Mille Lacs, WTH?

What is going on with this damn puddle? I stopped Sunday on my way home from Winnie and I kid you not, didn’t even mark a fish in 7 hours. Moved every 20-25 mins, tried from 16’-30’ and back to 16’. Talked to a couple friends today who have been on the lake since basically last Wed. Said it was dead until Friday, Friday good all day, then shut off and waiting. Even the shows and YT crowds are struggling to put it together on the dead sea…. My theory, a huge cisco/tullibee spawn thats keeping them deep… I swiss cheesed 3 mile, and the fellas did the mud, so it’s not like we’re talking one bay or break here, and from what I’m reading here, nobody has had any spectacular days either? 4 fish is not spectacular unless they were all 28’s+

Oh no, the You Tube crowd can’t find ’em???

Stay after it, they gotta eat sometime.

I think there was a huge tullibee spawn but an even huge-er perch spawn. I have marked more perch (forage size) out there and have caught more fish out there that have been puking up perch than I ever have. The handful of walleyes I have seen this winter have been extremely well fed too.

Simply put, I just do not think they are as hungry as they have been for the last 1-5 seasons.

Charlie W wrote:

I think there was a huge tullibee spawn but an even huge-er perch spawn. I have marked more <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>perch (forage size) out there and have caught more fish out there that have been puking up <em class=”ido-tag-em”>perch than I ever have. The handful of walleyes I have seen this winter have been extremely well fed too.

Simply put, I just do not think they are as hungry as they have been for the last 1-5 seasons.

100 percent seeing the same thing

Yes there was a large perch hatch. The fall bite showed it. Saw the walleyes chasing them real shallow this past fall just about every night I was out. Caught a a good amount of fish over the weekend and they were pretty plump. I ain’t fishing deep I can tell you that. It’s a good thing. Glad to see it.

I caught more big perch last year up there than I have in the 5 years I’ve been going up there. I’m hoping they are finally starting to gain some traction and possibly making a comeback.

Charlie W wrote:

I think there was a huge tullibee spawn but an even huge-er perch spawn. I have marked more <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>perch (forage size) out there and have caught more fish out there that have been puking up <em class=”ido-tag-em”>perch than I ever have. The handful of walleyes I have seen this winter have been extremely well fed too.

Simply put, I just do not think they are as hungry as they have been for the last 1-5 seasons.

This is what I have been hearing & seeing this season. It started as early as August. Friday we did ok, but by Saturday morning it had shut off. I talked to a lot of guys all over the lake this weekend it it seemed dismal.. The only fish we caught Saturday was a 5″ perch.

I fished Saturday 7am-3pm with a friend and we both landed 10 fish and I had a couple come unhooked also, including a very large walleye unfortunately….
The fish I caught were healthy well fed fish.
I’ll agree that there is definitely a lot of small perch in the lake. We marked them constantly and they would scatter on the graph when a walleye would show up.
From what in I’ve seen and heard I think going deep would be a mistake right now…..
Im sure there are fish deep, but that’s not where we caught them. We had a large area to ourselves and watched a steady stream of fisherman go past us to deeper water all day.
We sat tight, stayed quiet, and had groups of fish coming through on and off all day. What I thought was odd for mille lacs was that we caught just as many fish from 11am-3pm as we did from 7am-11am. There was no morning activity peak, they were active all day.

IceNEyes1986 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Charlie W wrote:</div>
I think there was a huge tullibee spawn but an even huge-er perch spawn. I have marked more <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>perch (forage size) out there and have caught more fish out there that have been puking up <em class=”ido-tag-em”>perch than I ever have. The handful of walleyes I have seen this winter have been extremely well fed too.

Simply put, I just do not think they are as hungry as they have been for the last 1-5 seasons.

This is what I have been hearing & seeing this season. It started as early as August. Friday we did ok, but by Saturday morning it had shut off. I talked to a lot of guys all over the lake this weekend it it seemed dismal.. The only fish we caught Saturday was a 5″ perch.

Yep, this describes what I’m seeing compared to the last 3 years

This could actually be a very good thing too. They need more food to eat in there and hopefully the quantity of new perch is helping that.

gim wrote:

This could actually be a very good thing too. They need more food to eat in there and hopefully the quantity of new perch is helping that.

It is a very good thing. As mahto mentioned, hopefully the perch are finally gaining traction and making a comeback.

So would the late season bite be the best if there is a hatch going on now?

Charles wrote:

So would the late season bite be the best if there is a hatch going on now?

There isn’t a hatch going on right now. They are young perch and/or tulibee that likely hatched last year.

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Charles wrote:</div>
So would the late season bite be the best if there is a hatch going on now?

There isn’t a hatch going on right now. They are young perch and/or tulibee that likely hatched last year.

Makes sense

The best “fix” or “repair”(not saying it needs one) for Mille Lacs is definitely multiple years of successful perch hatches. There are a lot of mouths to feed in that system.

That may not translate to a lights out walleye bite with increased forage and it seems most informed people here understand that. It will be interesting to see what some people around the Midwest may project this spring and early summer if the fish are tougher to catch. Don’t be shocked if some cast it as doom and gloom, when in reality that’s likely a sign of a healthier system. The easy catching of 40+ relatively skinny fish in an outing postspawn that takes place some years didn’t necessarily mean the fishery was balanced, rather the opposite.

Noticed it early fall, slower than normal bite, marking lots of fish but not an active bite, all fish we caught late summer/ early fall were puking up small perch. Everyone we were catching were spitting them up, 3 inches in size. Lots of bait fish and inconsistent weather patterns is going to slow the bite down. I think it is a good thing overall to have a slow down.

I got 6 at primetime Sunday all were 18″ or so. Years past I would get bigger fish like 24’s 26’s not seeing that the last couple years. The lake is changing that is for sure.

Do they still allow spearing on Mille Lacs?

KP wrote:

Do they still allow spearing on Mille Lacs?

Yes. For many years it was prohibited but they opened it up to spearing several years ago. There are special regs for spearing pike.

Northern Pike: Beginning May 9, 2020 through March 31, 2021, all northern pike greater than 30 inches must be immediately released. Limit of three. Same regulations for spearing, which concludes Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021.

Matt Waste wrote:

What is going on with this damn puddle?

Well…it could be that it’s getting back to a normal balance.
BB sums it up pretty well here vv

buckybadger wrote:

The best “fix” or “repair”(not saying it needs one) for Mille Lacs is definitely multiple years of successful perch hatches. There are a lot of mouths to feed in that system.

That may not translate to a lights out <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye bite with increased forage and it seems most informed people here understand that. It will be interesting to see what some people around the Midwest may project this spring and early summer if the fish are tougher to catch. Don’t be shocked if some cast it as doom and gloom, when in reality that’s likely a sign of a healthier system. The easy catching of 40+ relatively skinny fish in an outing postspawn that takes place some years didn’t necessarily mean the fishery was balanced, rather the opposite.

I’d like to add a little along the lines of which came first…the chicken or the egg.

It’s been held for some time that there were too many big predators in the lake. Certainly there was relative to the available forage. Now, if in fact the forage is replenishing and catching up…will there still be too many predators in the lake?

Perhaps not, if in fact the available forage meets or exceeds minimum requirements to support them.

This would not only change the dynamics of the fishery but also the perceptions. Time will tell…

gim wrote:

This could actually be a very good thing too. They need more food to eat in there and hopefully the quantity of new perch is helping that.

They do seem more plump

They are regularly preaching doom for the dead sea. Like everything in nature we see highs and lows. 2012-2015 were certainly lows, this year I don’t see it as a low, they just are plenty full with what the lake provides, the majority of the catches seem to be on deadstick/minnow which leads me to believe they aren’t very eager to chase artificial action. The weather certainly hasn’t been in our favor either. Lots of high clear skies and I don’t know about you guys but I wont fish beyond 30’, and even that makes me borderline uncomfortable.

I’ve said all along for years that they need to stock it with baitfish. Maybe the DNR snuck out there and secretly unloaded truckloads of perch during the closures?
I’ll be curious to see if the spring fish are not as skinny as previous years. That lake needs a break, hopefully it gets it.

Matt Waste wrote:

They are regularly preaching doom for the dead sea. Like everything in nature we see highs and lows. 2012-2015 were certainly lows, this year I don’t see it as a low, they just are plenty full with what the lake provides, the majority of the catches seem to be on deadstick/minnow which leads me to believe they aren’t very eager to chase artificial action. The weather certainly hasn’t been in our favor either. Lots of high clear skies and I don’t know about you guys but I wont fish beyond 30’, and even that makes me borderline uncomfortable.

Who is they?
You shouldn’t listen to them.

^^^Bingo

I have been catching and seeing large numbers of perch on my camera on several mud flats in the last 2 weeks seems the perch hatch is certainly up this year. With that being said I have had marginal (walleye) success but it’s been very location dependent. I have been on 7 different mud flats in the past 2 weeks and 3 flats were very slow. Still graphed fish but inactive. The flats I have had better success on have been in the range of 15-25 fish a day. mostly 17-24” range with occasional larger fish. Dead stick has out produced jig and deeper has been better 29-31’ certainly have to work more for the bites but there are still active schools working around out there.