Hello everyone. For those of you who read my other post I had the opportunity to borrow a boat for the day and put to the test all I have learned from this site as well as from some of you that have been nice enough to share your boat with me. Here goes, we arrived at the pond around 6am and headed out. The wind was blowing pretty good and not having too much experience in boat control I opted to fish the south side of the lake. We fished from 7:30 or so until 1:00 with only a few walleyes in the boat. Nothing really big but managed to take home 4 all under 20″. At 1:00 we decided to change it up and fish the shallow rock reefs on the south side for smallies and it turned out to be the best idea of the day. We threw primarily cranks up onto then off the reefs and managed 10-12 nice smallies, and 3 22+” walleyes in about an hour. Just before we were going to head out I lost a crank bait to what we think was a northern and tied on a shad rap in Black and Silver. My next cast was to a rock bouy then wham I was hit. After about 10 minutes and 5 or 6 quality runs I landed a 21″smallie, the best ever to date. After photos and a quick release I cast to the exact same spot and again WHAM, no wai DOUBLE WHAM. I was now involved in the fight of my life. Run after Run after Run. In just one cast I had already beat my new personal best. The 2nd smallie measured 22 1/4 inches with a 22″ girth. Holding this beast was something else and not knowing what the state record was I didn’t know what to do. I thought it was somewhere around 9lbs and I thought this fish was close but wasn’t that big. I made the decision to take some good measurements and a quick picture or 2 and off she swam to be caught again. Needless to say I will now be looking for a good taxadermist to make me my replica. I might even have one made for each. LipRipper has the photo’s and is going to attach them to this thread for me. I can’t wait to hear what you pro’s think. After 2 casts and those 2 fish I think I will start fishing those bruisers some more, they sure are fun and the battle they offer is second to none. Thanks for posting the picture’s for me Rob and thanks to all you guys for teching me most of what I know about Mille Lacs. In a way all of you are responsible for my success on the water Tuesday. Love2Fish.
August 9, 2006 at 6:13 pm
#1287260
I just clicked on to post pictures. Thanks J.J for getting them up and congrats John on some beauties. 
