Mille Lacs Muskies….

You could hear a pin drop on this Mille Lacs muskie forum. Since it is a 175,000 acre lake a post without giving location is certainly not going to hurt! SO, here goes. I have been up 4 times this year and caught a 42, 43 and 44 1/2 between the two of us. Saw a few more nice fish and quick released a couple more prior to the net. Most action coming from Sliders, Black/orange bucktail, topraider and Hogwabler. But I am always looking for new baits to add to the arsenal. Any suggestions on hot baits to try would be great since we are heading up tomorrow afternoon. If your bait or location is too hot to post PM me and I will share pics with you when I get back.

FISH-ON

Swerv

ps: For those who are chunking for muskies at night with your lights off beware! You are not as visible as you think! Two times this year after dark we have had boats go by within 100 yards of us and we didnt see them until they past. I would hate to hit someone in the head with an 8 inch Hogwabler. TURN YOUR LIGHTS ON-THE FISH DO NOT CARE!!

Mark, PLASTICS< PLASTICS. I have a few favorites. The first is the Tiger Tube made my Lindy, the other is a j-mac jig with a 7″ powertail. These are baits that I would not use at night but they are great during the day. I have had a very hard time hookin up fish on these at night, they seem to miss them alot. I also am a big fan of the salmo skinner, this is a great bait used like a jerkbait, the action is amazing, big wobble. Good luck and post up some pics when you return. I am going to be up there this weekend for a batchlor party, sad to say that the boat is going to be staying at home …you don’t have room do you

Thanks Bob…My tackle box is a little short in the plastics section right now but I do have 2 Salmo Skinners. My goto bait has been the Salmo Slider. It has produced some nice fish for me including a 51″ last year. Do you get alot of action on Bulldawgs? What the best way to use a bait like the Bulldawg or Tiger tube or J-mac?

ps: if there are going to be Go-Go girls at the bachelor party we might be able take shifts on the boat

I have used Bulldawgs a number of times, with nothing to show but follows, I have yet to set hooks into a muskie with them, I have boated a number of nice pike on them. The Tiger tubes I use 2 different ways. I have used them like a jerkbait, keeping the bait high in the water colume, jerk and pause, mixing it up making it eratic, or just a constant jerk, it just depends on what the fish react to. The other way I use them is to cast out and let it sink(not to the bottom) and make sure that you are not freespooling it, I often have fish hit on the fall and when they do it is violent(ratsnest ) I then use a rise and fall- slow pull upward and let it fall, you can mix it up with this too, jerk it up hard and let it fall, if the fish are aggressive the fast eratic action seems to work best. On lakes that see a lot of muskie hunters I tend to favor a more slow moving approach, rise and fall. The tiger tube is by far my favorite bait, it has accounted for a lot of fish for us. The Jmac jig is a rise and fall bait as well, just swim it back to the boat, you can also just do a straight retrieve. Good luck, and post some pics when you get back. I hope this info helps

Friday was overall pretty slow with only 3 blow-ups between 5pm and 1am but we managed to catch two of them. 43 and a 44. I will post pics soon. If only my hook percentage was that good all the time?? I have the batteries charging for tomorrow night again. I will give another report. Was anyone else out on the lake that night? -the moon was incredible! We could see 75% of the shoreline around Mille Lacs at midnight. What a sight!
FISH-ON
Mark

Sounds like you had a good outing. I was on the lake on Saturday night and the moon was amazing. Very bright. What did the fish come on???

both on Topraider. We went up again last night too. fished from 6-11pm and never saw a fish.

Here are a couple of pics from Friday night. A 43 and 44. The 43 was really skinny

..44″

Nice Fish Mark

Mark, Nice fish. Wow that 43″ sure is thin. I have got a few this year like that too. That 44″ is beef, very nice fish.

good Musky discussion. nice pics Swerve. keep ’em coming.
Jack…