Mille Lacs – The only lake where good fishing is a problem.

Regulation adjustment coming for yellow perch fishing on Mille Lacs Lake
Starting March 11, the daily and possession limit for yellow perch on Mille Lacs Lake will be reduced from 20 to five. This regulation will be in place through Nov. 30.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is implementing this adjustment to the daily and possession limit to help maintain a good perch population for the future. Yellow perch are a key species in the Mille Lacs Lake ecosystem and young yellow perch are a primary food source for predators (especially walleye). Maintaining an abundance of older perch will result in more young being produced this spring and preserve harvest opportunities for next year.
“We are pleased that the perch fishing on Mille Lacs this winter has been good for many anglers,” said Brad Parsons, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources fisheries section manager. “With annual perch harvest never more than 7,000 pounds since 2012, this year’s rebound is a positive sign for the health of the lake.”
State-licensed anglers share the perch harvest on Mille Lacs with Ojibwe Tribes that retain fishing rights by treaty. To conserve the fishery, an annual safe harvest level is cooperatively established by the state and the Tribes through a government-to-government, co-management process. Each party then sets fishing regulations to stay within their share of the harvest. As of Feb. 23, the state has harvested more than 43,000 pounds of perch, exceeding its share of the harvest of 36,500 pounds.
“The state and our Tribal partners will intensify efforts to evaluate the Mille Lacs perch population and future sustainable harvest plans. The response we see in the perch population to this year’s higher harvest will be an important part of that,” Parsons said.
Complete Mille Lacs Lake fishing regulations and regularly updated data on state-licensed angler catches of walleye, northern pike and yellow perch are available on the Minnesota DNR website (//mndnr.gov/millelacslake).

Showing sold out as of this morning.

My son goes to the U. This happened right outside his buddies house. Don’t think anyone was home. Would have been interesting to know if any of the guys in the house would have went and helped. Can’t believe she put up the fight she did.

I see that Garrison Sports is pulling their bridge tomorrow (Thursday) already. Pretty much shuts down their road as that heave is pretty close to shore. Seems crazy as much ice and as cold as it was that they are calling it a season. Plenty other access points, just seems quick.

Made it out to Mille Lacs this past weekend. Two guys fished a total of about 12 hours. Came home with 31 jumbos. Definitely not fast and furious but well worth it. We were totally off the beaten path (got stuck a couple times) and nobody fished around us. No fancy live scope or anything. Everything came off of spoons with either waxies or red spikes. Had to sort thru a ton of dinks to get our fish. Not sure if that means we were not quite in the right spot or if that is the norm. Sure was a great couple of days to be out fishing.

Yeah, I knew they moved to TX. It’s funny though, the main Northland Tackle phone number is still 218 (Bemidji) area code.

I also have had really good luck with the One-Boat Network.

Hank

I also use the Audew. Works great. I have the 2000A jump starter. An engineer at work who is very anal about what he buys, did all the research and said the Audew is the one to buy.

Welp, that didn’t work. It’s a regular food strainer. The metal mesh type. Gets almost everything in one scoop all the time.

I use one of these:

The silicon repair tape is by far the best option. Holds it tight and no residue.

Stump24 – I took advantage of the LaCrosse AlphaBurly sale and got them for $99. Great buy. They were flying off the shelf.

Gim – that is dated the 14th. Will be interesting what it says as of today. We got almost 1.5″ in Mankato.

253 here.

He played on one offensive play against Maryland. He was in the backfield.

I also like the Accutips.

When we were there, you exited off as normal and then had about 1 block of dirt/gravel until you turned down into the park.

We went to Colvill last weekend. It is not bad getting through at all. Very short distance of construction.

Fished Friday and Saturday. Had a group of guys with 3 boats. My boat never left the can line. The other two tried many different spots with little to no success. We did not tear it up on the can line, but we caught fish. Each day probably caught 15ish fish with 6 in the box one day and 5 the next. Was very hard to catch a fish after 11:00am. Almost all fish caught on #7 flicker shad. The one I am using has so much paint gone off of it that color must not be making a difference. It is a craw fish color. We didn’t go to the lake as we talked to someone who was there and said the floating grass was horrible. Other spots tried by the other boats; high bridge, high banks, hay creek, etc.

Thanks Mojo. I appreciate the report!

@mojogunter

Any report from your trip down? Wondering if you spent time on the lake, up in the river? What was the best presentation and depths? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Gerty

Mojo thanks for the report. I will be down for 3 days the 11th – 13th. Will be interested in your report.

FOMO = Fear Of Missing Out

I second the burgers at Buffalo Tap. Stopped there on Sunday and both burgers were amazing.

I agree with the weather element to this, but at least it shows a direction for hopefully helping to lower costs in the future.

Had a great day on Sunday. Fishing the early part of the morning was lights out for about 1.5 hours. Then things slowed considerably also more boats showed up which could be the reason. Anyway, the trolling bite is good!

Thanks! I’ll let you know if I make it down.

Any reports from Pepin lately? I haven’t been for a month or so and thinking of heading back down this weekend. North of Lake City, south of Lake City? Starting depths? Any help would be appreciated. Sure to put up a report if I make it down.

Thanks!