Mille Lacs-Smallies 9/7-Wow

Today I had to pleasure to fish with Randy,(SenkoKing) and Jon Bentley on Mille Lacs for Smallies. Randy had won (silent auction) a guide trip from Jon at this last Springs St Jude’s benefit dinner that Chris Winchester had put on.
We arrived at the lake about 9am or so, and put in at Eddy’s, and went up just about all of the west side of the lake. we used top water popers, chugbugs, tubes, rattle traps, and some spinnerbaits. most of the rocks reefs that we fished we 3-5 feet of water. overall the fishing was a little slow, but we had some very quality fish.
the first pic is Randy with by far our biggest fish of the day, which hit a skitter pop along a reed edge, and came out of the water 3 times. This fish is THE single nicest Smallie I’ve ever seen. I seen some longer fish in years past, but this fish had everything. big size. overall MASS and girth, and a true PIG. I’ll put 2 pics of that fish on here, and also a few other fish. there were quite a few fish during the day, that would bust topwater, and big fish too, that would seem to not eat the bait. VERY exciting day.
Thanks Randy and Jon for the very enjoyable day on the water.
Wow what a Lake…..
Jack…

This second pic, is to help show off, this fishes over girth, and mass. IT measured at 20 1/4 inches, and a digital had it a 5 1/4 pounds, sure did look a little bigger than that.
This was Randy ALL time best Smallies.
Again, Congrats Randy.
Jack..

This was one of Jon’s rock, tube Smallies.
these fish are very strong.
Jack..

This is me with an average 16 inch or so SM. caught on a chugbug.
Jack..

This is Jon with a 17-18 inch fish, caught on a spinnerbait. This fish really had great body markings. we had about6 or seven fish that were caught in this area in about 15 minutes. excellent fast action for a short burst. Randy had on a huge fish in this area that came unhooked, and we turned around to see what else there was and was surprized with a nice flurry. Nice fish finding, Randy

sure was fun.
Jack..

this last pic was on the way back in to Eddy’s mid evening, off of the Indian Point area, that crushed my chugbug about 10 feet from the boat. came out of nowhere, that close in is very surprizing.
Jack..

this last picture, is the last fish I caught, and is the top of it’s head. (sorry for the blurry pic), but it had a very large sore spot on it’s head and upper back.
someone on shore said it was because these dig out crawfish from under rocks by nosing under them and rolling them out of the way to get at their food. EVERY big fish we had, ALL had scrapes on their upper backs.
Does anyone have any ideas, or do they really roll rocks around. IF SO, no wonder these fish are so strong, they do weight lifting while they are eating.
Enjoy,
and thanks again Randy for the invite, and thanks Jon for sharing your boat, and for being one of the St Judes Sponsors.
Jack…

WOW is right…..

Thanks Jack….

If you look closely at the back, right behind the head, of most Mille Lacs fish, especially walleyes, they have “lice” crawling on them. This is most evident in the warmest water periods but scarring continues into fall. Some years, some are more “licey” than others and the raw areas on the fish are more noticable.

Steve Fellegy
218-678-3103

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these dig out crawfish from under rocks by nosing under them and rolling them out of the way to get at their food.

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Yepper, they dig and dig under the rocks for craws. I do find fish in the upper Miss. like this but not quite and large as spots.

Thanks for the report.

I am considering getting up there next weekend if I am not shooting grouse.

Great report Jack and nice fish. I am hoping to get up there at least one more time for these smallies.
The sores on the head are from like you said digging in rocks for crayfish. You know that tubes and other crayfish imitators are what the fish are keying in on.

Dan

I agree…the sore are from them diggin’ in! I observerd several fish one afternoon bangin’ their noggins into the rocks. It was quite a site! Get the tubes/grubs out when you see them sores!

Tuna

Beautiful Bronze Back Bruiser’s Jack Congratulations to Randy and Jon as well

Big_Guppy

Steve is right on with the lice explaination. It is not uncommon at all to see this on both smallies, and shallow water walleyes also. I’m not saying that they don’t also “dig” in the rocks, because they do, but those sores are from rubbing, or “scratching” against the rocks.

Now Jack, when have you or anyone else witnessed a walleye or smallmouth doing some kind of somersault scratching their back? lol

The marks/sores etc. are NOT from rubbing on anything! They are from the parasites that live on the fishes back. The mud fish as well as the sand fish ALSO have these sores due to the lice. The mud fish have the MOST sores relative to this.(Jack only fishes rocks so he wouldn’t know that! lol)Take a look at the position of the sore on the smallmouth in the above picture. Now HOW could that happen on the rocks without ANY other scarring toward it’s forehead further? I wonder how long the dorsal fins would stay in tact IF this “rubbing” would take place. lol

It’s from the parasite…nothing else. We inquired about those bugs/sores 40 years ago with the biologists and nothing has changed when discussing this and various related subjects since. Nothing to be concerned about….

Steve Fellegy

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(Jack only fishes rocks so he wouldn’t know that! lol)

Steve Fellegy

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I went to the mud twice this year, and it’s still the same old same old and I decided once again I’d rather be a “Rock Dod” instead of a “Mud Puppy”.!!

Beautiful fish Jack!!!!!

Awesome fish Jack

Not to far away and those will be Walleyes you will be holding.

Steve,

thanks for setting me straight with the parasites.

I does make sense if it was only about turning over rocks, there would be alot more scaring and marks from their nose, all the way back to their dorsils.

Rob,

You are right about what will be happening in about 3.5 weeks, and WHAT I will be holding. When we left last night, middle evening, just after I caught my last fish on Indian Pt. there was about 8-10 boats lined up out east of the pt. some were trolling, and looking like few boats, either bobbering, or casting off the end of the last buoy. by the time I’ve been able to get up there the last couple of years, I didn’t know there was a buoy line during the year. lol..

Moon coming up was awesome, and Fall time is here.

Jack…

I am NOT taking you to the “pond” again if you are going to steal all my spots and fish

Someone needs to fish those fish as I have not been up there in over a month. That is going to change really soon though.

GREAT fish guys.

Ron

Jack, Thanks for writing a great report for our day on the big lake! I had an outstanding day fishing for smallies using topwater. As you already know I usually use Senko’s to catch most of my bass. What a blast it is catching smallies on topwater, simply awesome. Thanks also to John for putting us on some quality fish. I can’t wait to get up there again and enjoy the best smallie fishing I have ever experienced!

Great looking fish guys
Jamie

Great job Jack! And congrats to all you guys!

See you in October Jack!