Mille Lacs Smallies!

I spent the weekend up on the big pond again and decided to chase the smallies around the lake. About every shallow rock reef turned some fish. The stovepipe weeds also gave up alot of numbers in the lowlight hours. They were real thick in there at times.

Topwaters turned a few fish on as did small cranks, but most of the fish came on plastics. A simple jig/twister crawled back to the boat without any jigging motion was the key this weekend for our crew. White was a solid color that was most consistant here. 20-1/2″ was the biggest for the weekend with plenty of 16-19″ fish.

I have been seeing alot more attention on the smallies over the last several years on Mille Lacs and this weekend was perfect example of why to fish some of the less conventional areas. Obviously all the hazardous reefs are well marked and spotted easily by anglers. No doubt these areas produce fish, But it feels even better to have found a spot off the beaten path that you have all to yourself and prodices fish!

Oh yeah….. the walleyes still have the feed bag on!

Hey DeeZee…..your right here about fishing smallies.
I have had a blast fishing them the last couple weeks. My neighbor hooked 5 smallies on 5 casts! the other evening. He ended up with 11 fish total in around 1 hour of fishing…..
If you hav’nt given them a try, your missing some great fun!

hiSteve, way to go on the great smallies, the few fish I caught a few weeks ago looked fantastic and very filled out, no skinny fish at all as compared to the walleyes which many are quite slim. am not familiar with the term stovepipe weeds, is that a type of weed to weed formation, or area. thanks for your good posts and updates. Jack.

Hey Jack,

You are right about the healthy look of the smallies. I fish for river smallies as well and there is no comparison from a 19″ fish from the river versus 19″ from Mille Lacs. Mille Lacs seems to grow them like footballs, and the river fish are long and lean from fighting the current.
Jack, Bobber, have you ever noticed any white scars on the heads (noses) of the ones you caught. At different times of the year crawfish molt (shed skin) and that is when the crawfish are a primary diet for these smallies up here. The white scars are from when they charge the rocks for an eluding crawfish dinner, and literally bounce off the rocks with their heads, it is really quite a sight to see. I have seen them sit in a slight daze for a moment after they hit.
As far as the weeds go, I have always called them stovepipe reeds. Some called them pencil weeds, etc…
You can see them in just about every bay on the southern end of the lake. The best “reeds” that I have found this time of year are ones with a little gravel, marl or even boudlers mixed in with the reeds.

Good Luck