Post Moon Mille Lacs Report

Boy! It has been a long time since I have been able to post a report here! But I just returned from a week up at Mille Lacs with my Son Ben and buddy LeRoy. I was having some electrical issues with my Navigator, so we took LeRoy’s truck and Ranger Reatta. Our plan was to set up camp at the Red Door, and work our way around the winds that plagued us for the first part of the week. A very hearty THANKS to the people at the Red Door! They made our stay there awesome! The cabins are superb! The knotty pine really makes you feel like you are up north, and the cabins are extremely clean and comfortable. Now for the fishing….

We got up to Wealthwood last Saturday and faced reports of a great bite the week prior…but also a diving temperature and high winds. The Lake cooled down 10 degrees since the hot bite of 2 weeks ago. We wre told of 30+ fish days and some really nice slots coming in, but few big fish. We were forced to fish close to shore and the fish told us that we had to fish very shallow. The first two nights we never caught a fish in over 3 feet of water. We tried to find the perfect bait for that type of fishing. Bent Lip Shad Raps, Floating Raps, etc. The perfect bait it turned out was the floating Smithwick Rogue. Speeds were 1 mph with many "S" turns.

One of the things we noticed was the weed growth this year! There is a slimy weed that has completely covered the good cabbage beds on the north end of the lake from Carlsona west to Myr Mar. Nasty stuff to say the least! We had some issues with the big and little motor when we encountered it. I hope it is not a problem that will persist year after year. Many areas were unfishable. We didn’t see a lot of baitfish or walleyes in the weeds like past years. Most of the fish we got north were over rocks, or leeches Lindy Rigged on about 28 feet of water directly in front of the Red Door. (Thanks for the tip Steve Fellegy!) We found nice fish and numbers off the North East side, rock fish on the north end, and a fantastic west side weed bite Friday night…with NO WIND!! Hot sticks Friday noght were chrome Thundersticks. They were just right. Rogues, Husky Jerks and others got into the weeds. Thundersticks stuck to the sweet zone, and stayed clean.

We only got a couple of pike this visit, but St. Alban’s Bay seems to always give me a large pike, and this 38 incher was no exception! We did not have a moon at all most of the week as it came up so late. So it was suprising to see the pike. The walleye bite was slower but steady. A rattle in the bait and frequent surges to the bait seemed to put more fish in our boat than others around us we talked to. We definitely noticed a different size to the slots around the lake. We ended up taking our possession limit of 4 each of over 19.750"! Boy, slots that big will open your eyes! We caught smaller fish at first, but ate them at Hunter’s Point when we found the big slots. They were all full of perch…no suprise there.

Well, now it is off to Pool 2 and the deer stand after that! Good luck to all! Make sure you look up the Red Door when up at Mille Lacs! I saw a number of IDO stickers up there this week!