Mille Lacs bite is still going!

Last night I had the opportunity to fish with the editor-in-chief of North American Fishing Club. Our job was to get some good quality photos for an up coming Mille Lacs article that will be published for next fall edition.
We got on the water at 5:15pm and were greeted with 45 degrees and not a breath of wind. About 6:00 or so we saw a magnificent red glowing moon rise over the horizon. Definately a site to be had.

The bite started out a little slow for us so we picked up and ran to spot #2 and got bit right away. Over the course of the next couple of hours, we proceeded to boat a couple nice fish over 28″ mark for pictures. We fished for about 4 hours and boated close to 10 fish with several short hit fish that were on for a short moment and then shook off quickly. With a couple quality fish under our belts for pictures, we decided to hit the road and call it a short evening.
Last night we targeted more gravel flats than weeds in spot #2. Best depth was 8.5-9.5 foot depths and troll speeds were very slow at .7-.9mph with lots of s-turns. Best baits were Smithwick Suspending Super rogues in the tiger roan color and Rebel Minnow F20 in the clown halographic color. Water temps were a balmy 36.8 degrees.

That was my last trip to the big pond for the year.

I was also out last night with a couple of good buds Ended up getting out around 6 and the moon rising was something to be seen. Started at Indian and didn’t get bit at all, heading to a weedline close by and picked up 1 19 incher. Since this was too slow for us we proceeded to move to a nice weed line out in Garrison and proceeded to caught 10 more and missed a cought too! The size was nothing special, between 20-25 inches. They are all fat and healthy looking. The key for us was finding bait fish. When we marked the baitfish we got bit most of the time. Since it was so nonwindy we used the bow mount trolling motor and putted around. The speed was about .7-.9 mphs and the fish were holding close the the weed break, 8-10 feet. Letting only about 50 feet of line allowed us to keep our baits above the weeds and with the motor not running the fish were not skitish. The hot bait for us was #12 husky jerk in black gold.
I am thinking that this might be the last time I am up there until hard water but then again I said that a couple weeks ago too.

Do you think it will be worth it to fish Fri night 11/14? The moon will be over 70% visible, but the forecast is for mostly cloudy starting about 8:00 pm. Since most of you are done for the season are you willing to name some specific spots to try on the West/NW side of the lake?
Thanks!

Steve, I was with Alphid. Saw your truck parked at the access. Glad to see you got into some big fish! Are the gravel flats you were fishing up by Garrison area or further North or South. Not asking for specific locales, but maybe heading out one last time this weekend and are looking for one last shot at some bigger fish than we are finding in the weeds right now. Anything would help. Thanks.

Bob,Mykal,

The gravel areas that I was fishing was the area right around Pike’s Point. Here there is a couple small humps that produced fish on a couple passes and others fish hit not too far from the point itself. When I marked a few fish, I slowed way down and actually put the motor in neutral and let the lures hang there in there face for minutes at a time before moving forward again. After we took pictures of one of the fish and were releasing it, the other rod (in the rod holder yet) all of the sudden got bit after sitting there motionless for several minutes. Just goes to show that the fish are not afraid to hit a suspended motionless crankbait that is not moving.
I had put a couple small split shots about 18 inches ahead of the Rebel Minnows to gain a little extra depth in this area.

Steve, Thanks! We must have just missed you up there.

Good luck to you on the river.

We had the same success in the pretty much same areas also. We also had a fish hit the bait when it was sitting motionless for a good 30 seconds or so. If we saw the fish in the higer water column we usually got bit. I would key in on bait fish right now. The fish we caught where right around them, like they should be.

Thinking of maybe getting out again if the weather is half decent on Sat, if not then I’m going bass fishing.

Let’s home for some more warmth.

A

I didn’t make it out with the rainy weather this past weekend. Hoping to get up there midweek.
Anyone got any news?

Fished Fri nite. With only one line, it took a long time to find a pattern. I had it in my head to use dark lures for dark nights, and generally followed that approach as I tried numerous lure styles, colors and locations. Finally returned to Pike point and tried a blue/silver plated HJ #12. Caught a very fat 26″ followed a little later by her sister at 25″+. About 8′, sand/gravel, 1 mph. Moved to the N shore just east of Garrison to try one more spot before leaving and quickly caught a 23″, same lure, depth, speed, etc. Probably could have caught more if I had tried bright lures sooner or stayed longer. I did NOT try clown. Two boats were catching some fish on Indian Pt but I did not find the right lure then.

With the balming temps scheduled, I am planning on getting out Thursday for some night action. how about anyone else?

Alphid,

You could not peel me away from the river right now as the bite is going good, but I will be anxious to hear how you fair out there.

One little tidbit that I thought I would pass on to anyone making a trip to Mille Lacs this week or weekend. I have a friend that has been consistently pulling some monster pike during the day with BIG sucker minnows slowly trolled behined the trolling motor over some of the productive weed flats on the south end of the lake. It may be worth the effort to pick up a small handful of big ol suckers to try for that 20# plus pike. He has boated 4 fish over the 20lb mark in the last two weeks, with plenty of smaller fish to boot and even some nice walleyes thrown in the mix. Longlining suckers is all he is doing on a real light jig with a big hook. Get it away from the boat a bit and hang on. Something to think about!!

Good luck to you!

Was up yesterday and spent a few hours on Agate Bay Reef, no walleyes but 5 Perch from 10-12 inches. Got blown off at about 12:30. 3-4 footers in 37 degree water is no fun. Had just enough to stink up a frying pan, they were terrific. Hard water cant be too far off.

We ended up getting on the water around 8:30 last night and the wind was blowing but not too bad right away. Started around Pike’s point. I ended up getting a 19 about a half and hour into the night, fishing 9 feet of water and just going ever so slow, going into the wind with the trolling motor, ~.5-.8. Caught on Fire tiger. The wind picked up about 9:00. It was a howling’ for a bit and I was a little concerned with how good my boat control was going to be with the wind, I was unable to use the trolling motor. So we just kept shooting into the wind and ended up getting our speeds down to .5-.8 mph.Got a couple more fish, both around 19-20 inches, in 9 feet of water, and both on fire tiger. Well, about 10:30 the wind completely died down and I was able to use the trolling motor again and picked up another 26 incher, on fire tiger and in 9 feet of water. The fish here seemed to more spread out and not on the weed line but more on the sporadic weeds. We were marking a lot of baitfish also around the areas we caught these fish. Well, after about another half an hour or so we ended up moving into St. Alban’s bay and pretty quickly boated a 25 incher on Black/Gold and in 9 feet of water. Once I was able to pin point these little weed piles we found the fish. We would basically go right over the weed piles and just let our baits sit there and float and the fish would just come and smack it. We ended up getting another couple of fish before calling it a night because of the time. I think that if we would have stayed there longer we would have gotten a lot more fish but work brings us back to reality. But all in all it was a good night.

The keys for us was finding the weed clumps, in St. Albans bay this was very prevalent as a lot of the bottom content was sand and when you started marking some of these weed clumps to just let you bait stay there as long as possible, sometimes not moving for a while. The depth was 9 feet and colors varied from Pike’s point to St. Albans, Fire tiger to Black/Gold. Water Temps 36.7 to a balmy 37.1. The fish still have some good fight in them, which was surprising considering the temps. I would love to get back up there but I believe I am done for the season, unless the weather changes drastically. We “Short-lined” our baits to keep them above the weeds but still in the zone and this helped considerably in the catching and the non-weed catching column.

On a side note, the northern lights display was simply awesome as I have not seen anything like that in a while. It was happening on the West, North, and East side of us. It kept us pretty amazed for the last hour and a half that we fished.

Ended up being possible the last night for the season in the boat. Where did the lake season go??