Moonlight Trolling on Mille Lacs 10/14

On Friday, we launched DrewsDad’s boat from Eddy’s Resort just as the sun set. Looking at the 2 foot rollers near shore, we decided to troll crankbaits along shore rather than hit the reef 2 miles out in the larger rollers.

My first fish hit a perch pattern Storm crankbait trolled between 2.2 and 3 MPH. A nice 15 inch walleye was produced and put into the box. Then we both tied into a fish at the same time. As it is night, and things go bump in the night, he hit reverse on the gas motor. Yep, I watched our lines head into the prop, cut my mono line, lost everything, but onlly wrapped his Power Pro line around the prop, but DD saved his bait. I simply laughed off the situation while DD apologized. These mishaps just add more fun to these fishing trips.

Walleye_GFA put 5 nice fish in the box. He trolled circles around us at a quicker speed. I guess he had to make up time after heading to the docks to pick up Jimmy. But I guess the faster speed is what worked, as we got a number of hits and misses around 3 MPH.

My next fish…BIG fish! hit on a Smithwick Rattlin Rouge. Reeled in a nice 26 incher! Two more fish went 23 inches, and the last fish that we kept was 20.5 inces, that sported a DNR tag on it. I’ll need to contact the DNR about this tag on it and get the fish’s history.

I missed 2 heavy fish, then the big one hit. It felt like I was reeling up a snag. Got him within 20 feet, and it peeld off 100 feet of line. I got him halfwy back and plink, he cut the line. Well, that’s according to the numbers on the line counting reel anyway.

We left Eddy’s Resort around 3 am and got home just after 4:30 am. Tired, but what great fall moonlight trolling excursion on the big pond!

Thanks for the trip Drewsdad, good to fish with you Walleye_GFA, and Jimmy!

Lots of fun !!!! We could not buy a bite less than 3mph… also got zip in less than 11 fow… but MT and DD did…

Both Walleye GFA and MT Net had on some nice fish that were lost. But I don’t think they were too sad. I had a hard time multi-tasking. Need to get some more night fishing ex-perience under my belt. I had a great time and was glad to see MT get into some Mille Lacs piggies!

dd

I was also out on the 14th. Went in Cyberfishes Lund and we were on the water about 10:30PM. Man, what a zoo out there. It seemed like there was a boat every hundred yards or so from Sherman’s to IP.

We elected to hit IP and stay there all night. It started out sucky with some jambroni trolling in behind us too close and taking one of my buddies best baits and nearly all of his line. This happened to me one other time this year and happened to my buddy another time later on when some yahoo cut right across our trolling path no more than 50 feet back. I also had to speed up or take hasty evasive maneuvers to prevent this from happening several other times.

Note for the Clueless: Tangling lines in close quarters between boats is unfortunatly part of the deal. When it does happen it should almost always be between boats heading in opposite directions. Getting in so close behind someone that you catch their line in your prop is pretty much inexcusable in my book.

If you are gonna “transomgate,” which is impossible to avoid on crowded structure, than you MUST move at the same speed or slower and stay back at least 100ft. If you are moving faster than the boat in front of you than you pick a side to approach them on trying to hang 5-15ft off to the side and being ready to alter your path in case their boat coarse shifts due to wind, fish, snag, or oncomming traffic. Once you pass the slower boat, you know how far back your lines are and can move into their path at your own risk with a measure of confidence. Class OVER!

Before this year, I don’t remember ever having gotten caught up in someone’s motor.

Anyway my first fish was a dandy 28.5″, which I thought at first might be a big pike or ski cause it hit like a ton of bricks and was peeling line. It was easily an 8lber and may even have been close to 10 as that it was thick and solid and sure felt heavy while lifting it. As it is I am giving it 3-way tie status with the other two 28.5’s I’ve gotten. My next fish was a beauty of a 27″ and I also got another just short of 27″. Also landed 3 Keepers and one dink. Cyb got a 26″ and 3 keepers and maybe a dink as well.

Unfortunatly we lost 2 of our keepers off the stringer, cause Cyb didn’t bring the cooler and he tied a short stringer off the bow and the pounding waves ripped em off. Ohh well, more food for the Eagles.

Was a nice night and we stayed to daybreak even though it got cold.

Hey BP!
Nice report! I’m definetly gonna hit it again in November uless it is way miserable cold. It was a little busy near Eddy’s but not too bad. The most boats we ever had around us was 8. And we had our best luck in a stretch where nobody was around until Walleye GFA and Jimmy came and joined us. Lots of fun! Would love to run back up this week; but probably can’t.

dd

Good tips as well, BP. I’d love to go too! But alas, I am boatless in the Cities. Plus the honeydo list has gotten larger. So I need to buckle down before the ice season.