Recent Reports?

Anyone been out lately? Looking for general reports for eyes. Anyone out still pulling cranks in the basin?

My parents went twice the past 2 weeks, once each week for 7 hours each time and it was awful both times. They caught 2 fish one day and zero the other. They lindy rigged, pulled spinners, and used lead core.

I had heard the bite was incredibly slow since the re-opening on August 1. My parents aren’t pros, but they tournament fish and they know what they’re doing. They’re just too stubborn to give up.

It should improve in the next couple weeks when water temps cool off.

Quite a bit tougher to catch eyes than before the closing, however, have been able to catch fish at a reasonable rate, 5-10 per hour, though I must admit I have cherry picking the time periods I go out.

Ya i have been up there a couple times since the reopening. Just not in the last 2 weeks. Thanks for the info. Will report back

Lead has been working through last weekend for me. Fish were pretty plump last weekend. Water temp was 75. Out now fishing smallies water temp is 65 today. Good luck.

Agree on the forage. Don’t know anybody getting 10 an hour currently. 5 maybe if you fish the lake a lot. Fall wetter has not set in water was back up to 70 degrees today. Fall bite is just around the corner.

I was out on Saturday/ yesterday. The smallmouth bit much better than the walleyes.
Shallow was best for me. The 3 walleyes I caught were in 8-10ft.
I also saw good amounts of some type of bait on the graph in deeper water.
Every fish I caught yesterday was in less than 13ft. Bass and walleye, when I tried deeper I found fish that didn’t want to bite.
Early was also best. Things had slowed down substantially by 10:00am.
The smallmouth are definitely not skinny.

Attachments:

1. 

   20200905_070654.jpg
   

joneser wrote:

My theory is we’re seeing a repeat of 2018 when a big perch hatch made catch rates fall through the floor the tail end of July through mid-September. The amount of baitfish marked yesterday was nuts, which we confirmed to be <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>perch by both catching them and by dropping a camera down there yesterday evening when the west bays of the lake were glass.

I don’t necessarily disbelieve your theory, in fact I remember this exact weekend 2 years ago when I couldn’t put even one fish in the boat. I tried pulling crawlers, trolling cranks in shallow and out and about the flats.

I figured it was just me again but found out later, many other’s struggled as well. An abundance of forage is certainly a reasonable explanation.

Which brings us back around in a circle again because this doesn’t really align with the supposed forage crash.

I understand this can be cyclical as it appears to be, but there’s still plenty of doomsayers predicting the lake will crash.

Yes, there are enough skinny walleyes, but I would guess they’re old males? I don’t know, it seems there will always be more questions than answers with this lake.

Hit the lake Saturday. Caught walleyes right away in the morning then it absolutely died. Tried leadcore, bottom bouncers and crawlers, suckers…nothing would get bit. TONS of small perch, so that’s good. Incredibly tough bite though,except for the low light periods.

We found the walleyes to be much shallower then every one was fishing. We stayed in 16 ft and less a couple hundred yards off shore.
Hot in the morning and evening, dead in the mid day

Thanks for the reassurance it was not just me. Made it the pond Saturday morning and fished from 830 to 1. Boated two eyes pulling lead in the basin right away, lost one fish about an hour later and then nothing for the rest of the day. Marked alot of fish but also alot of bait. Both eyes that we did catch spit up what appeared to be small perch. 2 to 3 Inches long shaped like a small perch but the scales etc were already off, just some white meat left. Good to see the forage and i feel it’s also good for the lake as a whole to have a bit of a slow down going.

So (May/June) every single boat you talked to had 100-200 fish days (depends on the # of people in a boat and the hours spent). But now people are struggling to catch them and your theory is they magically no longer exist and the lake is in trouble?

Interesting observations. Back in the late 80’s Mille Lacs was known as the “Dead Sea”. We’d go through a boom bust cycle and soon it became the McDonald’s theme, “Home of the quarter pounder”. 3 trips to Mille Lacs this year, end of June dragging red-tails on the gravel…26 walleyes. 2 trips in August pulling lead line in the basin, first trip 7 and the second we ended with 5. I remember a time that in August if you got 7 nice walleyes for 1/2 day of fishing, that was considered a good trip. Fall trolling one might get 10 – 12 walleyes, a great night. Today the bar seems quite high and if one doesn’t get over 30 in the boat it’s a problem. Personally I am cynical and don’t trust the narrative from the DNR/bands or their solutions. The comment about the DNR being surprised at the 2018 perch hatch is a great example of their enhanced knowledge of the lake. It’s been years since I’ve caught a nice perch over 11 inches yet in the late 80’s we used to go out on the flats and catch all you want. Probably paid a price for that in terms of poor walleye fishing for a few years but heck with that big perch hatch maybe there is hope. Oh well….

slawrenz wrote:

Quite a bit tougher to catch eyes than before the closing, however, have been able to catch fish at a reasonable rate, 5-10 per hour, though I must admit I have cherry picking the time periods I go out.

correct, i have had similar results. fishing during prime times has made a significant difference in catch rates.

Going to give it a try this weekend. Any reports?

Caught a handful of walleyes targeting smallmouth this past weekend. 8-15 ft. Again was targeting smallmouth however. My thumbs that look like sandpaper can prove that.

joneser,

I really tried to stick with your first lengthy comment you posted today, but before I got through it all…I’d already finished my beer and had to hit pause and go to the fridge for a refill. You know I gotta keep “playing” that game.

My question though is the acronym for SWF?

Back many years ago in certain publication classified ads there was the “Personal” section such as…“SWF ISO SWM, NS, loves cats and preferably Christian”

Please define your SWF in Mille Lacs lake.

All fun aside, I’m becoming more impressed with your research, toil and trouble.

Your actual photographic evidence is compelling.

SMH, two months ago the loudmouths around the lake were promising imminent doom as all the walleye’s were starving to death.