7 Nov was a foggy and and relatively windy day. 5-10 mph winds S or SE with 15 mph gusts, with light rain. Did not actually want to go out as it looked so pea souped, wet, windy. Waves were about 1 feet. Someone at Terry’s convinced me that it was worth going out. “I wouldn’t wait! (for the weather to change)” – was what he quipped.
So off we went into the wet and wind.
We started off in the late afternoon and within the first few minutes, we had a fish on!!
The catch became intermittent after that until about 10 pm when it really heated up till about 0200 hrs when we decided that it was really time to call it a night.
Total catch for that night was 13 fish. Largest was 26.5 inches.
Above is a chart showing the numbers of fish caught versus the lure used for the night of 7 Nov 06.
As you can see, the Clown HJ #12 was the lure of the night. As we had only one and my wife had it on her rod most of the night, she did most of the catching. However, the biggest fish of the night, a 26.5 incher, was caught by the man, with a firetiger HJ #12.
Trolling speed with trolling motor was 1.1 mph. We trolled between 4 to 8 FOW. Rods in hand.
We did not do so well on the night before on the 6 Nov 06. Only got a total of 5 fish fishing from 7 pm or so till about 0130 hrs. So sleepy as there was a paucity of action. Water temp on 6 Nov was 38 deg and on 7 Nov was 39+ deg. Also, it turned out, as the night wore on on the 7 Nov 06, the fog, wind and rain actually let up and turned out to be one of the most beautiful nights on the lake. The air temperature actually warmed up during the night itself to the point that I nearly wanted to take off my fishing jacket as I was starting to feel warm. The clouds started to disappear, the nearly full moon came out, the lake settled down, and oh…it was beautiful in the moonlight. Calm lake, warm weather, no rain, moonlight, and action on the rods. What more can we ask from Mille Lacs in November?? I was glad we actually went out. Thanks, Stranger!!
OK, this is where I need some help. What we noticed about this trip was that we were getting a lot of hits on our lures. I am not talking about getting weeds or hitting the bottom kind of hits, but definite fish hits. I think we had just as many fish hits as we had fish boated. Just as quickly as the fish hits, it would be gone from the hook. It felt like the fish was on for a second or two and then gone! We really could not figure why this was happening. This did not happen to us the last time out. I wondered if it was due to us striking too early, or striking too late, or was it due to the trolling speed, or was it just the fish behaviour. Any help or expert opinion on this would be greatly appreciated.
In any case, just to finish up the report, I do not think that we have as hot a pattern this time round. I met a boat that had caught 18 fish out in a weed patch at 8-10 FOW, trolling at 1.5 mph. They were using silver HJ and silver blue HJ. They said that the silver blue HJ trounced the silver HJ for that night. Their biggest was also around 26-27 inches. We also met two other boats that at about 1 am on 7 Nov 06, one of them still had the skunk in the cooler and the other only had one on. We helped them by telling them what baits to use and FOW to troll as we passed. Hoped they managed to get some by the time they left.
That would explain it. Darn…you guys are geniuses. Now that means I gotta spend more money cos the #14 are more expensive than the #12.
