Opener Reports Mille Lacs and surrounding area

I was fishing shore on the SW side of Mille Lacs, and conditions told me it should be a good night. It was only good in the sense that I didn’t get skunked. I pulled a 19-incher, and that was it for three and a half hours of lure chucking. It looked like quite a few boats were out on Indian Point at midnight. I did get rained on a little, but it wasn’t bad. Well, good luck, everyone.

Boated a little over a dozen since 600. Pitching jigs in 12 ft

Boated 12 from 6 to 9 got our 2 keepers and a bonus perch 14 to 16 feet of water rigging

Fished a channel north of Mille lacs last night. Got a few crappies before then at midnight the bass turned on. Caught a couple dozen of them and one walleye in the next few hours.

Caught 3 walleyes this morning (including a keeper) in about 2 1/2 hours of fishing. Entertaining kids and family but plan to go back out this evening.

Launch at midnight did decent enough, our group caught a keeper. Whole boat caught couple dozen id imagine. Cheap easy way to get out and was fun enough to get back at some point.

Did you make it back out Lindy. It was rollin last night.

Last night was rough caught a few fish bobered up but man was it rough. Took more water over the bow than ever before.

I made it out but it was short lived. We were fishing the lee side of the lake but that wind was still whipping. The girls wanted to go in after about an hour. Caught this nice smallie though and my niece netted it for me.

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Fishing again tonight and steadily picking up walleye. I can tell you they are still keying on shiners and seem to prefer minnows over leeches. Just caught a 19.5 male that was milking so the spawn isn’t totally over.

Nice night tonight getting them casting swim baits in 5ft of water.

Here is my fresh out-of-the-cutting room video report video of my MN Opener Midnight at Mille Lacs. I was quite rusty at video editing after not having done it for a couple of months.

And here is my Mother’s Day trip report:

Decent opener weekend here on the east side. Wind was not a big factor blowing straight out of the east. Water temps 47 on Saturday dropping to 45 on Sunday. Simple jig and shinner dragging 17 to 20 FOW. Got our slot fish both days.

Up here for a couple more days. Looking nice today. Got to mow and work on some projects. Back at it this afternoon.

-J.

I was seeing 52-55 on west side all weekend.

Just got off the water. East side Temps still at 50 give or take a degree. Bite is decent, like 4 to 5 fish an hour bite. Couple overs and several 18-20s. We are having smoke cover in the area. No clouds but heavy haze today. You can see it in this pic.

-J.

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Nice work Jon

My morning report.

Any current reports? Heading up tomorrow morning and curious if it’s worth trying to find shiners

Craig Sery wrote:

Any current reports? Heading up tomorrow morning and curious if it’s worth trying to find shiners

I was fishing at the Grumpy Old Man Hole yesterday when a grumpy old man, who I don’t know, stopped to see if I was getting anything. He didn’t seem too happy that I was throwing one small bass back after another. He lamented that the bite is really good for walleye right now on Mille Lacs, and he can hardly keep anything. So according to one grumpy old man, fishing is pretty good at Mille Lacs right now. Play the conditions and strike when the iron is hot. This early season bite will be gone before we know it.

Craig and Rip. I’m fishing tomorrow and through the weekend. PM or text me if you want to exchange info

Opener weekend was okay for us. Boated 20 in probably 10 hours of fishing. Jig and fathead. Good Luck!

Lindy, we’re going out of red door so I’m sure we’ll be in the same area

Craig Sery wrote:

Lindy, we’re going out of red door so I’m sure we’ll be in the same area

Sounds good. FYI Malmo had a bunch of shiners as of tonight. I have both shiners and leeches for the weekend but also got some on crank baits last weekend too

I did real good on Thursday targeting smallmouth. A perch colored jerk bait caught some big brown bass and a few accidental walleyes, including one in the keeper slot.

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That looks like a good time. What did you have for water temps? Headed up for a week on the 30th. Was hoping for some prespawn action, I have a feeling with warm temps coming this week a lot of fish will be pulling up on beds.

Mike wrote:

That looks like a good time. What did you have for water temps? Headed up for a week on the 30th. Was hoping for some prespawn action, I have a feeling with warm temps coming this week a lot of fish will be pulling up on beds.

The water temp was only 49 degrees on Thursday. And may have briefly dropped on Friday as it was a chilly 40 out degrees with a stiff NW wind.

I do think it will start to warm up this week though, but the spawn is still at least a good 10-14 days away I think.

Well thats a pleasant surprise, i would have thought middle 50s by now. I suppose you guys are still having some pretty cool nights it looks like.

I am seeing mid 50’s on the west side.

I saw anywhere from 49-52 on north side this weekend