Where to fish

Was thinking about fishing Mille Lacs but haven’t a clue where to begin. The closest area to me is the southeast end what resorts are in that area to check with for ice thickness unless there not biting in that area and they are somewhere else. Where should a person head to. It’s going to be a nice weekend and thought it might be a good road trip.Who all we’ll be on the ice this weekend?? Steve

The latest word I have are that 8 mile south tips and the bumps South of east flat have been producing fish. I last fished 2 mile out of hunters point. Slow but the weather wasn’t very cooperative.

Thanks Hooks, here’s another ? Which resorts do you drive out from and not having a map of the lake (untill I stop at fleet farm tonight) I take it that eight mile,south tips and the bumps south of the east flats are all seperate spots on the south east end?

How is the ice? I don’t like driving out untill the ice is real thick and I don’t have a atv and don’t like trying to tread cold water BRRRRR. Are you going out ?? Or anyone else going out?

Won’t be making it this weekend (other commitments). The bumps south of east flat are off the north side of the lake. You can access them from the Red Door or Banicle Bills.

Eight mile would be accessible by ATV. It is a midlake flat.

We hit south tips of 8 mile last weekend and caught a few ‘eyes, but very slow. We drove out from the public access by the casino with ATVs since we weren’t sure how thick the ice was out on the flats. There ended up being around 12-15″ out there, but we had to weave around a lot of ice heaves and cracks. A few trucks were out there but you wouldn’t catch me driving out there for awhile- one of the last places the ice froze as we could see by the large ice sheets that eventually bonded together.

Was out last night and 2 of us caught about 20 nice ‘eyes with only 3 in the slot; the rest were 21-25″. We were out on the SW side towards Eddy’s and Rocky Reef in around 16-20’. They have some roads plowed and marked and there was around 18″ of ice- some was a little rough.

Thank s Guy’s I’m not one to venture out on lousy ice with my pickup(need it to pull the boat) and need me to drive the boat HA HA. Can a person just walk out a way’s and maybe be deep enough to do some good or do you really need to be out further than a person want’s to walk. Might just wait for better ice and hit the Chippewa, Red Ceder, or Mississippi River.

On the east side their getting fish in 10-12 ft. of water again. Thats driving distance on the lake(1/4-1/2 mile). East side had 18 inches everywhere I fished last weekend. Out to two mile.

Thanks Hooks. Don’t know where I’m fishing this weekend now but will post Monday on results. Steve

Well this weekend didn’t work out the way I hoped for. Found out Saturday that the tile we bought to put on for backsplash in the kitchen that my wife had picked up Friday was actually from two different shades and lot numbers. Half were shiny and have were not. After calling the company back we had to make a dash to the far side of the cities to return the unwanted tile and pick up the right stuff. That pretty much shot Saturday.Once I got back home had just enough time to run to bait store and grab a scoop of minnows and hit the lake hoping for some crappies.They were’t biting but talked to a fisherman also trying for crappies that said he did real well on perch that morning. Oh well left the lake and returned real early hoping for perch and the same fisherman arrives that told me about the perch it was the two of us all morning trying to get the perch to bite. Nope you guessed it a total of three fish. Oh well went to Fleet Farm and got a Mille Lacs map. I’ll be up there fishing in a week or so.If you guy’s are smart you better get them now as once I hit the lake they probably won’t bite for a month. LOL Steve