I vote for Kerry all the way. I will take peace and prosperity, and environmental protection any day over an adminstration that wanted to drain wetlands, and gut the clean water act! Bush extended the CRP program, but waited 3 years and did it only just prior to the election. He cares nothing for the environment. The world will be a safer place(see all the 4 star Generals that have supported him)with someone who can think on his own and is not a puppet of big oil companies. I have a letter from a senior writer for B.A.S.S that states ” Bush has done nothing to help our fisheries and much to hurt it ” National defense, health care, the economy will all be better with Kerry. The League of Conservation Voters has given Bush an F rating on environmental issues, the lowest of any President. Lastly, if you hunt and fish and dont care about the environment your fooling yourself! PS. I hunt and fish the River, and a former Naval Officer during the Vietman era.

I love this question, since I love crankbaits:
Deep Wee R
Normans deep little N
Cordell Rattlin 1/2 oz Spot(better than Rattle Traps)
Fat Free Shap 1/4 oz medium runner
3/8 oz Rattle Hot-n-Tot.

Garrison, thanks for the info! I know there are special regs on those species on Mille Lacs and will check-em. Grinder

Mountain Man, Yes I should have included more pools. It just seems with the vast amount of water and the feed available in the river that a Walleye would reach 18 lbs. On the other hand the River has had Walleyes in it for a long time and no one has reported one that large. Perhaps with our servere winters, compared to down south that is, the shorter growing season just isn’t conducive to producing that size fish. Anyway, appreciate all the imput!

Thanks for the info on the polorized sun glasses. I called and talked to the rep and he said the amber was the best forr seeing defination into the water. I have never tried amber, think I will order a pair to fit over my regular glasses this spring. Have any of you had experience with this color for fishing? I always had gray or green. grinder

Mountain Man, Thanks for the info on the shallow water bassin. I fish pool 3 a lot and have never caught a smallmouth in water deeper than 2 to 3 feet and many in 1 ft of water. This year prior to the high and dirty water, I caught some SM in the exact type of places you described, and with lipless cranks. Spots, Traps, even Frenzys,before I too lost some of them. If I understand what you are saying, you have to get you lure in the very shallow water, very close to the rocks. This of course inhances ones chances of getting hung up and loosing the lure. But the rewards—-!!!!. What I have also found is that some years you will get a large Walleye in this same shallow water and that is fun—I mean 6 to 8 lbs.
Now, here is what puzzles me about SM. One year I caught 14 SM 12-15 inchers out of one such shallow area near rocks. Went back the next week and got only 2. What happened?? They much move around a lot. Anyway, good info and glad to here others loose lots of cranks looking for SM. PS not many Largemouth in pool 3. Grinder

I found the articles on rigging for Mille Lacs on the website you talked about. Thanks all for the info! Hopoefully a crankbaiter like me can catch a few Walleyes up there. Gota try for Northerns too. Another time for that. Grinder

Dman, Checked the website you mentioned but except for trolling cranks, and useing leeches, not much info about techniques for Mille Lacs. Will check again later. What I am wondering is do I need colored hooks, long snell, regular
Lindy rigs etc. That sort of info. I am not an accomplished lake walleye angler. Thanks.

Labsrule, I have been thinking of going to Mille Lacs also probably next week in the middle of the week. I have not been on the lake in several years. What technique would you suggest? I have heard of using 3-ways and of course cranks. What snell length worked well. What dept should I start at? I want to get in on the hot bite, but am a bit intimitated by the vastness of that body of water. Where did you launch. Coves Bay I am familiar with.
I also want to try for some Northerns. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Grinder

Boone, I made it pool 3 on Wed for 1/2 day and had some success, catch a varity of fish, white bass (fun but not large) 5 Smallmouth, 5 Walleye and sauger. No large fish except I lost a large walleye at the boat. Caught the Walleyes to my surprise trolling brown crankbaits, the Smallmouth on the riprap cranking. A fun day on the river with nice weather and almost no cruisers to bother with.
The water was a bit dirty and swifter than I prefer, but still caught fish. I like the flow to get down to 15,000- but maybe 30,000 is ok for cranking wingdamns. Gota try that Dubuque rig also. I drive tan and black Crestliner 1700 with a 80 Yahama. Wish it would stop raining. Thanks for the info. Grinder

Boone, wow 26 and 27 inchers are nice fish! Thanks for the pool 3 update!! I have been wondering if the wingdam fishing would be picking up there. You mentioned white bass. I have heard they are running larger this year. What technique did you use on the walleyes? I was hoping to do some crankbaiting on the wingdams this mid-week to avoid the cruiser on the weekend, but with all this rain I assume the water to up and very dirty. Crankbaiting wingdams are one of my favorite ways to fish the river for any species. Grinder

Thanks for the correction on the pearls. Your spelling looks about right. These large pearls I am told helps them detect vibration. Enjoy seeing the pictures of these large sheepys. Keep it up guys. Too bad there are so many small ones in the river. Large fish are fun to catch!!

Very nice sheepy ( Drum). I wonder what it weighed. I love to catch big sheepy on crankbaits. They are very sporting and attracted to vibrating lures. Do you know about the pearls in their head called, “oddelus”, or something like that.

Chris, I was wondering why more people dont fish below the Hasting Damn? I know it is not boundry waters so it isnt open yet for Walleyes but there must be white bass there.

Do the Walleyes not migrate up there? Also do you think this is a good weekend for white bass in pool 4?

I cant resist a good discussion on crankbaits. For general purpose river fishing, I like a number of baits, that are plastic, have rattles, cast well, run true, and dive deep.( not all dive deep) I am talking baits that catch Walleyes, Smallmouth, White bass and of course Drum. Here is my list of favorites: Rebel Deep Wee R, Normans Deep Little N. Model A bombers, Bandits, Cordel Big O, and the Rattle Spots. I have had really good success with this group in either chartruse or brown. Shapraps are great for trolling, but I dont use them often for casting. And with all these sales this year, my inventory is really growing. Need to loose some. That is my take on cranks. P.S. I like Hot-n-Tots for trolling.

labsrule and others, I am real leary of Normarks new lures and all their hype! Reminds me of the Bill Dance Dancin Eel, remember them—-no good! I wait to see if they work first. There are lots of other brands of baits that catch fish. By the way, has anyone caught fish on Frenzys? They are on sale a lot also. I dont own one.

Regarding Ristos, my buddy and I took them to Canada and could not get bit on them. We caught Pike, and Walleyes on 12 other kinds of cranks, but nothing on Ristos. They wont make the trip this year.

Labsrule, I bought a 1700 Crestliner SuperHawk last spring after looking at all the 16 and 17 ft walk through rigs I could fine. I found that Crestliner had the best flat storage and compartments options, for all the gear one carries. Besides storage for rods both compartments and non compartmented, it has under the consel storage. Flat one level storage storage is so important since we all carry so much gear. It also has a place for map storage under the left side windshield. Also important to me is a place to mount a kicker motor on the transom which it has. If provides a smooth dry ride at 30 mph with a 80 hp 4 stroke Yamaha, and trolls wonderfully. I trolled a week in Canada without a cough from that engine. I guess this is also a plug for Yamaha.

I have a 24 volt Minnkota electric on the front, which handles it very well. Lund are great boats also, but the ones I looked at in my price range, did not have as much storage. Good luck in your search———it fun!! Grinder PS They are wide, with great stability.

When you into Mileys and Buffalo slew, do you enter from the main channel through the cuts,ie Brewers or do you launch at that ramp in the backwaters of North lake I think it is? The times I fished in Buffalo I entered through Brewers and it was quite shallow, like 2 feet in places. I have fished the channel lots but now much in the backwaters.