Mille lacs this week?

Anyone fishing mille lacs this week? I have a day off on Wednesday and considering a trip up. Forecast looks pretty nice— I have a 16 foot tiller so don’t love the windy days, but almost wonder if it will be too calm? (Wunderground predicting 2-5mph for most of the daylight hours)

Anybody able to point me in the right direction in terms of access to use or general productive areas or presentations this time of year? I haven’t fished ML in over 5 years so I’m shooting a little blind here. I’m mostly a river guy usually. I’d be chasing the elusive keeper walleye or pike preferably.

Thanks!

This report is from late October. Probably not much help anymore but its the best I can find.

Most are fishing break lines or shallow rocks. Crank baits or sucker minnows on Lindy rigs or jig and minnow.
This is for walleyes anyway.

Bring hip boots or waders if planning on using public accesses. Docks there are likely pulled I believe.
Fredricksons Marina has a deep launch and a pile driven dock & a $14 fee. In Wahkon off MN 27. take Lake Shore Blvd to the split wirh Bennett and go left on Bennett.
I had an outstanding fall on local rock piles reefs with stick baits. I got spooked by low water and pulled my dock & lifts a couple weeks ago. The water is low. Real low & the bouys have been pulled. This time of the year you will have the whole lake to your self,so be careful.
In my experiance once the tulibees start spawning at hig 30s / low 40s H2O temp the walleyes seem to disperse.
Tulibees on the rocks = muskies!

Appreciate the feedback everyone. Looking forward to getting out there and enjoying a nice warm November day if nothing else.

Hey no problem. Please be careful though. The reefs are pretty well mapped but you need to have a mapping GPS if you are going to put your boat on plane, or really know what the bottom is like.

Yeah I’ve got a newer Garmin on the boat and I’m not in a hurry. Spend a couple weeks every year navigating unmapped or poorly mapped shield lakes so I’ve learned to take er easy. Appreciate the fair warning.

Brian Bezanson wrote:

you need to have a mapping GPS

I assume every watercraft venturing on to that lake has GPS maps nowadays. It would be difficult to find structure without it, not to mention you could seriously get lost out there.

If you look up – “Fisher’s Resort Mille Lacs” on the FB they put up a report from yesterday. Did well out on the deep rocks there. Plus they have a great ramp and fairly deep harbor. If I was headed up, this is where I would go for sure!

Fisher’s Resort is just south of Malmo on Hwy 47.

-J.

Jon Jordan wrote:

If I was headed up, this is where I would go for sure!

I don’t fish it a lot in the summer but agree with Jon. I would avoid the south end with the buoys out, way to much rock to hit.

Hopefully the wind will cooperate for you. Its howling today that would be no fun to be out there.

I’d launch on the windward side, so if it’s a west wind, launch on the west side. Always add at least 10 mph to any Mille Lacs wind forecast. I’d imagine the smallies are still going on sucker minnows on the rocks too.

Fishers might be tough with a south/SW wind forecasted for Wednesday.
Great place to fish and launch though.
West northwest bays is where I would head as you won’t have to be far from shore and the points should keep the waves down.

BigWerm wrote:

I’d launch on the windward side, so if it’s a west wind, launch on the west side. Always add at least 10 mph to any Mille Lacs wind forecast. I’d imagine the smallies are still going on sucker minnows on the rocks too.

Is that pretty accurate, the +10mph math? Has me re-thinking my plans. I was thinking I’d go around garrison/myramar area with a SW west wind forecast at about 5mph, but the Windy app shows it shifting to straight south winds and picking up around lunch, so I could be in for some rough stuff in the afternoon. Big difference between 5-7mph and 15-17mph winds on a lake that size.

With a 4.5 hour round trip to factor in I might just hit the river after all.

Those bays from garrison south should be fine. Again you won’t be far from shore.

Tomorrow is a tough call. The morning hours look good. Wind is gonna kick up mid day at some point though. Wind Alert says 9-19mph at noon. I’d definitely plan on sticking to the south end if I was going.

Hopefully you went has to be pretty damn nice out there.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Hopefully you went has to be pretty damn nice out there.

Some stuff came up and and I had to stick closer to home. We had fish tacos last night but they were from the st croix. Speaking of… ridiculous traffic out there yesterday, guess that’s to be expected. There were 10+ boats on every spot I pulled up to between Hudson and the Kinni. Forced me to get away and troll more than I’d like buy I was able to get a few.

Can’t believe there were that many guys out there at this time of year, DW!