Tips for Fishing Mille Lacs this week

I have the week off and will be duck hunting and fishing. Would like to fish Mille Lacs. From another thread, Joe Segura said,

We worked secondary rock humps on the east side (by secondary I mean not main lake reefs like 3 mile, Lakeside, etc). We got walleyes on the edges and bass on the tops. Water temps were 55-56. I would be fishing shoreline structure if I went back out from here on out.

Any other tips on types of structure or types of presentations? I primarily only hunt after September but I’ll have extra time this week.

Weed lines can be good also. Your typical fall presentations. Rigging minnows jigs crankbaits. Saw fish as shallow as 2 ft last night. Water temp is below 50 now.

I throw suspending jerks/shads, paddletail swimbaits, and Rippin Raps. Haven’t had a bite on the Rippin Rap yet this Fall in the 6 trips I’ve taken. Swimbaits has gotten the most bites. With the cold, I expect it will shift to suspending jerks.

Trolling original raps or husky jerks shallow should be getting going pretty soon if it already isn’t. There’s a time every fall when the walleyes move real shallow and get very aggressive. This is the stuff I’m going to get better about documenting the water temp when this bite occurs in the future. In the past I’ve typically known when it’s on by hitting a few landings after dark and walking to the end of the dock while wearing a head lamp to make sure I don’t fall in (wink wink). When you see several marble eyes reflecting back the light of your head lamp that are moving around with some even in less than a foot of water….that’s when it’s on. Troll shallow and let out a lot of line, a couple hundred feet of mono, and you’ll catch quite a few with several being big girls usually.

Even in the broad daylight joneser? Super shallow crankin with OG floaters is my favorite way to catch a walleye. Usually don’t even bother until well after dark but when the timing lines up man is it fun during the day!!

joneser wrote:

Trolling original raps or husky jerks shallow should be getting going pretty soon if it already isn’t. There’s a time every fall when the <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes move real shallow and get very aggressive. This is the stuff I’m going to get better about documenting the water temp when this bite occurs in the future. In the past I’ve typically known when it’s on by hitting a few landings after dark and walking to the end of the dock while wearing a head lamp to make sure I don’t fall in (wink wink). When you see several marble eyes reflecting back the light of your head lamp that are moving around with some even in less than a foot of water….that’s when it’s on. Troll shallow and let out a lot of line, a couple hundred feet of mono, and you’ll catch quite a few with several being big girls usually.

You can see them shallow now…wink wink

The cisco/tulibee spawn should start in about a week or so. It usually occurs around full moon in early November and there is a full moon scheduled for Oct 31 on Halloween. I know that a lot of muskie guys target this time period for some of the biggest fish of the season but I’m sure at least some larger walleyes probably prey on them too when they’re spawning in shallow water.

gimruis wrote:

The cisco/tulibee spawn should start in about a week or so. It usually occurs around full moon in early November and there is a full moon scheduled for Oct 31 on Halloween. I know that a lot of muskie guys target this time period for some of the biggest fish of the season but I’m sure at least some larger <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleyes probably prey on them too when they’re spawning in shallow water.

I would be really impressed if a walleye could eat a spawning size Cisco on mille Lacs. All the Cisco I have seen up there are giants.

MnPat1 wrote:

I would be really impressed if a walleye could eat a spawning size Cisco on mille Lacs. All the Cisco I have seen up there are giants.

I think a 30 inch walleye would eat a 12 inch cisco given the opportunity. You’re probably right for the most part though, they may be too big.

Ripjiggen wrote:

You can see them shallow now…wink wink

Attachments:

1. 

   dock.jpg
   

MnPat1 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>gimruis wrote:</div>
The cisco/tulibee spawn should start in about a week or so. It usually occurs around full moon in early November and there is a full moon scheduled for Oct 31 on Halloween. I know that a lot of muskie guys target this time period for some of the biggest fish of the season but I’m sure at least some larger <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleyes probably prey on them too when they’re spawning in shallow water.

I would be really impressed if a walleye could eat a spawning size Cisco on mille Lacs. All the Cisco I have seen up there are giants.

I’ve caught several eyes with tullibee tails in their throats back when I used to troll.

Yuup. Seen 22″ eye with 12″ shad. Don’t leave much room to take a poop I’d think, but they do it.

Give this a try.

So how was it Netguy?!

Unfortunately I didn’t get to Mille Lacs. Monday was going to be the day but spent the majority of the day redoing some duck decoys for a hunt in the snow on Tuesday that was very successful. Then after that I didn’t want to take my new boat/trailer on the salted roads. Ended up doing a lot of house/projects. I have this week of work, then a month of vacation, then 1 day back to work to retire. I’ll try to get out when everyone else is deer hunting.