Water Temps and Walleyes?

Thinking of coming up to Mille Lacs in the next week or so. Anyone have a current water temp? And would you recommend fishing north end of the lake or south for walleyes?

Someone said 65 last Sunday, still to warm, they are in transition still. Wait a week or 2

Was fishing last Sunday. It was 63 where I was, caught a few walleye with the bass on the rocks

I was out Saturday and it was 68 northwest corner. Been stuck at that mid to upper 60’s for a month.

Anything recent up there? Heading up this Saturday for the evening and hoping to pull some cranks shallow into the night

ryan hunt wrote:

Anything recent up there? Heading up this Saturday for the evening and hoping to pull some cranks shallow into the night

I haven’t heard any recent reports but I was planning on doing the same. The wind forecast has me questioning if I’ll actually go or not though.

I cannot speak for ML, but the lakes in the Brainerd area are still mid 60’s. I saw 66.5 on a smaller lake on Monday evening.

Wind is going to be there. West shore should be fine based on wind finder. But its going to be blowing.

Hoping it at least gets to the 60 mark but that is probably wishful thinking.

Temp was 62 on Tuesday around Big Point and while fishing bass in 10-12′, caught a couple of walleyes for the first time in a couple of months. So maybe the walleyes are starting to move shallow.

I fished at my shore spot the last couple of nights. Saw more fish on Saturday than on Friday night. Caught one walleye both nights and had two bites both nites, but I think on Friday the bites came from the same fish; on Saturday they definitely did not come from the same fish. Some guys coming off the lake on Saturday told me they got water temps down to 53-degrees at times, but it was mostly 55.

Water temp was 56-58 today on the big pond.

Had 57 saturday night. Caught a few but it wasn’t on fire by any means. Started deeper early on and marked alot of fish, couldn’t get those to go, moved into 8 to 10 fow and picked up a few. Baitfish everywhere. Had one that was 21.5 and kept that for a meal as we have not kept anything all summer anywhere. There was 4 little perch in the livewell that it spit up so they are on the feedbag, but also no shortage of forage from what i saw all night on the livescope and the amount that was in the livewell from one fish.

Pick your accesses accordingly. Went out of Red Door and that channel going out is really shallow. Even with a jackplate I had to run the bow mount to get out. Won’t be going back out of that one until the water raises. Nothing against them, where I always launch if I want to fish the far north shore. That shore with the sand is really shallow along the entire shore right now. Went out of Terry’s a few weeks ago and that water was down as well but nothing like the far north end. Will be sticking to that area next weekend as I know I can get in and out of there easier.

Definitely good to be back on Mille in the fall and trolling. Something about those eyes in the fall at night, moon above and calm water cruising along with the crankbaits out that I really enjoy.

Water temp was 55-56 on the West side of the lake. Was able to pick up quiet a few in 8-10 ft but had to work my butt off to get them to bite. Small groups of fish that I had to find on livescope and make casts on top of their heads in order to get a bite. Will be up again next week and hopefully they are biting a little more aggressive!

We fished the last two nights on the East Side. On Tuesday fished from 6 – 12 and only manged two with one a slot fish. Only about a dozen boats seen the entire time. Last night fished from 6- 10 and caught 8, mostly on Rouges in less than 10′. We had the area we were in all to ourselves, no other boat in sight. Tuesday 58 and last night 55. With light wind tonight, hopefully more folks will venture out and report back. We put in at Mac’s.

I got 50 right now northwest corner. Shoot me pm gonefishin if you want to compare notes

It is not the same old Mille Lacs lake with this low water. Perfect conditions to lay a beatdown on them the last two nights at my shore fishing spot. 3 bites and 2 fish landed Thurs. night. 1 bite 1 eye on Friday when conditions were even better. I could cast farther and fewer issues with weeds. Both nights I tried a variety of lures. I got all the fish on a 4.5 Swimbait on a Storm 360 Swimbait Head bumping it along the bottom. One fish on Thurs and the one tonight inhaled the lure abnormally far into their mouth. That leads me to believe there aren’t that many fish shallow where I can get to them

Walleye bite has been slower than I am used to. Not seeing the hoards of fish shallow yet. Seeing a ton of perch shallow. Fish we are getting are super thick fish and puking up perch. All fish coming under 10 fow.

We had a pretty solid day yesterday. Smallies were slower then we expected but the walleyes worked well for us.

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What was the water temp out there?

Same yesterday was our best day. Found 1 good tight school of smallies. Caught plenty of eyes. Both during the day and trolling. Water was 50-52. Really nice day out. She would be chilly out there today.

Thanks

Bearcat89 wrote:

We had a pretty solid day yesterday. Smallies were slower then we expected but the <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleyes worked well for us.

How were you fishing for the walleyes? We had 54 degree water temps yesterday. Smallies bit ok early then it was dead till 3 pm. Last few hours were good. Only 1 walleye rigging big minnows for smallmouth. Boone nabbed 21.25”. Tried trolling after dark for an hour with no action.

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fish-them-all wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
We had a pretty solid day yesterday. Smallies were slower then we expected but the <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleyes worked well for us.

How were you fishing for the walleyes? We had 54 degree water temps yesterday. Smallies bit ok early then it was dead till 3 pm. Last few hours were good. Only 1 <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye rigging big minnows for smallmouth. Boone nabbed 21.25”. Tried trolling after dark for an hour with no action.

They were eating suckers and stick baits. We fished till midnight. Best bite for us was from 7pm to midnight, but we caught fish all day.

What access on the east side is in the best shape for launching bigger glass boats? Was out last week and use a resort on that side and their launch was deep but really shallow for 100 yds off the launch.

Ryan Haller wrote:

What access on the east side is in the best shape for launching bigger glass boats? Was out last week and use a resort on that side and their launch was deep but really shallow for 100 yds off the launch.

Sounds like most right now on that side. We went out of a launch that was maybe 1ft deep.

West side is the same. I would pick an access that is more sand than rock.

Ryan Haller wrote:

What access on the east side is in the best shape for launching bigger glass boats?

Macs Twin Bay (Da-Boathouse) or Hunters Point. Both no problem for bigger glass boats.

Cedar Creek is un-usable.

Liberty is just ok if there is no chop blowing into the access. (East side, always choppy! )

-J.

Ryan Haller wrote:

What access on the east side is in the best shape for launching bigger glass boats? Was out last week and use a resort on that side and their launch was deep but really shallow for 100 yds off the launch.

They’re all pretty shallow right now. Mac’s twin bay is probably your best bet.
Hunter’s ramp is usable but be careful getting out of their harbor area. It’s very shallow in a couple spots. I wouldn’t want to try if there is a good chop blowing in there.
Bearcat and I used liberty, but I was hitting the bottom with my boat which is a 17ft aluminium tiller. If it had been windy it would have been very challenging. Castaways has a decent ramp/ harbor too but it’s still very shallow for about 200yds into they lake before it drops off.

Water was 55 Friday the 23rd. Nittis launch is fine use the north ramp not the south. They were biting OK Friday all day. Kids (had 4 with me between 12-15) were missing a lot of bites early, setting hook too quickly with bigger minnows we had. Switched all rigs to bigger hook and that helped. My daughter got her PB 27″ trolling shallow at 800 pm over rocks which was a blast. I was not marking large schools – lot of 2/3 fish pods with occasional maybe 4-7 fish pods.
There was a blue/black/red alumacraft, I think tiller, who looked like they were having a lot of success. Seemed to be heavy SI use and picking them off with rippin rap type presentation. I would be curious to see their numbers that Friday if a member here post up.

Ended up using agates launch. Ramp is steep and made loading a little tough but their harbor was deep. Pitching jigs on the reefs made for a pretty good bite. Light bites but got into em pretty good. Water temps 52.