Does anyone know what boat ramps will be open on Pepin for Memorial weekend? I know the water level is still really high. Thank you.

Fishing was slow for my girlfriend and I also this past weekend. Went out of Mac’s Twin Bay and fished a similar depth around Hennepin. Ended up with 5 walleyes including this 24.5 incher she caught. Lost a couple of smaller fish too. We didn’t graph many fish but the ones we caught were pretty aggressive. Entire staff at Mac’s was very friendly and accommodating and we were impressed how nice their sleeper house was. We enjoyed our trip overall including having some good food at their restaurant!

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Thanks muskycliff. I will stop there on our way up.

Friday night was tough conditions. We got blown off of the West side when the wind switched and I dinged up my prop a little on the way back in to the landing. We ended up relocating to the North end around the Red Door area and getting a few walleyes. I have experienced good fishing around the November full moon as well. It is hard to cover allot of water in late Fall since you have to troll so slow due to the cold water temperature. So we try to target areas where we have caught fish in the past. If we catch a fish then we don”t troll much further before turning around and going back through the same area.

We are staying at Red Door also. My brother and I will be in a blue/white Crestliner. Friday night might be the most challenging in terms of the weather and wind. Hope the walleyes cooperate!

Thanks Guys!

Thanks guys.

Thanks for the input guys. Didn’t know if it was possible or not.

Thanks guys for all of the great input as it is appreciated. I ended up ordering a Ram Heavy Duty Mount with the 2 1/4″ ball as I think it will work best for my locator and boat. I also ordered the Ram wrench so I can tighten it down securely. I decided to go with the larger ball in case I ever wanted to upgrade to an 1100 series Bird.

A buddy and I fished West side rocks and weeds last night. Weather was decent but we could have used a little more wind. Water temp was about 43. Overall the fishing was slow but we kept at it and ended up with 7 walleyes for the night. We had 1 walleye under the slot and the rest were over slot with most of our fish in the 24-25 inch range. Majority of our fish were caught with our rods in the rod holder and our best trolling speed was 1.2 to 1.4 mph. Here are a couple of photos from our trip. Good luck to anyone heading up for another trip!

I still expect the October full moon fishing on Mille Lacs to be very good. We just need some cooler temps to get the bite going in the right direction.

Buddy and I fished west side of Mille Lacs this past Tuesday night. Water temp was 63 degrees. We pulled shad style baits and some husky jerks and only ended up with a 26 inch eye and 3 smallies. We fished both the rocks and weeds and depths from 5 to 15 feet but couldn’t put anything together. Had a nice wind but no moon and fish didn’t seem to be in their normal areas in big numbers yet. We quit fishing at 2:30 AM. Having some moon tonight might make a difference though. Good luck to anyone heading up there this weekend!

Thanks for the report Dabeez. Girlfriend and I are heading up to Mille Lacs tomorrow for 2 days of fishing. We are going to be in a sleeper house out of Liberty Beach and Portavilla also. Glad to hear you had a good trip and caught some nice walleyes. I may post a quick report when we get back.

Thanks for the report BigCrappie. Fished St Albans this afternoon also and ended up with 5 eyes fishing primarily in 13-14 FOW. Biggest fish was in low 20’s. Caught 1 eye on Garrison reef in morning. 1/8 ounce slender spoon tipped with a fathead head worked best. Missed 5-6 bites on a tip up. Felt good to be back on the ice!

Thanks for the posts guys and the video clip. I have a pretty good idea where to start now. Will post a quick report if I make it up there for early ice.

No I probably won’t be able to get another trip up to Mille Lacs before freeze up unless I hop in another boat with someone. Kind of a sad day as I dropped boat off to get winterized. Regarding a few of the fish being a little on the skinny side this year, it was only some of the larger 25 inch plus walleyes as all of the 20-24 inchers were really fat and plump. Personally I am not real surprised that we are seeing a few skinny fish since the baitfish and young of the year perch populations are way down this year. In years past, we had a year here and there with a few skinny fish but they were always followed up by fat healthy fish the next year. Let’s hope we don’t see any skinny walleyes on Mille Lacs in 2013.

Here are a couple of more pictures.

I was in a blue/white 1650 Crestliner with a 60 HP Mercury motor. Too bad about the impatient guy in the Ranger. It was a disappointing night of fishing for me but never had any issues with any boats all night. Just trying to figure out why I didn’t connect with a few more fish. Oh well that is why they call it fishing. Thank you to all who take the time to post a report as is appreciated.

Those are some quality fish Jack! Nice job putting together a pattern in less than ideal conditions. A strong wind does take its toll on a guy if you are fighting it all night.

Most of the pike were of the smaller size but we did manage 1 larger one. Here are a couple of photos of the larger walleyes from our trip.

Congrats Mitch! Great looking walleye. Need to get my boat ready soon.

Total Weight – 22.1
Big Fish – 7.8

Wabasha – Was good to meet you guys as well. I am expecting a great October bite on Mille Lacs and hope to get up there 3-4 times myself. We primarily fish weeds on West side and North end. Good luck on your trips also!

My brother and I stayed at The Red Door this past weekend. We managed to catch 8 walleyes on Friday night with most fish in the 18-21 inch range. All of our fish came late after 11:30 PM when moon was directly overhead shallow in 6-8 FOW using Tenessee Shad Husky Jerks. Saturday was slow for us as well as we only caught 1 walleye pulling lead core w/cranks during day and 1 smaller walleye shallow during our night trolling. I think we might have talked to your group Wabasha as we were loading our boat up at the end of the night on Saturday. Fall colors were great and we were really impressed with the new cabins at The Red Door. Can’t wait for the October full moon!

Thanks for the report. My brother and I are going to be fishing Friday through Sunday this next weekend. Will fish some perch during day along with trying some leadcore w/cranks for walleyes and some night fishing as well. Has anyone heard of any good perch reports from North end this past weekend? Also, I was curious what the water temps were last weekend? Will post a quick report when we get back.

Glad to hear the docks are in. Might have to give the lake a try this weekend! Thanks guys.