Mille lacs report

I dont fish mille lacs much and when I do I usually don’t do too well. Today was maybe the 6th or 7th time I’ve fished it. We had a blast and had what I would consider success! We were targeting walleye but I’m a fan of smallmouth too and that proved to be what was biting today. In total we boated around 20 fish and probably lost that many more including a nice sized pike that bit my friend off at the boat. I caught a 19″ & 20″ smallie. Just footballs.

Water temp was 59 degrees. I launched out of the garrison public launch. We fished reefs and the flats. All our fish came off of several reefs. Didn’t mark anything on the flats we fished. Jig and sucker minnow fished vertical proved to be the ticket today. We spend a fair amount of time dragging spinners but didn’t catch any fish this way. The morning started out cold – around 38 degrees with a steady chop. As the day went on it slowly warmed up and the wind died down. We caught fish all throughout the day.

Princes bait had a nice selection of minnows and the gentlemen who helped me was very nice and gave me a good tip. Shout out to bigwerm for some tips too.

Was nice to have some success on mille lacs. I’ll be fishing it more

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Nice work! Bonus points for the derp smallie!

Looks like you caught the One Eyed Smallie…

Nice fish. Pretty sure I’ll be back out there next weekend.

Was up yesterday also, water on west side was 61, bite was on fire! We boated probably 40 fish in 5 hours, only a couple were under 17” with two slot walleye too. Big fish was a 20.5” slob that went 5.66

Nice report, and glad it worked out for you! No better place to find some footballs this time of year than ML!!!

With the wind blowing out of the East yesterday I thought I would have a pretty good shot at getting some eyes at my shore fishing spot. I didn’t get there until just before 10pm. First cast, fish on, and a keeper to boot. I got it on a Powerbait Agent E 3.75″. The fish totally inhaled it. About 5 minutes later I lost a good one about 3/4 of the way in. Didn’t get another bite until 11:30. I landed 3 in the final half hour on an X-Rap Shad Shallow two on Firetiger, one on Hot Steel. Also had one swipe and miss right at the rocks as I was pulling the firetiger out of the water. I had one good trip around this time last year, the rest sucked. There was a lot of eel grass in the water and the water is even lower than I remember it being in 2021.

Bass Pundit wrote:

the water is even lower than I remember it being in 2021.

I don’t remember how low it was then, but I can confirm that the lake level is definitely very low. Some boats were using their bow mounts to get out from the access to the main lake on Wednesday. I’m guessing its a foot or more down just from the spring. If anyone is planning to head out there, trim your lower unit up as high as it will go while still operating.

Maybe the rain will help some, but that area needs A LOT of it.

gim wrote:

I don’t remember how low it was then, but I can confirm that the lake level is definitely very low. Some boats were using their bow mounts to get out from the access to the main lake on Wednesday. I’m guessing its a foot or more down just from the spring. If anyone is planning to head out there, trim your lower unit up as high as it will go while still operating.

Maybe the rain will help some, but that area needs A LOT of it.

I thought we were almost out of drought stage? Why is Mille Lacs so low?

crappie55369 wrote:

I thought we were almost out of drought stage? Why is Mille Lacs so low?

The area is still in severe drought:

https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?MN

Very little rain since ice out this year.

-J.

crappie55369 wrote:

I thought we were almost out of drought stage? Why is Mille Lacs so low?

Some areas have greatly improved on their drought status in recent weeks. The area along the north side of the lake was in pretty severe drought most of the summer and did not receive the “monsoon” type heavy rains that other places did recently.

I guess I am not that familiar with how all the creeks going into the lake work. Maybe Jon Jordan or someone else that spends more time up there knows more about how the hydrology of that lake works. I know the Rum River flows out of it on the southwest corner of the lake and the Rum River has been low for months all the way down to Anoka.

Correct, small creeks and rainfall are the only source of water for Mille Lacs. There is little to no flow in those creeks. The Mississippi river north of Aitken is as low as it gets. It’s been dry! I only had to move like 4 times since opener this year. Fishermen’s lawn at the cabin – brown and dead!

-J.

She’s wet and blustery up here today. Heard some shooting from the lake just before sunrise, thought of my younger years sitting out in that crap.
We have gained some water in the last month but still way down.

Jon Jordan wrote:

Correct, small creeks and rainfall are the only source of water for Mille Lacs. There is little to no flow in those creeks. The Mississippi river north of Aitken is as low as it gets. It’s been dry! I only had to move like 4 times since opener this year. Fishermen’s lawn at the cabin – brown and dead!

-J.

Fishermen’s lawn. Lol, I like that.

Empty_stringer- I think I know what you meant there but it brings up a question for me just out of curiosity:

Is there anywhere on Mille lacs where it’s possible/legal to hunt waterfowl? I would assume not, just because of how developed its shoreline is. On the neighboring lakes? Again, just curiosity as I (unfortunately) don’t duck hunt.

I have seen duck hunters on the northwest side before.

Ripjiggen wrote:

I have seen duck hunters on the northwest side before.

Oh nice. Shore hunting or open water? I don’t know much about waterfowl hunting and it’s rules/regs

I’ve seen duck hunters in Isle Bay. They bury in the longer vegetation along the shore.

I’ve also seen them in Garrison Bay along the same type of cover.

From the 2023 MN Waterfowl Regs:
Lake Pepin, Lake of the Woods, and Lake Mille Lacs: open-water hunting is allowed from boats that must be anchored.

I have seen them in waders, in boats, and even a guy with a duck blind at the end of his dock.

Bite has been good to great this week. Walleye and smallmouth. Rigging jigging and cranking. I have been fishing rocks and weeds primarily.

I have duck hunted Mille Lacs and it’s probably more wide open than you think

Last year we launched in Garrison and just hunted out of the boat near a rocky shore. We had several dozen diver decoy spread. Actually did decent on divers, this was later in the season.

And to counter Rips report, the NE corner has not been good for fishing this week. I would go elsewhere.

Interesting. Thanks for the replies

I drove up the west side on Friday and down the east side yesterday. Looked like fairly full accesses and quite a few boats fishing the first breaks. Awful nice weekend for it!

I bet it was 4 footers out there Saturday. It was blowing like a hurricane. Friday and Sunday were lovely tho.

Mother nature is flippin’ the switch for this weekend!

Friday Night A 10 percent chance of snow before 7pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 26. Blustery, with a northwest wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.

Saturday A 30 percent chance of snow. Cloudy, with a high near 35. Northwest wind around 10 mph.

Saturday Night A 40 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25. North wind around 10 mph.

Sunday A chance of rain and snow. Partly sunny, with a high near 35. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

gim wrote:

I bet it was 4 footers out there Saturday. It was blowing like a hurricane. Friday and Sunday were lovely tho.

Fished Saturday. Not bad. At least where I was. I’m sure South end was rollin. Actually trolled cranks at night as well.
She is rolling today.

Was out for a bit Friday afternoon, smallies cooperated on the south end. Saturday was a no go down here, Sunday was in the field. Might give it a try this afternoon and then pull the boat but wont tuck it away quite yet.

I don’t know a lot about duck hunting on the lake but am thinking about doing some next season.

Jon Jordan wrote:

Mother nature is flippin’ the switch for this weekend!

Friday Night A 10 percent chance of snow before 7pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 26. Blustery, with a northwest wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.

Saturday A 30 percent chance of snow. Cloudy, with a high near 35. Northwest wind around 10 mph.

Saturday Night A 40 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25. North wind around 10 mph.

Sunday A chance of rain and snow. Partly sunny, with a high near 35. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Does that mean Pool 2 or are you going up???!