Mille Lacs day trip

Did a day trip to Milly yesterday. Haven’t been in a boat on Mille Lacs in years. Felt good to get back after growing up with a cabin there. The wind was pounding pretty good. I don’t miss that. Lol. We ended up only getting 3 walleyes but my buddies boat didn’t have GPS at the trolling motor so we just had to play the wind and drift across the flats we fished. We caught 2 on a spinner crawler harness and 1 on a jointed rap and bottom bouncer. We stopped in at Tutt’s for bait. They only had medium leeches but after looking at them out in the boat I would call them small to pan fish size. Not sure is there are issues with leeches this year or not but usually we would be buying super jumbos at this point in the year.
DT

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I have only been to the mud twice this year and I also struggled to get fish. Must have lost my walleye touch with all the smallie fishing I been doing. I marked a ton of fish, just couldn’t get them to bite. Still nice to get out there though!

We marked a ton of bait at the bottom of the flats out to 50 yards off the base. I just think we weren’t fishing them properly with the lack of GPS at the trolling motor and having to play the wind.
DT

Ohey yeah, forgot to add the bad of what happened. We got out to our first spot. I grabbed my favorite St. Croix Avid rigging rod and pulled the sleeve off. 4 inches of the tip was broken off. I always take such good care of my rods. Not sure what happened.
DT

DT, no problems finding jumbo leeches on the east side. Little spendy, but they are available.

With the addition of the Terrova and spot lock this year, I have been spending a lot more time “Power Corking” those mud fish rather than rigging them. Brad Hawthorne has a super video on the set up and approach to catching them this way.

With the total C&R on Milly, I just think its a lot easier on the fish. (Easier on them than crank baits.) Have not deep hooked a fish yet this year. The jig gets them in the lip every time. Once you hook up, you can take all the time you need to get the fish to the boat. Also a lot easier for beginners (kids) or friends who do not rig that often.

-J.

Was out for a total of 8 hours over the past weekend, on the mud, for once we actually kept track and picked up 42. Largest was 29, with a number of them being between 27 and 28, happy to say we picked up 2 that were about 9 inches, nice to see a good cross section of sizes. The 29 was a very fat fish. Notably also marking a ton of fish high in the water column out of the edges of the mud. BTW Sticker are you the guy with the res/white warrior with a Johnson on on it? If so I am the guy with the skeeter and the truck camper.

slawrenz wrote:

BTW Sticker are you the guy with the res/white warrior with a Johnson on on it? If so I am the guy with the skeeter and the truck camper.

Why yes, that is me. You almost straight across the channel at the Wharf, always have the pooch in the boat with you?

deertracker,

Not the report I was hoping for, but much appreciated. I am headed to the big pond with my dad and son tomorrow for a day trip. My son has never caught a Walleye over 20″, and my dad has only caught of couple of Walleye over 20″ at 75 years of age. So was hoping to get them on a few BIG girls for the life experience. And I am by no means a pro at Mille Lacs, I fished it for 18 years straight for early season (opener), but only fished the North sand. So this is a first for me on the mud flats as well. Figured on going out of Garrison access and heading straight out to 8 mile and work around from there, possibly hitting Garrison reef on the way back toward shore. Running Lindy’s with crawlers, but after watching the posted video may give “Power Corking” a try as well.

Just hope I have the right plan in place, and that I can get those 2 on some 20″ers for the life experience, something in the 28″+ would be awesome to get pics of.

If anyone has any other suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated. Sounds like a calmer day tomorrow, with light to variable winds in the 5mph range, so figure on doing a lot of trolling motor trolling, with hitting the spot lock if I see pods of fish. That’s why the power corking sounds interesting.

Thanks for the report.

Toddrun …. drop the bobbers on them, weather permitting. If you have spot lock, drive into the wind and when you mark fish drop he bobber on them!!!! Go past them and then hit spot lock. Very effective.

sticker wrote:

Why yes, that is me. You almost straight across the channel at the Wharf, always have the pooch in the boat with you?

Yes usually 1 dog sometimes 2. the brown one is crazy (and I do mean like DR. Jekyl crazy about fish).

Yeah, definitely going to have a couple rods setup, so I can try power corking. I enjoy watching the electronics while rigging anyways, just gives me another reason to watch it. I just rigged an iPilot on my dad’s boat, so will be great training session rigging and spot locking, he will love it.

Just need to make a decision on where to start now, in closer (Garrison reef) or run right out to 8 mile and start on the mud??? Heard that has been a bit of a fly hatch lately too, not sure how that affects the decision to start???

Sticker and slaw, you guys run all the way to the mud from the wharf? That deep gravel doesn’t treat you good down there?

toddrun, We were out there last Saturday, trolling cranks over the basin. We did decent, caught some nice fish. Similar to what James and Will did a few years ago.

I do, there is mud closer than you think, I tend to fish the gravel during transition between early season and now.

in fact if memory serves me Seguchie is less than a mile difference from Garrison landing versus from the Wharf

Smackem33 wrote:

Sticker and slaw, you guys run all the way to the mud from the wharf? That deep gravel doesn’t treat you good down there?

Oh sure the gravel is good, there is just something about the mud. That is where the big momas live

By the way, I saw a lot of Dead walleyes this last weekend, with the surface temps getting close to 80 degrees, I only took one fish out of the water at all last weekend, (less than 30 seconds). I did not use a landing net either just a quick removal of the the hook and a wave.

Good point slawrenz, I will keep that in mind if we hook into some fish tomorrow. Only take that chance for a quick pic of bigger brag-worthy fish, the rest do as you do and leave them in the water to unhook. Great idea.

Don’t take much stock in my report. We marked fish but like I said I wasn’t happy with how we fished them.
DT

Those mud/basin fish will come off bottom in the wind. Pretty easy to fish under them rigging. The power corking was pretty productive the last few trips out there. Fishing those baits 3-4 feet over the marks. Bam!

-J.

deertracker wrote:

Don’t take much stock in my report. We marked fish but like I said I wasn’t happy with how we fished them.
DT

Actually I take a fair amount of stock in your report. I don’t think everyone going out there should expect 40+ fish days, sure it does happen but not for the majority. Just want to warn for those yet to get out there to not be too disappointed if you don’t catch 30-40-50 fish.

deertracker wrote:

I just think we weren’t fishing them properly with the lack of GPS at the trolling motor and having to play the wind.
DT

I am curious about this? How did the lack of GPS at the trolling motor compromise your effectiveness? Did you have GPS in the boat at all?

I just have GPS at the wheel and use that and the locator to see the depth and if I’m marking fish to follow the mud flat contour.

I wanted to be able to use the trolling motor to follow the top and bottom edges. It was just a boat control thing. We could have used the kicker and GPS at the wheel but decided not too. With the wind we had I prefer to use a trolling motor. Maybe it’s just my excuse for not catching many though Andy.
DT

Smackem33 wrote:

Sticker and slaw, you guys run all the way to the mud from the wharf? That deep gravel doesn’t treat you good down there?

Ha.

I’ve been known to run up to the mud from Wahkon. Saturday would have been an easy ride, but I only ventured out to 4 mile after scouting a few closer spots.

To quote an old timer my first summer on ML, “if your going to fish ML you have to be willing to fish all of ML.” I was looking for pointers for something closer to home and explained what type of terrain I was searching for but was having a tough time finding that situation on the south end. His first words were, head to the north end followed by that quote when he saw my disappointment with his answer.

I still try to fish closer to home base as much as possible. Sunday I never left Wahkon bay, and struck out.

Sunday the wind came up stronger and faster than predicted, not bad by ML standards but a little bouncy and my wife does not appreciate waves. They were biting on the mud but we left after 8 fish. Got know when to pack it in, and she tells me when.

I here ya, I fish out of barnacles all there is up there is mud no deep gravel was just curious about it I guess. Hey slaw u dragging spinners or cranks? Spinners been working better for me. Didn’t give the lead and cranks much of a chance yet though. Buddy was pulling raps in 10ft on the east side during the day for snot rockets and smallies and caught 5 eyes last Fri. Thought that was weird

Smackem33 wrote:

Buddy was pulling raps in 10ft on the east side during the day for snot rockets and smallies and caught 5 eyes last Fri. Thought that was weird

That bite has been going strong since opener. No sign of letting up…..

-J.

Smackem … you have a camper, or fish house at Barnacles? I am in the RV park in the north side of the road. Blue Skeeter wx1910.

Smackem33 wrote:

Hey slaw u dragging spinners or cranks? Spinners been working better for me.

Rigging Leeches plain hook real slow

I have a fish shack, got the babeliner with the blue top, my dad has the camper that’s sideways on the corner with the hot tub.

Was out on the mud last Saturday. Tough conditions with the high skies. Caught around 20 fish with the biggest being 23. Noticed the suspended fish were the aggressive ones. Started fishing 4 to 6 feet off the bottom and the catch rate went up quick.