Mille Lacs Report/ ice surface conditions

Hi all,
Ventured to Mille Lacs again on Sat 1/6…sorry no pics this time….kinda got our handed to us.
Mike V and another buddy of mine went out to the flats with Bobber and Derek Sat morning, the fish were there we were all marking them they just weren’t too cooperative.

The real reason behind this report is to let everyone know….if you don’t have a 4 wheeler a trip to the flats might be a bad idea since they aren’t letting vehicles out that far. There is NO snow out there…anywhere, most of it is GLARE ice…shoulda brought the skates along.
Derek and I both run liquid cooled sleds and once you are away from shore it is bare ice. Our sleds were overheating we had to stop twice on the way out from Hunters to drill holes and throw slush on the heat exchangers since our temp lights were coming on and my hifax were smokin the whole way….well I assume mine were since I could see Derek’s smokin and smell them burnin.
As for the ice…probably 10-13 inches depending on where you drilled, if I heard him right I thought Craig said one of the holes couldn’t have been more than 9″ so we definitely need some cold weather.

It was great to meet Derek and his buddy Criag and all said and done we had a good time, even though the eyes didn’t cooperate as well this time for us.

I am hoping they get some snow so I can head up there again this weekend but if they don’t I will probably stay home unless I can get my hands on a 4 wheeler.
JB

Sorry to have missed ya John! I heard you were out there, but our shallow bite was working too well to leave it!
Give a holla next time you are in the area!

Try a pair of those ice scratchers onto your sled…. It will keep it cool on the ice! Any Pout?

Some one mentioned the ice scratchers. I might have to see if I can find some. Do they work with plastic skis and where can a guy find them??

Nope…no pout…I only caught one 13″ eye that I released.
JB

John, Mille lacs did get some snow yesterday evening. Craig said there was enough for a sled if you kept on hitting the drifts. Hopefully we will have some for the GTG..

Hey guys. Sounded like some fun. Shoot and I were out this weekend too. I kept an eye out for the yellow bumblebee of Derek’s, but didn’t see it around. Shoot and I hunted perch all day from 24-28 fow while the ladies hung out in the otter with the heater and gabbed all day. When we would find the perch, we could hole 5-6 nice perch at a time before moving. The downfall about hunting perch is the fact that other guys cruising around were seeing us on the fish. Some guys were even fishing our holes. It didn’t take but an hour for a small city of houses to form around us. The fish then shut down after that. I didn’t catch an eye all day, but Shoot holed about 6 small eyes that were returned for another day. It was pretty fun, but my knees are paying the price this morning.

Small perch colored forage minnow with a small crappie minnow head did the trick for me, and Lars seems to do well with something gold. Not exactly sure what it was, and minnow head. After the city of fisherman moved in, we could mark fish, but couldn’t get them to bight.

The worst part of the day is that I decided to head back home that night. I had warned my wife that my truck was on it’s last leg before leaving for the pond, and on the way back home I prooved it. The wife and I had to limp the truck home with the driveshaft missing. Thank goodness for 4×4. Or should I say 2×4 now.

Like MM said, we were in 24-28′ of water and just on the East side of the big breaker out of Hunters. I don’t want to give anyone false hope, as we didn’t check around us too much, but we were sitting on 18 inches of ice. It was obvious that this area had broken up hard when there was about 1-2 inches of ice, as the “solid” ice was covered with large chuncks of broken ice.

I was using a gold Maynard’s Slammer from Thorne Bros. It’s very similar to the go-devil, with the exception of a wavy body.

Man am I excited for the GTG in two weeks!

See you guys there.

Lars

Me and a buddy fished Calais flat on sun. 16 total eyes, 1 just a smidge under 28″ (2 others 25″ or better), kept six for the pan. Perch were all over, we had to sort thru about 40 to get 12 (kept only over 10″, biggest was 12 1/2). We both just camped on our spots because of the wind, no hole hopping. The ice was 12″ or less and there was a BAD breaker running from 4 mile west towards Indian point. 90% of our fish came on buckshot rattle spoons tipped with a small fathead. My buddy discovered that by down sizing the treble and going away from the red hooks he got more fish to bite, the downside is we had 6 fish come unbuttoned. All in all a pretty good day, only 1 other portable out there on the flat… stay away from the crowds. Oh yea, 27 to 29 fow, silty mud. Adam

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Some one mentioned the ice scratchers. I might have to see if I can find some. Do they work with plastic skis and where can a guy find them?

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any snowmobile supplie store on-line or ebay. Do a google search on ice scratchers it was how it got my-n and they do work. I have the ones that mount on the rails and they are the best ones to get and can be moved out of the way when they are not needed . They go for about $50

A pic of the almost 28″

And again

Nice fish.

Beauty fish CC!!!

Was out last weekend also with a sled and made it about a mile and could feel it start to drag real hard. Stoped and checked my hy-fax and things were just smokin under there, and I was only going 15-20mph. So being about 2 miles from were I wanted to be and having my 9 year old kid with, thats as far as I went. We made the best of it, caught of few perch and got back to shore without any more trouble. But as soon as I got home I ordered a set of scratchers from The Billet Store.com. For 48 bucks there were on my door step tuesday night. Can’t wait to see if these things work like there suppose to. I’d like to just go out and fish and not worry about burning down my sled every time. Man we need some snow!

I’ve heard you guys talk about scratchers before. What are they? I’m guessing they mount on your skiis. I’m also guessing those of you with liquid cooled sled are the ones having the problems, how do scratchers help keep your temps down?

They mount on the rail and are made of a heavy spring steel. You can hook them up on the rail when not needed, or have them out and they drag on the ice/snow and kick up shavings on your coolers and the slides. You can see pics of these at http://www.thebilletstore.com Hermy

They are basically springs that mount onto your suspension and “scratch” the ground. I don’t think they would help the overheating very much, but I would think they would help the hyfax from heating up. It just amazes me that in January, there is no snow on our lakes. Here is a picture on some.

thanks for the posts, Yes I can now see how keeping your slides lubricated with shavings would help. I guess it would equate to having a fat guy on the back and having your track drag along the tunnel, severe loss of power.

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I guess it would equate to having a fat guy on the back and having your track drag along the tunnel, severe loss of power.

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Thats me every time i go ice fishing.