Pretty good info from 2013 - Mille Lacs Lake - Mille Lacs Lake

Dutch,

Thanks for the post which invokes a ton of memories. I started fishing Mille Lacs in the early 80’s when I was 25 and moved to Minnesota. Everything I bought or owned was geared towards fishing Mille Lacs. Until 2015 it was tiller boats for back trolling, Vantage trolling motors for even more control. Stand alone GPS units for marking spots and establishing trolling patterns. Paper graphs, video graphs, Today’s modern GPS/Sonar units. Tying my own crawler rigs, graduating from slip bobbering to trolling the reefs with shad raps or rouges. This video is my fishing story. I’ve went through the times when it was called the “Dead Sea” or if there was a real abundant year class…….”The Home of the Quarter Pounder” I am glad to have lived in the era of what is described by Al. I remember once we were back trolling crawlers on 7 Mile and my friend was questioning my technique until we passed Al Lindner doing exactly what we were doing. My credibility went through the roof with my friend! Today I am older and do not have the energy to fight the wind, waves, and regulations that now envelops the aspect of fishing Mille Lacs. Yes, the last couple years have been fun as I don’t need to keep fish anymore, but somehow even that doesn’t seem right these days, with the hooking mortality number stopping a lot of things. Al says a lot of what I believe in his assessment yet this was made 7 years ago and it seems like everything continues to deteriorate. Catch and release only yet hooking mortality numbers shuts the season down, like this month. Skinny fish, absolutely zero perch anymore, no burbot, and a host of reasons a mile long. I stopped hoping for answers rather just look back at the glory years I had on Mille Lacs which in 20 years will die with the rest of us. Thanks again!