no Mille Lacs chatter?

Maybe you folks have given up on Mille Lacs. But last weekend was the best bite I have been on in 9 ice seasons. The numbers were off the charts. We caught more fish in 3 days then we did the last 2 season combined. There has been alot of talk of 2 strong year classes, which I must admit were 80% of the catch. But I saw multiple other year classes mixed in too ( which is encouraging). We even caught 3 “keepers” which were released back to fight another day.

The bite lasted all day long, with fish coming through like you were sitting at LOW. Reports I have heard from all ends of the lake that were similar to mine. We had to reel up the rattle wheels at 1am each night because we were too tired to catch any more fish and needed some shut eye. I would encourage you to head up there and give it a try. Great time for kids and wives who get bored of fishing when it gets slow.

All politics aside, When your talking about 50-70 fish days in one spot with out moving, thats some great fishing. Managed to pull up 5 fish over 24″ as well, with the biggest being a real beauty just under 8lbs. And with some resorts like Hunters “guaranteeing” your limit, or they will give you your limit in frozen walleye, what do you have to lose?

Mud, reefs, sand or gravel would you suggest?

Sounds like a great outing!! How deep were you fishing? Sand, rock, or mud bottom? I was thinking about heading up to my shack on shore this weekend and go out with the portable. How are the ice conditions? Snow depth? Appreciate any help.

I went out of the Red Door, always have, always will. Its the closest to the Mudflats, which is always where I stick around in the boat as well. And they have amazing food!

Ice conditions were fine when I was there, but always call ahead to get the latest. We drove out on the plowed road all the way to the northern mud flats. There were other wheelhouses being pulled out too. Found anywhere from 12- 18″ of ice. They have been working really hard on the pressure ridge right in front of the resort, so make sure to check with someone.

There was very little snow last weekend but they have since gotten a good chunk, so banking will be easier. But it will limit your truck most likely to the roads.

Didnt really have one lure over any others they all worked great. And the bigger the shiner we put down the hole, the faster they got eaten.

Yeah, I’m going to give it a whirl this weekend.

Since the beginning of week have heard from several different sources how hot that bite has been.

Really hoping it snags alot of fisherman going north, leaving Leech and Winnie to myself

Then again it sounds so good, might leave Thursday night and try for myself first

Any perch??

I was hopeing to find a few perch because the reports were that the perch were on and they were big. We didnt set a hook into even 1 to my surprise. Not that I was too bummed out, pulling 70 walleyes into the wheelshack is a great consolation prize!

I spent the whole day on the mud out of Red Door yesterday. I caught 29 walleyes and 2 Tullies. Most were 12-14, but caught several 16 and 17 inch fish and lost a pig at the hole that was probably 26-27. The only lull was from 1-3 and then it was lights out again with 50/50 on bobber and jigging spoon. Chartreuse was best no doubt. I too use Red Door exclusively both summer and hard water. They do a great job and I trust Bob and his crew about ice conditions. It was a fantastic day to be on the pond yesterday and the fishing was unreal. Get up there and enjoy.

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Some of the guys I talked to in the Red Door rentals had just as good of walleye action and had big perch going too! They were situated on the break, maybe I was too far away from shore?

sktrwx2200 wrote:

I was hopeing to find a few <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>perch because the reports were that the <em class=”ido-tag-em”>perch were on and they were big. We didnt set a hook into even 1 to my surprise. Not that I was too bummed out, pulling 70 walleyes into the wheelshack is a great consolation prize!

https://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/community/gallery/mille-lacs-sumos/

that’s only a sample.

I was surprised that I didn’t get any perch on the mud too. The ones being caught seem to off the first breaks.

Brian,

Where did these fish come from… I put in alot of hours in the summer and I didnt tangle with many 12-15 in fish at all. Now they are literally at all ends of the lake in staggering number…… something seems “fishy” to me. Literally. Not mad but curious.

I have been fishing the lake a lot, even when everybody bailed and went elsewhere. I’ve seen the 10 inchers from a couple years ago turn into the 12-14’s that are coming top side now. These year classes are quite abundant. Last summer, bobber fishing on the mud, it was lights out from 730-9 with little guys for us. We also caught a few bigger ones, but most were little guys. I’m not sure what all the griping about bad fishing was last year, fishing was good right up until the closure for us.

Toward the later half of the summer I was catching a lot of these 12-15″ fish pulling cranks. I am up there every weekend in the summer and the first half I caught very few. About July 10th or so they started showing up in numbers. Not just for me, but a lot of guys in camp. Lasted until I shut the summer place down weekend before labor day. Seemed strange to me then also. We thought maybe the smallies got pushed off the rocks and headed for deeper water and these guys came in to. Smallie action slowed way down, but that could have been cause we were busy with walleyes.

There were several occasions yesterday when it was hard to fish 2 lines. They would come through in pods and crush anything they saw. One little guy still had the fat head he swiped from by bobber rig in his mouth when he hit my spoon.

I went out of red door last weekend as well. I caught many smaller fish in with the wheel houses, then I went east to areas away from others. I didn’t catch many fish which means I probably was not in too great of an area but I did pull in a FAT 24″ PB eye in my avatar! It felt good knowing a location I picked produced a quality fish. I heard the perch were going great on the mud flats, another angler picked up 17 eyes on the mud flats but said his first spot was a zero and the second was dynamite. Red Door ran out of bait Sunday AM….. Im heading back to the west side of the lake this weekend as I heard good reports their as well. LOTS of smaller 12-15″ eyes it seems but I’m not complaining!

So this whole hot bite thing is good but when are they gonna shut er down as it should’ve been. In order to see bites like this again year after year.
Personally I read and hear of these reports I think of small fish being dragged from the depths and what was a super strong year class turning into just a good one.

Shut it down? Bring a kid to Mille Lacs! I caught 27 fish in @5.5 hrs last week! Yes, none of them made the slot but I had more fun fishing than I have had in a long time. I will be bringing my kids to Mille Lacs this weekend so they can catch walleye like sunnies from the dock at the cabin. Who knows we may even get a couple in the slot.

If it gets “shut down” I wouldn’t count on many resorts being around next year, the struggle is real.

TripleA wrote:

If it gets “shut down” I wouldn’t count on many resorts being around next year, the struggle is real.

On the lakes current course do you see much different 2,3 or 4 yrs down the road?
What really is frightening how many are bringing home sumo perch. If Will Roseberg baitfish theory is correct you have a ballooning year class of eyes, on top of whats already a predator heavy system, with the top producers of the main forage, perch, being taken as well. I guess it’ll make for some fantastic bites, but definitely not a success story IMO.

Hamm,
Not sure anyone was boasting about a Mille Lacs being a “Success story”? Was simply starting a conversation about a good bite. With all the politics involved, and the black cloud currently over the lake and the late ice season, I’m sure its a breath of fresh air for the area businesses. No one is making you stop off at Mille Lacs on your way to Leech and Winni like you stated earlier. Its about supporting area business, not cleaning fish.

sktrwx2200 wrote:

Hamm,
Not sure anyone was boasting about a Mille Lacs being a “Success story”? Was simply starting a conversation about a good bite. With all the politics involved, and the black cloud currently over the lake and the late ice season, I’m sure its a breath of fresh air for the area businesses. No one is making you stop off at Mille Lacs on your way to Leech and Winni like you stated earlier. Its about supporting area business, not cleaning fish.

…especially when they are being caught in 33 degree water so catch and release mortality is minimal (if not non existent…). Have the kids catch em’, heck have the adults catch em’. It’s good to hear…RR

nhamm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TripleA wrote:</div>
If it gets “shut down” I wouldn’t count on many resorts being around next year, the struggle is real.

On the lakes current course do you see much different 2,3 or 4 yrs down the road?
What really is frightening how many are bringing home sumo perch. If Will Roseberg baitfish theory is correct you have a ballooning year class of eyes, on top of whats already a predator heavy system, with the top producers of the main forage, perch, being taken as well. I guess it’ll make for some fantastic bites, but definitely not a success story IMO.

I actually think that the lake is quickly heading in the right direction again. The most important thing for a lake to sustain itself is having a large population of breeding class fish. Now I understand it varies a bit between male/female but everything I’ve read is that somewhere between 16-20″ is the age where they reach maturity and are the most efficient at reproducing. The 2012 & 2013 year classes which are everywhere right now are 1-2 years away from their prime breeding years which will be great for the future.

My theory (giving full credit to Dick Sternberg’s research papers on the topic) is that having too large a population of large fish will result in their eating down the baitfish population to the point that they end up cannibalizing all of their own offspring leaving not enough surviving to sexual maturity and resulting in a population crash. I absolutely don’t see the current high population of 12-16″ walleyes as a threat but rather as an opportunity. What I’m very interested to see is what will happen once they reach the magical 18-20″ size. My hope is that any plan going forward allows for harvesting of some large fish to keep history from repeating itself.

Will

Hopefully the DNR has learned to throw the sliding slot out the door… have a minimum of maybe 13″, but after that, you can keep 48″ of fish. IE 13- 16″= 3, 24″ = 2… and so on. Any combination that is not more than 48″. That way “all” sizes are harvested, if people want a meal. This also eliminates the issue of releasing the “obvious floater” that is not going to make it anyways, it now becomes part of your limit.

In two years some of these fish will be around the current “harvest zone” so I would hope that the DNR would once again move the slot to protect the healthy class. Hopefully they would move it up, not down, maybe 21-23″ but then again who wants to be carving up a 23″ fish?

big_g wrote:

Hopefully the DNR has learned to throw the sliding slot out the door… have a minimum of maybe 13″, but after that, you can keep 48″ of fish. IE 13- 16″= 3, 24″ = 2… and so on. Any combination that is not more than 48″. That way “all” sizes are harvested, if people want a meal. This also eliminates the issue of releasing the “obvious floater” that is not going to make it anyways, it now becomes part of your limit. [/quot

I like that idea G….

brian_peterson wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>big_g wrote:</div>

Hopefully the DNR has learned to throw the sliding slot out the door… have a minimum of maybe 13″, but after that, you can keep 48″ of fish. IE 13- 16″= 3, 24″ = 2… and so on. Any combination that is not more than 48″. That way “all” sizes are harvested, if people want a meal. This also eliminates the issue of releasing the “obvious floater” that is not going to make it anyways, it now becomes part of your limit. [/quot

I like that idea G….

I have long been an advocate for this also but here is why the DNR would never do it (at least in my mind…): They would look at this as a culling nightmare. Example: A guy has 46″ worth of walleye in his livewell and catches an 18″ fish. Back in the water goes a 16″ fish that has been in his livewell for 6 hours. No?

You have blinders on if you don’t think this happens now. Culling fish is nothing new to Mille lacs. Almost impossible to stop it.

I too have been a huge supporter of total inches for the last couple years.

I do like the total inches theory, but I’d like to see more emphasis on keeping 20″+ fish when that population gets too high.

I feel the DNR has always protected the wrong size fish. They always seem to want to remove the size range that has the lowest numbers.