Struggling on Mille Lacs

Good afternoon all,

I am struggling to put eyes in the boat this summer. Years past I have only fished Mille Lacs in the spring but got obsessed and have continued into summer this year. I have spent most of July on the flats with minimal success. From what I have read the fish are spread out because of plentiful forage. Knowing this I have spend most of my time pulling 10 foot crawler harnesses on a 2oz bouncer and am covering lots of water. I have marked lots of fish as I cruise on and off the edge of the flat but can’t get them to go. When I see big pods of fish I’ll stop on occasion and rig or bobber fish them. This too has proven fruitless. At best in the last 4 trips I average a fish an hour. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Welcome to late July, Travis! Not uncommon at all to have the bite slow way down this time of year. We’ve had some warm weather lately and rising water temperatures combined with constant bug hatches does that to the fishing on Mille Lacs every single year. One fish an hour right now during the day time is not bad for late July. My parents fish out there a lot all season long and that is about their average right now too. They have been pulling lead core in the main basin. The best advice I can offer you is to wait until the temps cool off again after Labor Day or lower your expectations this time of year.

PM’d you

Switch to leadcore and cranks plus speed it up. 2-2.5mph is what I’ve been hearing is producing lots of fish. My coworker went guided with Tony Roach and they beat the walleyes up last weekend doing that.

Not sure what to tell you other than my typical rig for spinners is a 7-8′ 2-hook snell, 3 ounces of weight (1 ounce per 10 foot of water) trolling around 1.3 mph to start. I like crawlers. I have been dong well on that.

Hot water. Fish Faster
4 mph is not out of line.
Bonus to fishing faster is the lure sees more fish and you fish more miles.

I don’t think you need 10ft leader. I’m not sure if it hurts but you would be plenty fine with 6-8 ft. Like Francis, I go 1-1.2 miles per hour usually, but might speed it up occasionally if they fish aren’t biting. I only use a 1/2 oz weight. 1 oz max.

I’ve also heard leadcore is heating up.

We struggled on the mud this past Saturday also. Very slow out there and didn’t see too many landing nets out very often. Big bug hatch going on. We got a couple and found one little spot that was producing with slip bobbers and leeches. Then we had our best luck on a deep shoreline break adjacent to the basin and did pretty well there.

The bite was slower this Saturday for us as well. We did catch fish rigging, with spinners, and trolling. I also use a 2 oz bouncer and 10’ leaders and it produced most of our fish. Trolling was slower than it typically is this time of year. We did get a 28.5” and a few other mid 20”.

Sometimes the fish are grouped up on one area of the mud flat (or off the edge). If you catch a fish, mark it on your GPS and go back over it.

lindyrig79 wrote:

Sometimes the fish are grouped up on one area of the mud flat (or off the edge). If you catch a fish, mark it on your GPS and go back over it.

In July, I’ll hit a flat and as soon as I catch a fish, it gets marked, anchors dropped, and slip bobbers come out. I love slip bobber fishing on Mille lacs mud. If your not reeling one in ever 10 minutes or so, move…even if just 20-30 yards.

I’ll keep a bottom bouncer rigged for quick searching of an area but again, when I get a strike, anchor away!

ClownColor wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>lindyrig79 wrote:</div>
Sometimes the fish are grouped up on one area of the mud flat (or off the edge). If you catch a fish, mark it on your GPS and go back over it.

In July, I’ll hit a flat and as soon as I catch a fish, it gets marked, anchors dropped, and slip bobbers come out. I love slip bobber fishing on Mille lacs mud. If your not reeling one in ever 10 minutes or so, move…even if just 20-30 yards.

I’ll keep a bottom bouncer rigged for quick searching of an area but again, when I get a strike, anchor away!

I’ve been doing what I think they call Power Bobbin. I’m trolling around at 2.5-3mph then when I mark a fish, I drop my bobber and let line out then swing around to the side of the fish and make a few casts towards them. Great way to target bigger fish. Caught a couple of mid 20s last weekend when we were doing this!

ClownColor wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>lindyrig79 wrote:</div>
Sometimes the fish are grouped up on one area of the mud flat (or off the edge). If you catch a fish, mark it on your GPS and go back over it.

In July, I’ll hit a flat and as soon as I catch a fish, it gets marked, anchors dropped, and slip bobbers come out. I love slip bobber fishing on Mille lacs mud. If your not reeling one in ever 10 minutes or so, move…even if just 20-30 yards.

I’ll keep a bottom bouncer rigged for quick searching of an area but again, when I get a strike, anchor away!

Totally agree with Bob on this.

ClownColor wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>lindyrig79 wrote:</div>
Sometimes the fish are grouped up on one area of the mud flat (or off the edge). If you catch a fish, mark it on your GPS and go back over it.

In July, I’ll hit a flat and as soon as I catch a fish, it gets marked, anchors dropped, and slip bobbers come out. I love slip bobber fishing on Mille lacs mud. If your not reeling one in ever 10 minutes or so, move…even if just 20-30 yards.

I’ll keep a bottom bouncer rigged for quick searching of an area but again, when I get a strike, anchor away!

Havent been up yet this year but tried this for the first time last year and had good success with it. Fun way to fish also.

Was up there last weekend and put at least 75 walleyes in the boat between Saturday and Sunday morning between 2 guys. It wasn’t like we completely killed them like the past month, but we caught more than enough to keep us interested. There was some sort of lake bug that hatched over the weekend and they were all over the lake… so that I am sure didn’t help the bite. We used bottom bouncers with 2 oz weights and Mustad Slow Death hooks with a crawler or a gulp plastic crawler at about 1.5 mph. Both worked. The key is the slow death hook. Also, in my opinion, your leader is way way way too long. You only need 4-5 ft at most. I often times even use a 3 ft leader. 10 lb Fluorocarbon leader. Targeted 30 ft for a majority of the weekend.. just be sure to reel the fish up slow in that deeper water.

msw1700 wrote:

Was up there last weekend and put at least 75 <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes in the boat between Saturday and Sunday morning between 2 guys. It wasn’t like we completely killed them like the past month, but we caught more than enough to keep us interested. There was some sort of lake bug that hatched over the weekend and they were all over the lake… so that I am sure didn’t help the bite. We used bottom bouncers with 2 oz weights and Mustad Slow Death hooks with a crawler or a gulp plastic crawler at about 1.5 mph. Both worked. The key is the slow death hook. Also, in my opinion, your leader is way way way too long. You only need 4-5 ft at most. I often times even use a 3 ft leader. 10 lb Fluorocarbon leader. Targeted 30 ft for a majority of the weekend.. just be sure to reel the fish up slow in that deeper water.

I take it you were in 30 feet at the bottom edge of the flats?

I take it you were in 30 feet at the bottom edge of the flats?

Correct. Northeast side of the lake. We also tried Highway July Bar and got in about 30-35 ft in the mud flats and did well.

I was up on Sunday, July 21st. North end of the lake. We did very well on bottom bouncers with spinners and crawlers on top of the flats in about 26′. Fast forward to Tuesday, July 30th and everything was caught at the bottom edge of the flat. Same method and about half as many fish. Marked probably 1/10th the amount of fish this last time as we did the first time. That includes top, bottom, wherever. It didn’t help that Tuesday was almost flat calm and as mentioned there was definitely a bug hatch as they were floating all over the surface. Boats were constantly moving from flat to flat on Tuesday searching for fish.

Got out last night for a few hours. We managed to get 15 including a 27” and a 26”. One big one came pulling crawlers & spinners in 30 fow and the other came snap jigging in 32 fow. Tried pulling cranks in 20-25 fow from 9:00-10:00 and had one good bite but the fish came off (never saw it). Should be back out tomorrow morning-ish.

Pulled spinners on Saturday from 12:00 to 6:30 ish and got 16. We started on the mud and then moved to rock/gravel on the east side. Best depth was 30-32 and the blade had to have some blue in it.

I fished on Sunday from 1-8pm. Was hot right away with a few quick ones on the deep edge of the mud. Big one was 25.5′. Quickly slowed and had trouble finding fish in the evening.

Should’ve switched to an egg sinker with a slow death hook and smile blade. I’ve heard that’s the best set up for walleyes

and he proved it masterly!