Mille lac ice fish

We went out of lybacks this year and had a little surprise when we were getting the initial tour of the shack,I asked the fellow where the rattle wheels were? His response we don’t supply them as fisherman just steal them! I said really why would you not make the reservation like a hotel you take our rattle wheels we bill your card! Nope no credit card machine cash or check only! Hmmm? I said. No ceiling fan to circulate the hot air off the ceiling? The floor was freezing cold! Well we went to the hardware store in isle and bought 6 rattle wheels and a fan 150.00 later, we now had 6 newly equipped rattle wheels installed and a fan,the website never mentioned we need to equip the shack, in the years we have rented shacks this 1 falls in the not going back there category. Sorry Mr lyback but not the greatest. as these things should be in the list of things to bring, we do our share of jigging and moving but at night for the years fishing in a sleeper we use rattle wheels at night. So fellas if you go to lybacks bring your own wheels and a fan.i have 6 brand new wheels I will sell barely used. Ha!

Oh Eddy🤦‍♂️
This happened to me on Red once a while back. Did you catch any fish?

We are going out of Beachside next week. First thing i asked was if there are rattle reels in the ice castle rentals and they responded yes.
How was the bite for ya?

I’d expect the rattle reels to only have 30ft of knotted multiple spliced line with a bent rusty hook but no rattle wheels is crazy.

Eyeguy,The bite was extremely slow but I think it was a lot to due with the weather

I would have asked for some money back. I usually bring a couple because like mentioned I expect them to be hardly useable, but there anyway.

I’ve learned to always bring at least one rattle reel. Between poorly rigged ones, poorly functioning ones, or poorly positioned ones – I’ve seen it all. A buddy always takes one that he made on a weighted stand. It works great in portables, rentals, and is easy to get out of the way when it’s not needed.

We fished Mille Lacs this past weekend as well. The fishing was atrocious. I too blame the weather. Though we might have been to deep(26 feet) We caught 8 fish Thursday afternoon through Sunday morning. 5 of those fish on coming in a 2 hour stretch on Friday night. We stayed with Ice Camp Outfitters. The house was well equipped and we were fairly well taken care of. A few minor issues but nothing that couldn’t be worked around. Their on ice crew is always great to us. They always have rattle reels with fly line, long flouro leaders and even light up when a fish hits.

Since my first rental visit, I bought my own rattle reels, customized them to be mounted in any house I visit.

I didn’t like spending the first hour redoing all the house rattle reels.

Also, a portable fan too.

Consider that $150 a good investment for all future rental stays

Jim Ageton wrote:

The fishing was atrocious.

Wow 8 fish is atrocious? last time i was there 3 years ago in a house out of Mac’s, we had 2 bites in 2 days. i caught the one so i was batting 50%. never even marked a fish the entire time. if we get 8 fish, i will consider that on fire!

Got to agree with you eyeguy, me and a buddy were out there last weekend and caught 2 dink perch 1 dink eye and broke off probably a good one on the rattle reel. Barley marked anything decent.

Scratcher, while I have only used Lybacks once. Eddy has a bit of a reputation of being a prick.

You guys have generators screaming the entire time while not catching fish? We experienced the opposite. Not on fire but not terrible. 10 fish from 10 am to 4pm and about 50 perch in the 10 to 11 inch range. All while sitting quietly.

Fish came on both jigs and dead sticks. I wouldn’t say it was a good bite by any means. But not terrible

Bearcat89 wrote:

You guys have generators screaming the entire time while not catching fish? We experienced the opposite. Not on fire but not terrible. 10 fish from 10 am to 4pm and about 50 <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>perch in the 10 to 11 inch range. All while sitting quietly.

Fish came on both jigs and dead sticks. I wouldn’t say it was a good bite by any means. But not terrible

I was running the gen last weekend. I have my Honda in the truck bed under the cover. I always say I’m gonna shut it off for a while but rarely do.

Noise has been a big factor on that lake. We had a group come by us and make a ton of noise and run a genset and wheelers. It completely killed the bite until they left 2 hours later.
Lights also were a big factor the weekend before

Bearcat89 wrote:

Noise has been a big factor on that lake. We had a group come by us and make a ton of noise and run a genset and wheelers. It completely killed the bite until they left 2 hours later.
Lights also were a big factor the weekend before

Thanks for the advise Ron. I will be more committed to trying this out. So I assume you just run yours overnight. We will have to wait to watch movies until later. Lol

John Rasmussen wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
Noise has been a big factor on that lake. We had a group come by us and make a ton of noise and run a genset and wheelers. It completely killed the bite until they left 2 hours later.
Lights also were a big factor the weekend before

Thanks for the advise Ron. I will be more committed to trying this out. So I assume you just run yours overnight. We will have to wait to watch movies until later. Lol

I just do day trips up, haven’t stayed over night yet.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

Since my first rental visit, I bought my own rattle reels, customized them to be mounted in any house I visit.

I didn’t like spending the first hour redoing all the house rattle reels.

Also, a portable fan too.

Consider that $150 a good investment for all future rental stays

Agree with all of this and call bottom bunk!

You would think these resorts would try to have the best experiences with all the competition on the lake. Nice clean houses, friendly service and checking in on you to see if you need anything. Some of the places up there are dumps and should be shut down.

I was up on Mille Lacs for the past 5 days, fishing mostly with just rattle wheels, I averaged three fish per day, better after the weekend crowd went home. It seemed hot for an hour at sunrise and an hour at sunset, be ready to fish when the fish are passing through and keep lines in the water. I only use the generator from 5pm to 10pm to watch movies.

mark Mason wrote:

I was up on Mille Lacs for the past 5 days, fishing mostly with just rattle wheels, I averaged three fish per day, better after the weekend crowd went home. It seemed hot for an hour at sunrise and an hour at sunset, be ready to fish when the fish are passing through and keep lines in the water. I only use the generator from 5pm to 10pm to watch movies.

What depths were you sitting at? I’ve heard a mix of shallow and deep.

Matt Hickman wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mark Mason wrote:</div>
I was up on Mille Lacs for the past 5 days, fishing mostly with just rattle wheels, I averaged three fish per day, better after the weekend crowd went home. It seemed hot for an hour at sunrise and an hour at sunset, be ready to fish when the fish are passing through and keep lines in the water. I only use the generator from 5pm to 10pm to watch movies.

What depths were you sitting at? I’ve heard a mix of shallow and deep.

Shallow for us.

Agree on not running the generator, I have 1 with for emergency backup, but I added 2- 200ah batteries and I can run the house for 4-5 days atleast depending on how cold it is. Hate the hum of generators.

Yes good call fbrm I figured they would not be wasted we only ran generator late at night 11ish till 5 am as the shack had a battery and gas lights. 20 fow

I went over there today just to check things out. Are resorts even letting trucks and wheel houses out? Fewest houses out than I think I’ve ever seen. Everybody said slush was terrible too.

3rdtryguy wrote:

I went over there today just to check things out. Are resorts even letting trucks and wheel houses out? Fewest houses out than I think I’ve ever seen. Everybody said slush was terrible too.

what part of the lake? i know beachside has had their roads out quite a ways and for at least a few weeks. 10 day is not showing any days above freezing. i am 3 hours away but log onto some of the webcams from the resorts around the lake and you can see trucks driving out frequently.

I made the mistake of renting a fish house from Lybacks a couple years ago. Fish house had no rattle reels, felt like we were going to fall through the floor of the house, house appeared to have been sitting in the same spot for quite a while, didn’t get a bite or even mark a fish in 3 days. I can’t get the wife and kids to even entertain the thought of trying a sleeper fish house again. They sure were quick to take my money though…

Red Door, Myr Mar (mr personality’s place), barnacle bills.

3rdtryguy wrote:

Red Door, Myr Mar (mr personality’s place), barnacle bills.

Won’t catch me at Myr Mar again. Popped a trailer tire on his bridge from a metal piece sticking straight up. Went in and told him. He said it happens about everyday and it is the way it is

^^^I would not either for many many reasons.
Plenty of places to choose from.

We did barnacles 2 years ago, we needed a whole roll of t p to insulate the gap in the door. Our best has been hunters point, we will reserve there early as they were totally booked up for January