Nice work! I have to agree. I have been up every weekend since opener and last weekend was the best bite for me.

Funny thing Jon, I trolled right by a guy that had a boat just like you. That guy was putting on a clinic and his dog was barking up a storm

I hope they get a net full of suckers and carp

May 8th, that gives me Friday before opener to get moved back in to the summer place.

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So Brad, do you still plan on yanking numbers of walleyes from the deep in the summer? Just because they appear to “swim away just fine” doesn’t mean they live. Just saying and there are a lot of guys like you doing it.

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Before you jump people for “yanking” fish from the deep you should understand, NOBODY takes better care in handling fish than Brad. Actually a lot of us that yank fish from the deep use a lot of care handling fish, from bringing them in slowly, to having them out of the water a very short time, to spending time getting them going again when in the water. All the crap that is spewed about hook mortality is just that CRAP. Sure there are people that handle the fish poorly causing some mortality, but the great majority of the fish you see floating are not dying from hook mortality and a lot of them aren’t even walleyes. They are tulibee that are dying from high water temps.
In any case, are these really the fish we are worried about on ML? The 22-26″ walleyes? Last time I checked this is the part of the population that is way too high and eating all the forage.

Bummer, Cabelas is about to open a new store this spring 5 miles from my house and I will never get to see the inside of it…their loss, Fleet Farm is 6 miles the other way and less expensive.

you couldn’t pay me to go that! Not even $5 in free slot play. Cabela’s isn’t really thinking of who butters their bread on this one.

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The only people who keep smallies are bitter walleye fishermen who can’t catch walleyes on most lakes.

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Yeah, but they taste great and a guy’s gotta eat

Looks like me last summer on ML

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T-bone,
After reading your post I was not sure what your flame was all about. But after reading my post, maybe a little confusion. I was not trying to imply that the launch problem was due to barbs, but due to the poor handling that I had seen.
I think in all the posts/topics, folks are looking for better ways to help support a comeback of a strained resource.
And as someone who already pinches the barbs for not only walleyes but also bass, I voted yes.

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Gonefishin, my post was in no way referring to yours, sorry if it looked that way. My flames were in regard to how people handle fish, actually agreeing with you.

This is NOT a solution to the problem. The problem is no small males in the population. If those are caught they are kept due to the slot size. We are protecting the wrong fish with this regulation. Someone else said it already, but poor handling and keeping the darn fish out of the water for 1-2 minutes kills a heck of a lot more fish that a barbed hook BUT again we are protecting the wrong fish and sweeping the real problem under the rug. This is very irritating!!!! Make the keeper slot 22-26″ and get people off the lake sooner and leave the hooks alone.

I don’t get why us Walleye guys should have to stand by and let the smallmouth take over the lake. All of my spots that used to hold walleyes are now chuck full of smallies Eating the same food, using the same habitat and running the walleyes off. I like catching smallies as much as the next guy, but Mille Lacs was a world renowned walleye lake well before most people even knew it had smallies in it.

I agree, I have an 1890 Warrior and although I got out twice for short periods of time, it’s a huge pain to control the boat and not much fun fishing in that. I just ain’t that mad at the fish to pound through those size waves. Not to mention the cold front had them pretty tight lipped

I found a few in the basin also on TD 11, but had better luck up closer to the flats. Better bite was on long lined boards, but lead got a few. Not as good as I had hoped, but I am not giving up!

PM sent. I have needed a good boat mechanic several times and I am not impressed at all with the one I used to use up there. Being there every weekend it bites not having a boat.

cool, thanks for the info!!!

It was last weekend, not fast and furious but a consistent bite.

Thanks for the info, can these be used on pedestal seats or just permanent mount seats?

I will be up as I am every weekend. Little deep gravel firday night, then mud early am Saturday sliding way off later in the morning with lead and boards.

On my way up in about an hour, I’ll meet you out there Jon

You will get a tag for sure, it’s number of lines not number of lures. And yeah everyone with a cell phone will be calling the CO and he will write the ticket just for the hassle

Not with walleyes I haven’t found any, but the smallies are loaded with eggs yet.

Some of the lake cams are full of bugs this morning. Must have been a good hatch last night

Give it to a kid, that’s what I did with mine.

Sure was and I saw huge slicks of bugs on the way to the mud Sunday morning

Got mine last night. Think this will work for smallies on the rocks?

yep, that’s where I saw them. There were a few on Hunters cam yesterday too. I hope the wind in out of the southeast this weekend, sorry Steve

I have alway had the spinner bite work well during bug hatches

Can’t wait to get mine, and more so the info on where the fish was tagged

I agree, definately going to push it more to a night bite. Walleye action was extremely slow for me too. I did find some big fat smallies up on the shallow rocks casting swim baits though. Next weekend they should be on fire!