Lake Mille Lacs Report

I woke up at the crack of dawn and met up with my “brother in law” Elliott in the Twin Cities and rolled out to Mille Lacs. We checked Elliott’s GPS for a good spot and drilled. We ended up staying in the same spot all day. We didn’t have to move. We were on ’em. Jumbos! We lost count after a while. I’d say we pulled somewhere in the neighborhood of 80+. We definitely kept what we wanted. That’s a couple slices of bread! We were using buckshot jigs and pinched off minnow heads. A pretty standard presentation. I couldn’t believe the trucks and cars we saw driving around out there. We left the truck back at the launch. We were not quite ready for a swim. I’ll wait until next summer for that. Give it another week guys before driving too far out.

What part of the lake were you on with all that much traffic???

If there are trucks and cars driving around on Mile Lacs already, it shouldn’t be too long before someone makes the news after a cold swim from falling through the ice.
Ron White says it best, “You can’t fix Stupid”!!
That’s all I have to say about that.

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What part of the lake were you on with all that much traffic???

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We stuck to the bays on the South end.

There was a small pickup truck on Cove Bay Saturday afternoon. With 10″ of ice I don’t think that should be a problem as long as they stay in the bay. Just because somebody went thru thin ice in the Metro area where perhaps there was some current does not make it unsafe to walk on 4-6″ of good ice further north. No matter what time of the winter risk & judgement are always part of the process.

You heard someone went through in the Metro? Where? 4″ to 6″ you are “good to go” to walk out on the ice. I agree. The point here is that the ice is unpredictable this early in the season. You’re right the bays are ready for foot traffic and light utility traffic, but 10″ in one spot does not mean 10″ everywhere in that bay. We drilled about 10 holes and saw varying ice thickness. The 2 trucks and 2 cars we saw out there are lucky they didn’t hit a thin spot, because the ice thickness is definitely inconsistent. Poor judgment should not be part of the process. Give it just a little more time. This week’s forecast calls for an average high of roughly 18° and an average low of roughly 4° through Sunday according to weather.com. Soon enough the roads will be groomed and ready to go out to the main lake structure. Until then… understand that ice thickness varies greatly and use “good” judgment.

khittner — a man went through and passed away yesterday on Medicine Lake, he was out skating and there was open water there on saturday and skim ice I could guess at best with snow cover yesterday…my thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

Wow! That’s rough! I’ve helped a few people buy houses within blocks of Medicine over the last few months/years. I saw one of the couples on Saturday, but I better check up on the others.

Limit

khittner if you dont mind me askin what was the depth you were fishin in? im going up there later in the week n im not to familar with the south end of the lake.

No problem. It’s a big lake! We were fishing at the lower end of a ridge that went from 7-11 feet rather quickly. There was some nice vegetation down there too. The water temps were between 39°-40°.

thanks, hopefully i will beable to find a good spot out there with my gps, im headin up bright n early friday morning. sounds like the weather should be decent.

I’d like to hear how you do Jake. Let me know.

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No problem. It’s a big lake! We were fishing at the lower end of a ridge that went from 7-11 feet rather quickly. There was some nice vegetation down there too. The water temps were between 39°-40°.

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Were you able to sight fish these perch at all in that shallow water?

We stuck to the underwater cam. You could see down about 5′ and we were fishing at around 11′.

Headed to milacs bright n early friday morning with a couple of buddies. did a little doin to find the spots, but once we did find the rite place to fish it was a blast. caught endless numbers of jumbos. Caught the perch in around ten to thirteen feet of water. Headed a little deeper to look for some walleyes in the evening. seventeen to nineteen seemed to work best. Between Four guyss we caught thirteen walleyes in about four hours. Average was fourteen to twenty. but we did manage one nice 26. all in all it was a graet time!!! Did some pan fishin saturday down here, again a blast!

Great news Jake! You said it was evening when you were fishing for the eyes. What 4 hour time span were you hanging in the deeper walleye water? We’ll be back up hitting some more typical walleye spots on the 23rd. Can’t wait!

It was about three thirty to sevan or so. We were set up with thre different houses. One of my buddies was in fifteen, i was in seventeen with another buddie in my house, n my other buddie was nineteen. My buddie fishin in fifteen moved out to seventeen after no success up a little bit shallower. The hot time where we caught a couple in a row seemed to be about four fifteen to five thirty ish. i am also hopin to get up there over the weekend after christmas. cant wait.