12-26 to 12-29 First Time Mille Lacs Report - Ice Fishing Forum - Ice Fishing Forum

Well after years of dreaming, we finally did it. Justin and I made the pilgrimage to Mille Lacs. Originally the plan was to have buds Kyle and Carson along with us but they both had conflicts and could not join us for the unforgettable excursion. Our plan going in was to fish Mille Lacs for three days and fish small lakes somwhere between Brainerd and home for the next two days. Mille Lacs proved to be the highlight of our trip The first day on the big “pond” proved to be fruitful for all the dink perch you could catch. Justin and I each probably caught 60 of the little buggers before realizing we were about 20 yards from the key transition spot. I dropped my camera down and found that we were sitting on a washboard sand botttom. After moving slightly putting us on the edge of the sand to mud transition, we found a few bigger fish coming to the holes, though still nothing huge. Day two was an exciting day knowing that we would be in our rental out of Fisherman’s Wharf by noon. We went after the same perch from the day before in the morning and caught a couple keepers, before packing up and heading for the big house. After we got everything unloaded into what was luxury for us, we were pleased to discover that our shack was on fish. Again it was dink perch one right after another in 20 ft of water but the difference here was every 15-20 minutes or so you’d catch a solid 10 or 11″ fish for the bucket. This made for some good times while ice fishing in a T-shirt The third day and second day in the shack proved to be the best. weeding through the little ones using a perch colored forage minnow, and Justin using a green stickered swedish pimple (both tipped with a generously split minnow head) we were able to single out about 35 keeper perch for a fish fry. The highlight was a solid 12″er that I iced with this offering. Due to their agression we rarely needed to switch to a finness approach and this made the fishing even more fun. Unfortunately for us, we simply could not get on the big walleye bite. In total we probably iced around a dozen walleyes but the biggest ones were in the 14″ size. Good eats for us but they fought no better than the perch we were catching, and simply were not the 28″ fish we were aiming for If only we had some other form of transportation besides the truck to get out to some of those mud flats. Overall, I was pleased with the Mille Lacs portion of the trip, and I definitely want to go back. Simply being out there is an experience I won’t forget. The beautiful scenery and amazing sunsets/rises won’t soon be forgotten. I must also put out a special thanks for the hospitality of the Fisherman’s Wharf. They didn’t treat us like kings, but that is exactly what we didn’t want. We wanted the basic package, we were there to fish and only fish. The nicest perk was them allowing us to charge our batteries in their bar while we slept.

The second half of the trip wasn’t much to brag about. To be honest, after the 4th day we were pretty much fished out and ready to head for the hills of the Mississippi again. We set Bald Eagle Lake in the metro area as our destination and got a map, plugged in gps coordinates and everything. The lake had a nice layout and we were able to easily find the humps and other structure we were looking for. The only thing lacking was size. We caught over a hundred crappie between 5 and 7 inches, along with perch in the 3 to 6″ range, with a few walleyes in the 6-10″ range. It was a disappointment. I have heard great things about this lake and I am sure it is a dandy but we simply did not get into the fish we were hoping for. On that note, we headed for home and sent the trip into the history books. It was a fantastic time and we plan on going back to Mille Lacs in the very near future. Regardless of the bite, I feel it is something that should be experienced by all in the ice fishing world.