Mille lacs ice baits

Heading up to Mille lacs the 1st weekend in Jan for a sleeper house trip wondering what some of the hot baits were last year.

Perch- or pink-colored spoons and Rapalas if you want to jig. Then set up a medium-sized shiner on rainbow under a iFish Pro or rattle reel.

I had pretty good results with big baits last year. Small to mediumish suckers or the biggest shiners you can find on set lines. My bait guy thought I was chasing pike all winter until I brought him along one weekend. Either plain hook, or the biggest glow demon they make. Time will tell this year. I hope to replicate last year. I had the most fun I’ve ever had with my boys chasing white tips all over the lake last winter.

Already there are plenty of suggestions and they will all be different…maybe? Legendary for Mille Lacs is a gold jigging spoon with minnow head. You would get the cheaper fatheads for that, use the more expensive shiners for the dead stick or rattle reel set line.

I highly recommend gold and green slender spoons. Only been to ML once, but that was by far the hottest bait we had.

Also recommend buying some bigger trebles to use with the slenders! Have no problem hooking fish, but have had a major problem getting them to the ice. Maybe thats just a me problem though

Anything in the glow goldfish (I think that was the name) color from VMC.

For the decade 2006-2016, nothing did better in my house on eyes overall than rattle reels or dead sticks, 6 ft flouro leader, red #6 Gamakatsu Octopus wire hook with the Gammi soft green glow bead on top of it, with two split shot spaced a foot apart with a flat shiner.

Jig the head of whatever minnow bait tickles your fancy on the other rod on anything gold or silver flashy with a treble hook during prime time for fun, but I let the rattles or dead sticks do the work all the other times, and usually made good.

One year, moon glow #6 jigs in green glow with a fathead was the hot thing. One year, Slick Jigs in Perch or glitter silver with a whole fathead by the head was the only thing that would get bit like a feather.

Depends on the forage in the year, I think. Good luck!

Normally I am a chrome or gold guy on Mille lacs. But for some reason last year the pink/white/blue colored spoons were the best for me. I brought a guy that had never fished walleye and never even walleye fished out there last year around christmas. He was smoking eyes on that color combo. I decided to switch and it out produced on every trip.

Now I keep that color as my backup, but I still start off with a gold/green Leech flutter spoon. If that doesn’t work the pink/white/blue macho minnow comes out.

Rippin raps were decent as well, perch colored and also slab raps which I had a few fish on as well.

Chris Messerschmidt wrote:

Normally I am a chrome or gold guy on Mille lacs. But for some reason last year the pink/white/blue colored spoons were the best for me.

And I always thought if they didn’t take that gold spoon, they just weren’t around. Maybe they weren’t but good info sharing here. I’ll make sure now to bring along some pink/white/blue colored spoons this year just in case.

Well whata’ya know…this forum can actually fulfill some valuable fishing information.

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Chris Messerschmidt wrote:</div>
Normally I am a chrome or gold guy on Mille lacs. But for some reason last year the pink/white/blue colored spoons were the best for me.

And I always thought if they didn’t take that gold spoon, they just weren’t around. Maybe they weren’t but good info sharing here. I’ll make sure now to bring along some pink/white/blue colored spoons this year just in case.

Well whata’ya know…this forum can actually fulfill some valuable fishing information.

I aim to help out…. Spots though, you’re on your own haha!!

This was my hot blade this summer so I am going to try a similar pattern slender spoon.

Not really sure is summer colors continus into winter.

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Greg,

What brand is that spinner blade?

That is a cool color, I didn’t know that color of slender spoon was available. I will have to pick some up.

Thanks

Anything works as long as it’s Pink, Orange or Gold. JR’s glitter spoon in Pink Squirrel or the VMC Tumbler in Glow Goldfish were my two go-to’s last year.

The blade is made by Big Eye and is called Blue Perch. You can find them at Fleet Farm or order direct. As for the slender spoon, I did not know they had colors like that until I saw them in the store. I guess it is their Pro series and they are a little bit more expensive.

Right on, I will check them out.

Thanks.