Early Season Mille Lacs Crankbait Report

I typically do not start trolling cranks until mid June on Mille Lacs simply because the walleyes have not made their way out to the open water along with the tullibees. However, due to very strong winds yesterday, I decided to give it a try. Joining me in my boat yesterday, was Joe – a long time buddy of mine. We have been fishing together for over 25 years. Joining us was a new buddy of mine that I met through work – Nick. A great guy and an experienced fishermen himself!

We made our way out to the open water just in time for a thunderstorm. We decided to stick it out and set our lines out.

As we were putting out our second line, I went to clip the planer board on and BANG – FISH ON! That didn’t take long (about 30 seconds).

Joe quickly boated our first fish of the day – a 22 incher that was tagged by the DNR!

We finally got our 3rd line down and then here comes the storm. Winds picked up, heavy rain fell and the rollers started to develop. The only thing we could do is troll with the waves and ride it out. After about 15 minutes, the front passed and we were relieved. My warrior is 18′ 3″ long and I wouldn’t have wanted to be in anything smaller than that! Lesson learned here is when in doubt, go in…

Things settled down and it didn’t take us long to boat our next two fish (a 24 incher and a 24.5 incher). These two fish were caught within 2 minutes of each othere as we located an active school of fish.

Boat control was very difficult and the planer boards were taking a beating in the big rollers. Once we located some suspended fish, it was hard to stay on them. All we could do is make long runs with the waves and put our time in.

However, we stuck with it and managed to catch 12 eyes in about 5 hours of fishing including 27.5 incher and two 26 inchers and one big old jumbo perch that decided to eat a deep thunderstick! We were happy with our results due to the fact we did not mark a lot of arcs out there yet suspended in open water and also because you were pretty limited on where you could fish due to the high winds.

Most of our fish were caught on deep thundersticks, deep tail dancers and #9 shad raps with snap weights.

And the best thing about it…. is we all know that the crankbait bite will only get better as summer approaches!

Joe with a 27.5 incher

Joe with another

Nick with another

Joe strikes again

Joe again!

trolling cranks is something I need to get to know better. First thing is a kicker motor, just have to see how the wife warms up to that idea. Great report by the way.

Thanks for the report Grifter. Those are some good looking Walleyes.

Lip Ripper took James Holst & myself out last June(I think) for some big water trolling. The water wasn’t quite as rough but we had a great day. Your report brought back some good memories from that day.

Great work

Who did he make wear the bikin?? OK, second thought, I don’t want to know.

Great report Brad!! We gotta get together again soon. Maybe a 2008 archery deer trip planning session??

Great report!

Question for you…

Using snap weights, do you have to watch your speed to keep the desired depth??

What depth was the #9 shad rap running with what size weight?

Thanks

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Who did he make wear the bikini?? OK, second thought, I don’t want to know.

Great report Brad!! We gotta get together again soon. Maybe a 2008 archery deer trip planning session??

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Kooty,
Bikini pics will come… patience my friend. I’m just glad I didn’t bring her on this trip due to the bad weather. She might of never come back!

And let’s plan a day on the big pond to discuss our 2008 mule deer hunt! And oh yeah… since we are not doing it THIS fall, I’m assuming you will make up for it and bring the .

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Question for you…

Using snap weights, do you have to watch your speed to keep the desired depth??

What depth was the #9 shad rap running with what size weight?

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Snap weights are very speed sensitive (kind of like leadcore). You must contain a consistent speed or if you go to slow, your crank will eventually bottom out. Yesterday I was trolling #9’s, 145′ back with a 1.5 oz. snap weight clipped on at 50′, trolling about 2.0 m.p.h. I’m guessing I was hitting depths around 24-26 feet deep.

We also caught 3 eyes on leadcore long lining behind the boat. Deep Tail dancers, 50 foot mono leader plus 85 feet of leadcore. I’m guessing these cranks were running a little deeper around 26-28 feet deep.

Grifter;
Any reason/performance issue for one presentation over the other (leadcore vs. snap weights)?

Great report and thanks. I tried the cranks and boards for only 1.5 hours last Friday and had one fish on, but lost it. I was hoping this would start to go soon. I’ll be back up Friday and give it another shot. Good luck out there.

Great report! Good to know the bite has started. I’m going to be up June 22-24th for the open water bite. I’ll have to get in touch with you before I head up!

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Grifter;
Any reason/performance issue for one presentation over the other (leadcore vs. snap weights)?

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Great question Gary! And one I’ve thought about a lot.

There is no one reason why I choose leadcore vs. snap weights. It has nothing to do with the performance of the crankbait I’m trolling with. It has more to do with what line is not catching fish at the time and mixing things up a little. For example, if I’m long lining a deep tail dancer by itself out on a planer board and it’s not producing, I will change it up and maybe throw on a snap weight with a #9 shad rap. Or if I have a long line out (without a board) trolling that same deep tail dancer and that’s not producing, I may put on a #9 shad rap with leadcore. There are pros and cons to both set ups. For example, taking off a snap weight and a board increases chances for the fish to swim freely back there thus increasing the odds to back out the hook. Unless you do segmented leadcore, it’s not ideal to put a leadcore line out on a board. Leadcore (without a board) allows me to change my depth very easily without taking the crank out of the water.

Past experience tells me what to do. There is a method to this open water trolling in no man’s land.

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Great report! Good to know the bite has started. I’m going to be up June 22-24th for the open water bite. I’ll have to get in touch with you before I head up!

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Brian,
I will be fishing the 22nd -24th as well strictly focusing on trolling crankbaits. Feel free to send me a PM and we can exchange info.

Grift,

Good to talk to you again, glad to see you’ve found time for fishing again. We’ll need to find some customers to entertain on the big pond soon.

I’m up all weekend, give me a call if you hit the water.

BTW, we did try for smallies for an hour and came up with a few, 19″ the biggest.

Looking forward to future stories.

Take care,

PointMan

It was nice catching up with you too! Not going to be able to get up to the big pond this weekend. Fishing Pepin tonight and I have family stuff on Sat. and then I’m going to the Twins game on Sunday. Good luck and let me know how you do.

Great report Grifter

I dabbled a little bit prefishing but could not find any thing consistent for BIG (28″+) fish for tourney fishing. Here is my first self portrait pic. My first Open water Cranking fish of the year. On what else????? Ask Jami Ritter….. Cheap Sun Glasses BABY.

Looking forward to meeting ya on the water Brad. I think next weekend I will be start focusing on this bite. Brad

or Brian give me a jingle.

Welcome to the site Point Man.

Are you guys working the mud flats now or just out in “no man’s land” in open water? I usually try to get up to the lake a few times in the summer to work the mud with my favorite lure…a crank of course!

Thanks!

Off the edges of flats and No mans land today produced some Dandies. Report coming tomorrow.

Cheap Sunglasses got “SKUNKED” today