Mille Lacs Lake LM Bass Report

I can say with relative ease, I’ve chased a lot of different species on Mille Lacs Lake. 2 predominant species have all but eluded me until my last trip to “The Big Pond.” Now I can scratch one of those species off that list. Largemouth Bass, the one fish I’ve always wanted to try and catch but rarely had the time to dedicate.

With a stiff north wind, Wade and I worked our way into Twin Bay. This is an area I’ve tried before, looking for LM Bass, but have always come up empty or walked away with a sore thumb from catching Smallies. This time we hit it just right and we were able to pull out a couple chunky LM Bass. Wade struck first with a very nice LM Bass caught on a chatterbait. It wasn’t too long after that I pulled in a nice one using a Stanley Ribbit.

After a couple missed opportunities in the same area, we made a break for the reeds in the back of the bay but couldn’t get anything to commit to having it’s picture taken…. After leaving Twin Bay I was hoping we’d get another chance to chase these bucket mouthed fish.

It wasn’t until Thursday that we’d get that chance. Unknown to us, this was a day that while the weather was trying to be at it’s worst, the LM Bass fishing would be at it’s best.

With little options because of the weather and how strong the wind was blowing out of the southeast we decided to put in at the Isle public launch. We were hoping to try and salvage some sort of Smallmouth Bass bite, but it only took us minutes to discover just how good the LM Bass bite would be.

The great thing about this bite wasn’t to overall size of the fish, but the actual type of bite it was…..a topwater bite!!

Thursday was a brutal day. Real heavy drizzle/rain with a gusty wind that ran a chill directly into your core. Not the kind of day you’d expect to put LM Bass into the boat using weedless frogs like the Ribbit ones made by Stanley. If I’d have been asked what to use on a day like this I’d have said a swimjig or spinnerbait. Topwater would have been down the list a little ways.

If you are new to the topwater frog community, here’s a link for the Stanley Ribbit.

My bait of choice was a Reaction Innovations Trixie Shark. Hey Drew!!! You can check them out here. Trixie Shark

These have quickly become my go-to frog for chasing LM Bass. These fish solidified my beliefs in this bait. Except for the occasional Pike almost every LM Bass completely engulfed this bait. Calling it fun would be an understatement. Even considering the abysmal weather we were fishing in.

The key for finding the fish was to look for reed beds and target the points or corners. We never moved a fish on the straight edges or little depressions in the reed bed. The overcast skies had these fish moved out to the corners and points with one thing on their minds….eating….

We tried some great looking pad bays and even some emergent cabbage, but all those areas were fruitless. I can’t for the life of me understand why. These areas had great looking cabbage and pads in about 4-7ft of water. Perfect for a Bass looking eat an unsuspecting frog or baitfish.

Wade and I took what we knew, expanded on it and made an otherwise “sleepy day” into a fun-filled adventure that closed out yet another great trip to Mille Lacs.

Thanks again to Wade for enjoying this day with me. I look forward to doing this again!