Mille Lacs report 12/16

Got out yesterday and our group killed it!

lost count on the number of walleyes. Fish ranged from 6″ to 27.5″. The tip up bite really died out and it was all about jigging spoons. Lindy Glow spoons in fire tiger and pink worked from me. One thing is they wanted whole minnows. smaller shiners and decent fatheads seemed to work the best. One thing as well which was huge…. USE FLUORO leaders! I re-lined my rods for the winter and had straight mono on and didn’t think of it till the end of the day. But as soon as I switched it was back to game on. Fish were very line shy. Shallow rock or even towards the mud was both good.

I would say use caution towards the mud where cracks are. I really pushed my comfort zone and fished right on a crack. Ice went from 12 inches to 4 and even 3 inches to open water around the cracks. I fished on 4 inches by a crack and when the wind was howling I could feel myself moving up and down and could watch the ice heave press up and sheets of ice would crash down with water coming up would happen. I wouldn’t recommend this at all and stay away for safety sake.

Even away from the crack I had 3 holes drilled and you could see 12″ in one hole, 8″ in the next and 5 in another hole all within 4 feet of each other.

Also if you want tullibees…. There out towards the mud. They absolutely drove me nuts. It was mid day and the walleyes were slow so I switched to a Lindy Tungsten bug with e clam white maki plastic. They would absolutely crush that bait! I bet I caught at least a dozen in a matter of 20 minutes. All really nice fish as well.

Stay safe and tight lines!

CBM Outdoors on Facebook.

What would the difference between mono and floro be? They both are clear and on a clear water lake that’s what you want.

bigcrappie wrote:

What would the difference between mono and floro be? They both are clear and on a clear water lake that’s what you want.

Mono is visible under water where floro isn’t.

Learn something new every day, Thanks for the tip…..

bigcrappie wrote:

Learn something new every day, Thanks for the tip…..

In a lot of lakes it is not as critical like lake of the woods and other lakes that have stained or dark water, but places like Leech, Mille Lacs and other clear water lakes it can make a huge difference.

Other things about the differences is that Fluoro doesn’t stretch like mono does also.

Chris, interesting about the flouro/mono results.

Lots of research available on the net regarding the pros and cons of each type of line, along with some myth-busting of claims made by overzealous marketing people.

That flouro is less visible than mono is debatable, according to some studies. Still, your results, along with many others, can’t be overlooked. The difference might have more to do with how walleyes see.

Many salt and freshwater fish are known to see in the infrared range. If walleyes are one of these, that could explain the improvement in the bite while using flouro. While the refractive qualities of mono and flouro are similar, mono reflects infrared whereas fluoro does not, thus making fluoro less visible to fish that see in the IR range.

It’s just a theory at this point, but the ability for some fish to see in the IR range could be one reason anglers report more bites using flouro.

BrianF wrote:

Chris, interesting about the flouro/mono results.

Lots of research available on the net regarding the pros and cons of each type of line, along with some myth-busting of claims made by overzealous marketing people.

That flouro is less visible than mono is debatable, according to some studies. Still, your results, along with many others, can’t be overlooked. The difference might have more to do with how <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes see.

Many salt and freshwater fish are known to see in the infrared range. If <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleyes are one of these, that could explain the improvement in the bite while using flouro. While the refractive qualities of mono and flouro are similar, mono reflects infrared whereas fluoro does not, thus making fluoro less visible to fish that see in the IR range.

It’s just a theory at this point, but the ability for some fish to see in the IR range could be one reason anglers report more bites using flouro.

totally agree….