Weekend Report

I got up to the pond Friday night about 10:30 and hit the water just before midnight.I started out making a couple of passes on Big Point wich I have now renamed Dead Point because it has been so slow lately.From there I went up to Lakeside and picked up a fish right away and had a couple short biters but was on the slow side.Next stop was Flamingo and a couple trips around the reef didnt produce anything so I headed back south.On the way back I took a pass in front of Hunters and came up emty so I headed down to Liberty.I started off with #5 shad raps in 10-12 Fow and had one bite.Now it was about 3 Am and I was bummed and geting tired and I had promised the Grandsons a fish fry.At that point I figured I would give it one last try up shallow so I put on a #10 HJ firetiger and moved in closer to shore.That was the ticket as the fish were there and hungry and I was back on shore at 4 AM.Saturday night the Grandson and I went out just after dark and hit Doe Island for a short time and never got a bite so I headed back to Liberty.We trolled shallow and deep and tried almost everything in the box only to get a few bites and lost 1 fish at the boat.We headed back to shore about 11 PM.I am not typically one to fish the wee hours of the morning but I have seen this in the past when there isnt any moon the best bite can be early in the morning.Still didnt see any of the bigger fish this weekend but with the water temp dipping into the 50s they cant be too far away.How did everyone else do?

I was out Saturday night on the west side out of the casino access. We started fishing at 7:30 and it didn’t take long to get into the fish. Number 5 shallow shad raps in a firetiger were working best early on with silver and black working good later in the night. Orange craw worked well also. (Yes Robert, your orange craw shad rap )

We switched to running 10 lb mono instead of fireline and we have been getting fewer misses and more hookups.

The weeds are starting to lay down now. You can troll a little deeper without getting hung up on them, but most fish were taken between 7 and 5 feet.

Still no big ones yet, the biggest for the night was a 22 ½ and it wasn’t the typical football you get this time of year.

The water temp on the west side was about 60.7 when we left at midnight.

Went out Sat. night on the west/southwest side and didn’t do much.Started at Indian Point, to much traffic and not much for action so we headed south to Rocky Reef.Picked up a few fish but overall very slow.
We did hear some hootin from the launches as we trolled by,not sure if it was for fish or more booze.

Saturday was a little slow for numbers for us also. Trolling weed lines around garrison. Picked up a 26 3/4 trolling the outside weed edge around 9pm. Missed one other. Must of been around 11 that we started hitting the inside weed edge looking for some fish to take home. Didnt take long to find a few. after midnight the action picked up a little better yet and nathanial hooked into a nice 28″er. That was a nice way to end the night. Anouther good night on Mille Lacs.

I made it out last night to the inside weed edges and found 8 fish! All were between 15″-19″. Eaters!!! MMMMMMM!!!
One thing i did notice though is the fish are begining to school up, at least where i was last night! I could only catch these fish in one area, against the wind and with the wind produced fish! Outside this 300 yard stretch yielded nothing!!! Also noticed that the fish are taking to the wobble baits. Raps did nothing last night, anything with a wobble produced fish! Still 2.2-2.5 was the best speed.
Good luck to everyone!!!

Fished Saturday on the west side…fishing was slow for us…ended up catching 6 trolling inside weed edges….only thing that would produce for us was #7 shallow shads….biggest was 22 1/2…the fish we caught were spitting up 2 1/2 to 3 inch perch…and these were freshly eaten as they hadn’t started to discolor…water temps ranged from 62.4 to 60.7….

Hey Skindog who were ya netting for this weekend? I might try to get up this week depending on weather but as of right now my tow vehicle is my wifes work vehicle untill I get hers fixed. Hopefully I will have it fixed in a couple of days.

Shallow running shads was the ticket for the most part for us also. Except for the one fish taken on the out side of the weed line. He hit a lazer craw. Modified chartruse was the hot color. the hot debate in the boat was if they needed 3 lines or 4 marked on the side. The 28″ eye hit the 4 lined lure and settled the debate.

Castaway, When are you thinking about heading up? I might be interisted.

I would consider going tomorrow depending on weather if you want to tow my boat.

That is good stuff!!!!

Here is a shot of a 26.75″er We picked up on the outside of the weed line on saturday night.

Nice fish Mike.

Hopefully the big girls will start stacking up shallow.

Nice fish Mike!

Are you still planning on fishing with Joe Smith on the 15th?

just curious on speeds and depths as per trolling the inside edges. typically we have lines out about 100+ feet to get them away from the boat and at 2-2.5 mph, anytime we got into less than 9ft, we were constantly hung up on weeds pulling HJ’s or Rogues. How on earth are you in 5-7ft of water pulling cranks and not hitting bottom/weeds? any thoughts would help as we’re headed up next week.

We are using #5 and #7 shallow shad raps 80 feet back.

There is a inside edge of most weed lines also. Seems like alot of areas on mille lacs you find weeds from about 8 to 10′ or so. that allows some room for trolling between the weeds and shore.

I think that is a yes wade.