Also, if you are dragging in the mud, your bait is always in the cloud of dirt!!!

It is more important to know your depth and maintain your depth control by adding weight (maybe you need to use a 1.5 oz sinker) then to run light and keep your bait away from the boat.

When fishing 25 fow, you don’t have to worry about the boat spooking the fish that deep.

You want to keep your sinker off the mud as much as possible. I usually keep my sinker just off the bottom enough that I can drop my rod tip and make contact. I usually let it hit bottom every 15-30 seconds or longer. You should also us a heavy enough weight to keep your line as vertical as posssible. Hope this helps. I will be interested to see what other people say as well. Good luck!!

I’ll give it a whack, but I will need more information.
1. What type of line are you using?
I use 4 or 6 pound test Berkley Sensation, and 4 pound Berkley Vanish flourocarbon leaders in 10-12 feet of length.

2. What were you doing as far as movement?
I will typically zig zag a flat, working up and down off of the edges. I look for fish, and will drop an icon on them with my GPS, and return to that spot a few times to see if they are still there. Fish in my experience will school in certain spots of the flat, and you can get a few takers that way.

3. How deep vs. weight?
How deep were you? I would imagine 29-34 feet based on my experiences with most Mille Lacs Flats. I typically try to keep my line at a 45 degree angle behind the boat. Anything greater than that (More line out.) would mean you are dragging through the muck. Not good. Go light if it is less breezy. I use 1/4 ounce weights unless it gets really windy. Remember how I said I use 4-6 pound test? That is how I can get by with using lighter weight. Fish can pick up the leech or crawler and feel minimal resistance.

4. How fast are you moving?
If you think you are moving too slow…slow down even more! You want that leech or crawler dangling in front of them as long as possible. Keep working over fish you are marking. Eventually, you will get some takers.

I hope that helps a bit. One other thing, you may want to go with some longer rods for longer snells. I am turning over to St. Croix Wild River 9’6″ rods for rigging.
Good luck!
Tuck

Well, I beg to differ with you Gary. Yesterday was one of those days where long lining and dragging the bottom out fished everyone else on the flats we fished 10 to 1. Now I don’t normally fish that way but you go with what works.

Long, long leaders is the trick right now too. We are typically running 12-15ft leaders of 4 lbs. test florocarbon. 3/4 ounce weight, it was a bit windy.

If any one hooks a bright blue sock on the north flats I lost one, broke the rope trying to backtroll the big waves.

In the morning we had to run the big motor and put out 2 socks to control the speed.

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Well, I beg to differ with you Gary. Yesterday was one of those days where long lining and dragging the bottom out fished everyone else on the flats we fished 10 to 1. Now I don’t normally fish that way but you go with what works.
Long, long leaders is the trick right now too. We are typically running 12-15ft leaders of 4 lbs. test florocarbon. 3/4 ounce weight, it was a bit windy.
If any one hooks a bright blue sock on the north flats I lost one, broke the rope trying to backtroll the big waves.

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WOW!!!!!!!!!

The muck thing is something i’ve always wondered about. There is hard mud and soft mud on Mille lacs. Some riles up bad and some doesn’t, you have to figure it out on every different flat.
You ever have those days on the river where they won’t bite anything moving much (snap jigging and jigging) so i’ve just drug the jig on the bottom and picked up fish sometimes, you gotta experiment a little when things aren’t working.

Never say never!

I agree with Hooks! Sometimes if I’m not getting bit not letting my sinker drag, I will switch and let it drag. Sometimes it is my belief you stir up the bottom contents and bugs, etc come up and sometimes will “attract walleyes and bait fish to the cloud”. Just my opnion, but I too usually start not dragging. But agree with others I go light as possible on the weight usually 3/8 oz. to maybe 3/4 oz. on windy days. I also use a thin diameter ( 4lb Fireline or 4″ Flourcarbon) snell. My shortest snells are about 8′ for fishing by myslef and do go as long as 12′ when fishing with another person.

I would also like to chime in a thing Tuck has said in the past. These people that are saying they are filling their livewells and having 50 fish days are probably telling the truth , but perhaps some are lieing . But, I have seen some of these “limits” people are taking and personally just can’t do it myself. These limits consist of a ton of 12″to 14″ fish. Legally can you do it. Absolutely, but these fish are the future of the fishery. I’m not a DNR bioligist but the #’s of these size fish I have seen taken are incredibily high and in my opnion will harm the fishery if this is kept up! I personally do not like to keep anything under 14″ unless I have harmed the fish. Ok enough Ranting !

Lip Ripper, I couldn’t agree more. It’s sad to see the 12-13 inch fish being kept on a regular basis. If the DNR won’t set a minimum we as responsible fisherman have to set our own minimum and not hurt this great fishery. 14″ is the very smallest I’ll keep unless the fish is hurt, anything less has not meat on it anyway.

Great advice on the above posts!!

It makes me sick to look in the fish cleaning shack and see the vast majority of the remains under 13″. On sunday when we were cleaning 2- 19.5″ers we saw two that was barely 8″ in the gut bucket. 14″ minimum should be state wide!!!

I have to agree with Gary. Keeping your sinker off bottom is very important. I like to use a heavy enough sinker to maintain bottom contact. Too light of a sinker, you’ll have to let out too much line and you lose too much sensitivity and the feel of the bottom, and you’re more prone to drag bottom. I like to use Berkley Fireline for my main line and Berkley Vanish Flourocarbon for my snells. This setup is very sensitive which makes it a lot easier to know when you’re dragging bottom. Hope this helps you out.

Derek W.

Thanks for the replies, helpful. Tuck to answer your questions:

1)I am running 6lb. Stren MagnaThin on St.Croix 7ft Legend Walleye tournament rods. I am heavy on the snell or leaders with mostly 10pd. test. This could be a problem, although after fishing Lake Winni alot with these rods I don’t feel I’m missing the pick-up of the bait. Thoughts?

2)I was backtrolling with my Yamaha 8-4 stroke running what I call s-curves on the ledges and off the flat in a North-South pattern (wind was terrible yesterday)

3)I went back and forth between 1/2 ounce and 3/4 ounce to keep as vertical as possible in a tough wind

4)I marked alot of fish and tried to hold position as good as I could. With such long leaders, what do you think is happening at the bottom with the leader when the wind pushes you forward and you move backward slowly? I always feel as if I need to sustain movement to keep the leader extended.

Like I said above, I spend alot of time on Winni, but the long drive moves me to Mille Lacs in July. The bite and approach is just different enough that I need help.

Thanks Everyone, any other tips appreciated!

I guess too be totally honest most of the time i drag my sinker on any lake. I normally try too crawl along the break and i use a long leader all the time no matter the lake. Pumping up a crawler on a 10′ snell, i figure moving that slow the crawler or leech is plenty far off the bottom. And i guess I always thought stirring up the bottom draws fish in from a bit of a distance through curiousity. And this i know for sure, when my wife is with with and we are lindy rigging, she kicks back and lets a mile of line out so she is most definately dragging, and she has kicked my butt a few times. I will say most of this has occured on Winnie, where we are fishing more sand, not mud, but i have lindy rigged Mille Lacs this way with the same results. It is interested too read how some of you guys insist on staying more vertical and staying just off the bottom, and even with the success i’ve had dragging my sinkers, maybe i am cheating myself out of fish by not expierimening with keeping my own sinkers off the bottom at times.

Count me as one who sometimes drags,sometimes holds off the bottom and sometimes walks or hops it along the bottom.All depends on what mood the fish are in and what kind of flat it might be.Some are really soft, some hard and some have a rocky gravely mix.As for leader length I usually start with about 7′ and go either direction from there.If the fish are scattered and off the bottom a bit I’ll go long ,if there schooled tight and closer to the bottom I’ll go short.One thing to keep in mind though is that if you are using leeches they must be lively and must swim to have the best fish appeal.

While we’re at it.Wondering what size hooks most of you use.I use a light wire snell hook in 6 for larger leeches and crawlers and 8 for smaller crawlers and leeches.Also do you guys feed line with leeches? Generally,unless the leeches are real large or the fish are really short hitting them I don’t feed any line.Just wondering about the rest of you.

I use #6 snell hooks unless I am pulling spinners, then #4. I think you miss too many fish with #8 hooks. I used to always feed with leeches, but now have been just droping the line, close the bail, tighten up and set. I always feed with crawlers, but hate it when they drop it. For the dragging in the mud part I do both, whatever works on that day at that flat.

Like you I will usually use 6 + 8s for leeches and sometime as big as 4s for crawlers, depends on the speed, number of hooks on the harness and if i’m getting short hits or not.

On Erie we’ll go as big as 2s for crawlers.

What size line do you guy’s use on blade harnesses?

I don’t use blades to often but when I do I use 10lb XT on Mille Lacs and 12-14 on the river.

For blades I use 10# mono on the reel, and 10-4# fire on the snell with 2 #4 hooks. For riggin I use 8# megnathin