Mille Lacs first ice is no joke

A buddy and I were treated with stable weather and a weekend of nothing to do so we decided to try Mille Lacs first ice for the first time for each of us. Didn’t really have much of an idea of what to expect going in, but I remember hearing how good the bite was last year at this time so I thought we’d give it a try. The original plan was to stay mobile, checking out areas that looked decent on a contour map, but really keying in on a few spots on the west side along the first break.

At our first stop, which turned out to be our last spot, we started drilling holes ranging from 14 to 19 ft. We set tip ups on each of those depths, then hole hopped in areas in between. First two fish came on a double on the tip ups. After a bit of a break, the fishing caught fire where we set up the shack at 15 ft early in the afternoon. There was a stretch for awhile that we couldnt keep the fish off our lines. Walleyes were extremely aggressive, drilling any rippin rap or slender spoon we sent down the hole. Best part was, after one of us would set the hook and miss (happened more frequently than I’d like to admit), the fish would slide right over to the other line and smack that one too. The fish seemed to come in waves, where we would get hit 5 or 6 times in a few minutes, then go 30 minutes or so before the next bunch moved in. Of the 30+ walleyes we caught that afternoon, only 3 or 4 were less than 17 inches, while the two biggest were 22. Fishing really slowed down once the sun went down, which was a big surprise to us. Thought the bite might even get hotter with some bigger fish mixed in.

From watching previous videos on youtube, it seemed like set lines were the only way to go for those early ice walleyes. Was far from the case for us, as just a few of fish came on set lines, they showed no preference between suckers or shiners. Also dont know how others did, but its funny watching everyone else think they need to pull a trailer full of four wheelers or snowmobiles to find the fish. We tossed our crap in a sled and hiked out from a public landing, maybe a couple hundred yards, and it seemed like there was fish everywhere around us.

Obviously dont expect fishing to be that great every time we are able to get up there, but do walleyes stick around that first break throughout most of the winter like they do this early? Or do they move out to the flats in the middle of the lake?

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They’ll move deeper as the winter wears on. That may also be a result of more noise above the ice. The fishing will definitely slow down as winter continues too. Don’t expect that kind of action in February.

I was out and walked out on the West side also to 17 fow off a rock reef. We got 7 and missed 3 at the hole. Fun for sure, the bite for us was 2-530 then died off also.

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Yes indeed! We fished and filmed Mille Lacs yesterday and it was on fire. Straight up fish catching chaos at time. We went through 3 dozen suckers by noon and had to run out for more. We caught just as many fish on spoons and jigging raps as the set lines. Our biggest was a mid-twenty inch fish with most fish in the 18 – 22″ range.

Early and late in the day the fish were in 17′ of water. Mid-day they slid out to 22″ – 23″.

If you want to get in on a hot walleye bite I don’t think you could pick a better destination right now.

After dark, doesn’t hurt to move even shallower.

Dusty Gesinger wrote:

After dark, doesn’t hurt to move even shallower.

True on this. Just make sure to have your holes drilled well in advance! And don’t be “That Guy” who shows up 5 minutes to sunset and starts punching holes where other guys are already set up.

Nice fish there guys!

-J.

Jon Jordan wrote:

Dustin Gesinger wrote:
After dark, doesn’t hurt to move even shallower.

True on this. Just make sure to have your holes drilled well in advance! And don’t be “That Guy” who shows up 5 minutes to sunset and starts punching holes where other guys are already set up.

Funny you mention that. The bite did shut off after dark so we did move up to about 11 or 12ft but didnt mark any fish. This may be because we drilled our holes 5 minutes after sunset. Didnt realize it would turn the fish off like that, some people say the noise attracts them?! Maybe should have gone on top of a flat instead on the edge as well.

James Holst wrote:

Mid-day they slid out to 22″ – 23″.

Sunday, with bright sunny skies, was a little slower for us. Could get out to 19ft, but any further out we would have had to cross a pressure ridge. We stayed in our 15″ and ended up catching a few more as the afternoon went on. Interesting you went through that many suckers, we couldnt get the tips ups going at all. Sure smacking those spoons though!!

What colors were working best?

Buddy was switching between a firetiger and pink UV rippin rap while I kept a silver slender spoon on the majority of the day. Each of them got hot at different times of the day, nothing stood out above the rest though.

tbro16 wrote:

Sunday, with bright sunny skies, was a little slower for us. Could get out to 19ft, but any further out we would have had to cross a pressure ridge. We stayed in our 15″ and ended up catching a few more as the afternoon went on. Interesting you went through that many suckers, we couldnt get the tips ups going at all. Sure smacking those spoons though!!

We were out Saturday for a while. We were able to make it out over the pressure ridge with help from Appeldoorn’s. But we had a tough go with it in the morning hours. We fished 19-25′ and only had 3 flags all day. We did get a few jigging as well but the set lines were slow! Our fishing started picking up in the afternoon, just in time for me to go to hockey practice.. Kinda bummed I couldn’t stay for the evening bite as the fishing was getting better before we had to leave.