Nitti or Red Door

Heading to Mille Lacs tomorrow…best guess at a better bite for bigger non-slot fish…nitti or red door. or a better question yet, do i hit the mud or stay at the first break rocks. hmmmm too many thoughts my mind is going to explode. im thinking nitti rocks…whats your opinion.

I was thinking the same and decided on Red Door. I’ll make the run to the flats if the shoreline is slow.

I’ve heard good reports coming from both but I think Red Door has been a more consistent bite.

Mud, Red Door

I haven’t been out yet (Monday hopefully) but everything I have heard from my secret friends is that they are hitting everywhere and have been hearing that there seems to quite a few bigger fish. Pick where you want to start but it sounds like they are doing well close in, maybe try before going all the way out to the flats.

Made it out of red door and it did not disappoint! Lots of piggies out there boys. our group of three caught 8 over 20inches

How far from shore were you? I might head up there tomorrow but have no wheeler or sled.

mile and half

Realtreeap10 Pm sent

Thinkin of making my first ice trip up therethis saturday…sounds like red door is the place to be?

Great bite out of red door today on the deeper mud.

I didn’t get to fish, but there were 25-30 portables out from Hunter’s today.

I was one of the portables out of Hunter’s today. 11″ of ice and all day bite.

My dad and I are heading to Mille Lacs the weekend of the 14th and this will be my first hardwater trip there, just wondering if you guys could help with a few questions I have.

Will I be able to get around the lake pretty well with my Jeep Grand Cherokee, it does pretty well in the snow and I can stay very mobile with it? Otherwise I will bring my wheeler and portable but if I don’t have to pull a trailer, even better.

Not sure where we are going to stay yet, I would like to stay somewhere either on the North Shore or East shore and just need a room for Saturday night. Anyone have any suggestions?

Where is a good bait and tackle store to pick up bait? We are traveling from Breckenridge, MN really early Saturday morning.

Thanks fellas

I believe red door rents rooms out to stay on the north side, Nitti Hunters point will rent a bed in the bunk house.

Word of caution for you, many resorts have closed their roads to vehicle traffic as of yesterday and today so make sure you check before planning on driving out. The cold has caused a lot of cracks along shore.

Yeah I seen there were some large cracks that developed last night so they weren’t letting out vehicle traffic. I may end up just bringing the wheeler and portable just to be safe.

busse3775 wrote:

I may end up just bringing the wheeler and portable just to be safe.

The old saying goes that it’s better to have, and not need, than to need, and not have.

Well it does seem to contradict logical thinking but the bitter cold in fact can make the ice more unpredictable. Particularly with little to no snow cover, that huge ice sheet contracts and that’s when you have problems with the cracks opening up.

@busse3775, you’re not planning on coming up until the 14th. With the temperatures warming and hopefully some snowfall it should stabilize by next week. You can decide the night before you leave on whether you need to bring the wheeler. Bait and any tackle…Tutt’s in Garrison on the west side, Lundeen’s on the south side, or Johnson’s Portside in Isle on the east side.
One more thing, you may want to call for hotel room availability right away, they tend to book up weekends once the ice season kicks in.

We went out of Red door Saturday morning about 6am. Unloaded two sleds and we were fishing the flats by 6:30. Not more than 5 minutes go by before we start laying into them. Around 8am, the buddy I was fishing with says “there must be a perch chasing my spoon, he came off bottom and chased me to 5 feet”. I look down the hole and there’s two walleyes chasing it about 4′ under the ice and then pounded it. It happened all day. I have never seen such an active walleye bite on that lake. About 50% of the fish we hauled in Saturday, we didn’t even mark. They would haul tail in and pound it immediately.

Ended the day with a couple slot fish that we tossed back and a TON of 14-18″ fish. Had two upper-mid-20″ fish come unglued at the hole. We only moved three times. I’m sure we could have kept roaming around in search of bigger fish, but we were having such a blast with how active they were, we didn’t want to move!

Merica, were you fishing the first break or did you venture out to the flats? We are heading to Red Door this coming Sunday/Monday. Any particular baits that were working?

311hemi wrote:

Merica, were you fishing the first break or did you venture out to the flats? We are heading to Red Door this coming Sunday/Monday. Any particular baits that were working?

Same! But I’m bringing the wife and kids so I’m sort of stuck to where they have the sleeper shack positioned!

Hey bringing the old man out this weekend. Haven’t been up to the pond this winter, but what I’m hearing is dead stick with shiner/fathead seem to be working with some jigging. Planning on doing both. We will be moble on wheelers. Since we will be staying on shore where is the best place to be going out of nitti or red door for a day bite into evening? Any advice would be helpful.

Either are good. I prefer the Red Door for no particular reason other than a closer ride to more flats.

Dead stick has been consistent but last Saturday 80% of our fish came on jigs.

I am renting a sleeper outa’ Red Door in 10 days for 24 hours for some buddies that have never ice fished. I will assume that they have their houses on the flats but are they typically on the top of flat or bottom? (I know I could call them but I am sure they get a lot of those kinda’ calls…) RR

I will hopefully be going out of Red Door with the wheelhouse this weekend and will be heading to the flats for some jigging action. If they will not be letting wheelhouses out, we will have to find another landing but still plan on heading to the flats. Good luck to all, if you see a 12′ green Yetti and Red F-150, say hi!

roosterrouster wrote:

I am renting a sleeper outa’ Red Door in 10 days for 24 hours for some buddies that have never ice fished. I will assume that they have their houses on the flats but are they typically on the top of flat or bottom? (I know I could call them but I am sure they get a lot of those kinda’ calls…) RR

Their sleepers are on the second break in the mud around a mile out as of last weekend. Don’t think they are on the flats but may have a few out there.