Mille Lacs Mudflat Map?

Headed to Mille Lacs tomorrow in search of walleye and smallies. Ive only fished the lake twice, once for a wedding where we spent most of the day drinking on the guide boat and the other time we were skunked – both many years ago. im doing research on the bite right now and looking to fish the mud flats. I hear a lot of reference to specific flats like 5 mile, 7 mile, 9 mile… I was wondering if anyone knows of a good map a guy could use to easily identify these locations? I use navionics but it doesn’t call them by those names like it seems most people do.

GPS coordinates from my map.

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that’s perfect. thank you very much pauleye!

I know you just got the coordinates, but if you ever want a waterproof map with all mille lacs structure, I would recommend a map called king tuts walleye whiffer. Google it as I think you can order it online or I believe I got mine many years ago at one of the bait shops close to the lake. Good luck!!!

Steven J Robertson wrote:

I know you just got the coordinates, but if you ever want a waterproof map with all mille lacs structure, I would recommend a map called king tuts <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye whiffer. Google it as I think you can order it online or I believe I got mine many years ago at one of the bait shops close to the lake. Good luck!!!

That you may actually have to go to Tutts Bait and Tackle in Garrison for.

Tutts is closing their doors if they haven’t already done so.

Dutchboy wrote:

Tutts is closing their doors if they haven’t already done so.

Just checked their Facebook page and there is nothing said about them closing. They even have a post of them “painting the bait tanks for opener”. If they were closing I can’t see why they would go through that trouble.

Dutchboy wrote:

Tutts is closing their doors if they haven’t already done so.

Where did you get this information??

Crappie…yes it would help if you had your own map copy. Tutt’s is good, you can only get at Tutt’s. The lakemaster version is very good as well. The one Pauleye used to send his screenshot. They should still be available…I think?

I read that someplace. Let me dig around and I’ll see if I can find it.

Deepest apologies. It was a discussion that mentioned Rods Bait closing.How I got Tutts out of that I’ll never know.

Begging forgiveness.

Dutchboy wrote:

Deepest apologies. It was a discussion that mentioned Rods Bait closing.How I got Tutts out of that I’ll never know.
Begging forgiveness.

That’s what happens with a doom and gloom attitude. If I remember right you posted a thread about places to go to fish Northerns and you said you weren’t interested in Mille Lacs and one of the reason was they speared all the trophy’s out of there….. It’s really sad because if you take more than a day or two you can find some large pike.

Let it go man, the good people around the lake don’t need anymore bad press whether on a news station or a website……

“rotflol ya but they speared the trophy’s out of there already. If I got stopped on Mille Lacs and got asked the wrong question it might not turn out well for me Cal.”

“Won’t return to Mille Lacs and didn’t like fishing Red, to much of a bowl and shallow.”

Your words Mr. Dutch.

Dutchboy wrote:

Deepest apologies. It was a discussion that mentioned Rods Bait closing.How I got Tutts out of that I’ll never know.

Begging forgiveness.

Jeepers…that was something I couldn’t quite believe. I’m not living there (yet) but am tuned into happenings there as if I was and not had clue of Tutts. Turns out they were not closing is why I wasn’t privy to that before. Careful what you think you see out there before you fire the gun.
Tutt’s is my go-to place on the west side.
For what it’s worth, Rod’s closing has been known/confirmed for months now. Some blame lack of business but truth is he leased the building and the previous owner sold out to the M/L band and they chose not to renew the lease.
So not to hijack the OP’s post, crappie…depending on what side you’re going out of Tutt’s is open and you can get the Walleye Whiffer map or the Lakemaster version. East side, Johnson’s Portside would have the Lakemaster where I picked mine up. I think the inshore reefs are still holding fish, so don’t overlook those. We expect a favorable report.

Saturdays Report:

left the cities around 4am and arrived on the water around 7am. We fished pretty hard until about 6pm. caught 3 walleye total. Now that may seem like a rough day of fishing for most but honestly I felt satisfied. Reason being, im not a very good walleye fisherman and, more to the point, I have very little experience on this lake, so for me, 3 walleye wasn’t bad. the morning started out very calm – the water was glass. We launched out of garrisons bay launch and headed south to a rock point. we moved around a lot to different locations targeting different depths and using different techniques all day. all of the fish we caught were caught lindy rigging in around 15-18 ft of water while approaching shallow rock reefs. We did have a few bites on bobbers and jog/minnow combos that got off. By the end of the day the weather had gotten worse. I was the last to pick up on that fact apparently cause, after sort of zoning out jigging I looked up after what had probably been a long time staring at the end of my pole and all of the boats had vanished on the whole lake lol. The waves were 2ft+. Took me over an hour to navigate back to the launch from where I was on the lake all the while I didn’t spot a soul. Was pretty fun actually. When we got to the launch one guy approached and asked how we did. After we told him he sort of said “oh” and mentioned he and his crew had 75 so far. “slip bobbers and leeches” he shouts as he walks down the dock. Good day for him apparently. Below are some pictures. 2 of the walleyes were got were good sized.

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I think you did good, sounds like you moved around and tried different depths and presentations. That’s all you can do. I wasn’t there but heard reports from others that said by afternoon it was really rolling! Probably glad now you didn’t head out to some distant mud flats! Looks like you got a couple nice size walleyes and I’m sure learned some things. Don’t pay much attention to those “boastful guys”. For some, no matter how you did they’ll always come back with how they did better or caught bigger. Maybe next time you try up there, you’ll catch 80.

Finding any eye’s on the Pond for a newbie is a great start! Good report, and glad you were happy with the day. As you gain experience your success will increase dramatically. I think I was skunked the first 5+ times I was on the pond, until I started going up there with a guy who learned from an uncle whose Dad grew up on the lake lol.

Newbie to the lake and heading up next week. What is the best way to fish the mud flats? Are you staying on top? Edges? Just keeping moving until you locate fish? Some of the flats are pretty big that I have looked at on the maps and just trying to get an idea of how I want to attack the lake next week!

Any info would be awesome. I am really looking forward trying this lake for mainly walleyes, but will go after smallies, pike,and even musky.

Thanks!

Yes, yes, and yes! Mudflat tops, edges and yep keep moving ’til you find them. You should! Depends on time of day, cloudy or bright sun, windy or calm? Early morning, later evening could still be good inshore. Wind blown area’s on inshore rock can be surprisingly good corking leeches. Plenty of other opportunities with smallmouth and pike/muskie. If you have a week you’ll find something good! Where, what side are you staying/going out of?

Walleyestudent,

Thanks for the reply and info.

My whole family (12 of us) will be staying by Terry’s Boat Harbor on the west side. We rented a house for the week. Ages range from 65 to 2 years old. This week I usually head to LOTW in Ontario and are always fishing rocks, gravel, humps, or sand, but from all the research I have done, the mud flats sound like the trickiest to fish and something new for me when targeting walleyes. I have fished big flats on the Missori River in South Dakota, but it seems the walleyes on the flats in Mille Lacs can spook easy.

I am really looking forward to slip bobber fishing with my sons and nephews as well. Any known or good areas on the west side of the lake that could be good for that?

Thanks!

Kyle…Wow, sounds like you have quite a gathering planned! Fun…the full age range. No worries on the Mille Lacs flats as far as spooking the fish. The tops are at 20 feet, give or take, the edges are 23-25 feet and 25-30+ feet you’re off the flat. So at 20′, no trouble spooking them off if drifting or slow trolling with any surface waves. Again sunny/cloudy will influence your strategy. Plenty of good areas for whatever you want to try in the area you will be staying. So much water, no real secret or particular hot spots. Sounds like just about anywhere you drop a line, you’ll find something. You may just need to refine as conditions dictate. Should be a good time for your group, perhaps take the little ones combing the beach for agate’s? Something different for them and a fun diversion. Report back with whatever you find as something to share.

I will update whenever I can!

Thanks for the help.

I managed to get out Saturday to the flats during the day. Did some of the close-in flats on the north end and pulled spinners 8’+ snell. We looked over a couple flats and were not marking fish so we moved on. When we found fish up off the bottom we went after them and you could almost call the bite. The fish were on top of the flats when the wind was up and they would drop off when it died and the sun was beating down. I’ve found that to be pretty typical. I used the bow mount to move me around at about a 1.2+- mph. Experiment with speed. Even drifting some days a sock is best and others without. I mostly use a bow mount now to capitalize on the control as I prefer to work the edges up and down to keep track of where the fish are concentrating.

Like “walleye student” said it’s tough to beat the bobber fish right now at night. Any of the gravel/ rocky reef’s I’ve fished have had fish we caught a bonus 21.5″ small mouth the other night my best so far this year. With kids that last hour and half is fast action. It can be like fishing pan fish this time of year! Good Luck!

Heading back to mille lacs this saturday. This time with a different fishing buddy that knows the lake well. I’ll be relying on his experience so probably a different sort of trup with less exploration but likely more fish in the boat. I’ve heard the bite is still good. Heading out on the east side this time. I’ll give you a report when I get back