Mille Lacs Early July Open Water Trolling Report

Over the years I’ve taken numerous guests out on Mille Lacs so they can get a chance to experience the thrill of open water trolling for trophy class walleyes. However, one weekend I always leave open just for friends and family is around the 4th of July. It’s our chance to just let down our hair, be ourselves without having to entertain anyone.

Due to or son’s leg surgeries, my wife Tina had not been out of the house for over a month while tending for our son at his bedside. Every night she slept on the couch right next to his hospital bed taking care of his every need. I sincerely believe there’s not another mother in the world that’s as giving and caring as her. If you could define unconditional love – you would define Tina. She certainly needed a well deserved break doing what she loves – trolling the open basin of Mille Lacs.

Joining us on the water was our friends Joe and Randy. Joe has been a friend of mine for over 30 years and we met when we were teenagers while making pizzas together at Shakey’s Pizza. There’s not a time when we are together that we don’t talk about all the funny things we experienced while working together. He’s always a joy to fish with because he just loves to catch big fish – even more than me.

What a beautiful weekend with temps in the low 80’s, sunny skies and light winds. It just doesn’t get much better than that. Our goal was to hunt for trophy class walleyes out in the open basin of Mille Lacs. These big walleyes are suspended out there chasing baitfish such as tullibees and that’s why we use big profile deep diving crankbaits such as Rapala Deep Tail Dancers and Storm Deep Thundersticks. This style of fishing is about quality and not quantity. I prefer to catch one big walleye versus 10 smaller ones. If you want to eat fish, you’re better off rigging or corking. One has to understand that and set expectations accordingly.

Over the two days, we fished from 11 – 7 on Sat and 11-5:30 on Sunday and ended up catching over 40 walleyes including a lot of big fish and we had three being over the 28 inch trophy slot ( a 29, 28.25 and a 28). We also caught numerous fish in the 25 – 27 inch range. Heck, it was so easy I even caught 2 fish this weekend! One was a chunky 27.5 incher that I ended up hand lining in with the planer board due to the line breaking off by the reel. That was a first… and we even picked a bonus fish – a 32 inch northern.

And the big fish award goes out to Randy! Our goal going into this weekend was for him to his PB walleye. Well, we did that – 4 times and now his PB is a 29 incher!!! Way to go Randy!

Keys to our success:

On the first day, our fishing certainly slowed down towards the evening. I was telling fellow IDO Reporter – Ted Merdan about it and he suggested that I may want to switch to different colors as the amount of sunlight dissipates throughout the day. On the second day, we switched colors around a bit more and it really paid off for us. Thanks Ted! One Deep Thunderstick color (chartreuse purple shad) that I never caught a fish on before was hot and now it’s officially on my top 10 list. I guess just because you’re catching fish on one color doesn’t mean you can’t catch more fish on a different color.

Another key was using the engine mount trolling motor that is mounted on back of my big motor. The lake on Sunday was almost flat and this allowed us to go into stealth mode and eliminate the motor noise on my kicker. I believe motor noise will spook these suspended fish especially on calm days.

Recognizing “the right type of sign” on your sonar is also a key. You want to find some baitfish with a few suspended arcs mixed in every now and then. If you come across an area with loads and loads of baitfish, that may not be good simply because you have too much competition down there. And vice versa, if you are not graphing any baitfish or walleyes, you will not catch them. This takes a little bit of experience and time on the water. You’ll know it when you see it.

The last key to our success was the ability to figure 8 these suspended walleyes due to the light winds. For over 6 hours on Sunday, I never started the big motor and primarily used the engine mount trolling motor weaving back and forth picking up walleye after walleye. It’s important to stay on these fish as much as possible because they will move and that also includes up and down the water column. As the day moved on, we got them really dialed in and more and more fish were coming to the boat. We decided to call it quits on Sunday at 5:30. Time was winding down and for those of you that have fished with me before, may have heard me say “it’s all about one more fish!” Well time was winding down and it was now 5:29 PM. As we were counting down the seconds BANG – fish on and we ended our day with another memory.

Wow – what a great weekend! It was also fun seeing so many other IDO anglers on the lake as well – Chris Tuckner and his gal, Craig Daugherty and his buddy and Ted Merdan and his two pups! It’s always great to share information on the lake. Next year we will have to do a much better job coordinating where we stay so we can have a celebrate with a .

As we trolled at the end of the day, a calm feeling flowed through my blood. All the worries about life were gone and I became completely relaxed. There was not another boat in sight and I felt free. I just sat there soaking it all in; the open air, the light winds; the calming of the water; the clear skies… everything. I then realized fishing is not just something I do as a hobby. It’s part of my being. It grounds me and it allows me time to think about all the things I still need to do in my life. It’s simply my time to give thanks and reflect.

Thanks to all of those who reached out to me on my last report. I even heard from a couple of people that I hadn’t spoken to in years. It’s pretty cool that a fishing report was able to connect us again. I also met a couple of new friends as well. If you any questions about the open water trolling system, please feel free to reach out to me via a PM or email. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but what I can do is tell you what doesn’t work.

I hope your 4th of July weekend as enjoyable as mine. If not, maybe next year you should consider taking out your family and friends and let them experience the open basin of Mille Lacs.