If the endless run of fishing reports from Mille Lacs, and all the photos of BIG fish, hasn’t quite got your attention yet… the bite is really, really good! And it shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. For all you fence sitters out there if you haven’t pulled the trigger yet, do what I did, and hitch up the boat, round up a couple buddies and make the drive. You won’t be disappointed!
I had the chance to hit Mille Lacs with good buddies Joel Nelson, Dave “Pipes” Koonce and Grant Sorensen this past weekend looking to get in on the hot walleye bite that has been the talk of the fishing community this summer.
Our plan was to put my new Skeeter WX 2100 through the paces and see what we could put together fishing lead core and cranks. With 4 guys in the boat we would be able to run a nice spread and cover water efficiently which would be important because nobody in our group had fished the lake this summer prior to the weekend. I had an idea of where to start but that’s not the same as having recently fished the lake so the lead core and crankbait program seemed like a good way to eliminate some water and get a feel for what the fish were looking for.
Our Basic Set-Up:
We ran our first two rods, one board per side, rigged with 3 colors of 18# lead core with a 30′ flouro leader to the crankbait. The boards were clipped to the mainline (20# Suffix 832) right where the third color of lead core was joined to the mainline, putting the boards out to the side of the boat and the cranks down in the 30′ – 32′ range in 34′ – 36′ of water.
Our other two rods were fished without boards and were rigged with 5 colors of lead core and were also set up with a 30′ leader to the crankbaits. We ran 3 – 3.5 colors of lead from the rod tip.
The primary cranks used included #10 Deep Husky Jerks and #9 Shad Raps.
Trolling speeds ranged from 2.0 – 2.3 mph.
Fish the Basin Instead of the Flat Itself
We didn’t set up until we found a good group of fish near 7 Mile… which took all of about 10 minutes of looking with electronics. The fish seemed to be clustered in small groups every 50 yards or so and incredibly eager to bite! Case in point, our first hook ups came about 10 minutes into our first pass after we had all four rods deployed… and that first hookup was actually a double!
Now were didn’t fish 7 Mile itself. Instead we concentrated on the deeper water around the flat while keeping the boat 0.25 – 0.50 miles away from the structure. Any time I would guide the boat in the general direction of the flat itself and close that distance the numbers of fish would quickly dry up forcing a prompt turn of the nose of the boat back out towards deeper water to get back on active fish.
Early in the AM when the sun was still obscured by the clouds and the wind was still blowing our best colors were dark; perch and gold black outproduced bright and/or chromed patterns.
Once the sun came out and the clouds pushed off to the east those dark patterns slowed to a near stop. Out came the crank boxes and we started rotating through new patterns looking for that next hot bait. The fish likely didn’t stop feeding and from the looks of the electronics we knew they didn’t move… within 30 minutes or so we found that the bite had switched to “anything purple.”
Purpledescent Deep Husky Jerks, Purpledescent Minnow Raps and Purpledescent #9 Shad Raps were simply on fire while other patterns just didn’t seem to be getting hit as hard or as often.
Within 30 minutes of the sun popping out all rods were switched out from the dark patterns used in the AM to a mix of Purpledescent crankbaits and we spent the next 4 – 5 hours taking turns landing one big walleye after another.
Our longest fish taped 29″ and we had a bunch of fish in the 26″ – 28″ class. In looking through all the pics I can’t remember how long a particular fish was or how many we caught in total. What I do know is that stuff just doesn’t matter on a day when there always seem to be someone in the boat fighting a fish.
To wrap this report up I’m going to share a bunch of photos from our day on Mille Lacs and urge anyone that has been fence sitting about getting up to Mille Lacs to get the boat on the water! If you follow the basic lead core set-ups I shared or some of the tips others have shared in recent days, you’re going to catch fish. Do know that the bite just doesn’t get any better than it is right now!
Dave Koonce is always smiling about something! If you’re lucky enough to know the man… well, you’re lucky!
Dave with his first fish of the day. Not a bad start at all.
Camera comes out, Dave turns into a ham!
I’m pretty sure this one shows up at Dave’s retirement party.
Joel takes a more serious approach. Plus he knows he’s hooked up a biggie.
He’s smilin’ now!
We only had Joel’s company for a couple hours so he got a few fish in a row before we had to drop him back at the dock so he could run off to a family reunion.
Here’s “Pipes” lending a hand with the landing net. At this point the sun is about to come out and jump the temps about 20 degrees.
Grant had a hot Purpledescent #10 Deep Husky Jerk that the bigger fish couldn’t resist.
I’ll be picking up 3 or 4 more of these before I head back to Mille Lacs on Thursday.
Another Deep Husky Jerk fish… barely…. and I mean BARELY hooked!
Second to last pic. This is the longest fish for us at 29″. this one crushed a #9 Shad Rap fished on 3.5 colors of lead core.
Close up of Grant 29″ eye with a mouthful of teeth and a #9 shad rap.
I could go on and on with the pics but I need some sleep. I hope to see a bunch of you guys up on Mille Lacs this week. If you see a 2100 w/ 300 Yamaha on it.. give a wave.
Nice fish guys!!!!
I may have to expand my territory and head down to get in on the giant walleye action.
Way to go, James! Nice seeing you out there on Saturday – sharp looking boat.
We experienced a very similar bite out there with purple showing dominance and many big fish caught. Lot’s of fun up there right now!
Awesome report James! Thanks for including us in all the fun.
I think the most important point you made was regarding the flats and locations we were fishing. I pulled some spinners the day before you guys came up there and saw the same thing. Also spoke to Tony Roach, and his guide trips are logging the exact same results. For the clients looking for big fish, he’s fishing the edges and out; exactly where depending on the day. For your best chance at eaters, the tops.
Grants 29″er was a highly sought after fish that day with the Full Throttle going on, and even in the short time I was in the boat we landed a good number of fish in that 26-27″ range.
Joel
I second that !!!
I had so much fun that day…
I finally arrived home at 12:30am
I got to reflect on my drive home and there was a smile on my face the whole time !!
Thanks James and Co
Nice fish
Nice report! Curious how you are getting those cranks to dig to 32′ with only 3 colors of lead out?
Are those bigger cranks digging 15ft or more on a 30′ leader?
I guess I am used to running about a 10′ leader of fireline and if I run 3 colors(generally a #5ish type crank), I am putting it about 15-18′.
James,
Have you had a chance to use Jolly Roger Tackle’s custom deep husky jerks? They have some really great colors to try
James,
For those of us who do not want to do the lead core would a snap weight work?
That’s the truth!
Nice fish guys! I will be up after the 4th!
Looks like a fun day!
I also was wondering the same thing. Are you running the new suffix 832 leadcore to get it deeper?
Nice report, James! Dave and Grant, good to see your faces again, boys. Looks like a great time and I can only imagine the stories being told on that boat on that day!
In the past using “normal” lead core I counted on getting 5, maybe 6, foot of depth per color. With the 832 after a single test I think I’m seeing 7 or 8 foot of depth per color.
8′ x 3 colors = 24. A Deep Diving Husky Jerk will easily pull 6′ or more on 30 foot of line.
As for the 832 lead core… so far it is doing exactly as advertised. More depth per color and the sensitivity is awesome. Obviously I can’t comment on durability and this was a single test using a single set-up so I’m not willing to guarantee dive curves across a wide variety of depths or presentations.
Tomorrow I’m going to try some of the 12# to see how that works for us.
Terrific day on the water.
thanks for the Great Report.
Jack
Awesome. Thanks. I will have to pick some of that stuff up and try it. Sure be nice to not have to crank in 150ish’ of core every time. I guess I never knew the Suffix was suppposed to work better. Learn something every day!
I will 2nd that the Suffix is running deeper than what I’ve seen with other leadcore brands in the past. I say between 7-8′ per color is about right as I found that running 2 colors with a 30′ leader and a #5 shad rap was putting me down just under 20′ last weekend.
I have only run 18# so far but I’m also very curious about a test run with some 27#. For salmon it would be awesome to be able to get down 60-70 feet without riggers. Any chance you’ll have some of that up on Mille Lacs this week James?
Thank you for the clarification. I might have to pick up a spool tonight to try on Lake of the Woods.
I second that
2 more weeks and I am on the pond! This open water bite is second to none. Thanks for the pics, they get the blood flowing
Does this line have a smaller diameter? I am not sure how else you would achieve an increase of 40% +/-. Or maybe the Goretex has less friction?
I believe it actually has the sheath of suffix 832. Much smaller diameter than the normal cover
I haven’t tried those yet but agree some of the colors look fantastic. The pair that really looks like they could be the ticket based on recent outings are the Electric Perch and Purpledescent.
Personally I’m not a big fan of snap weights but I think they would work just fine. The goal is to get a crankbait to the right depth and keep it there. If you can do this with a snap weight… you’ll catch fish.
I’ve not checked the diameter with a micrometer or anything like that but it sure feels thinner to me.
Great. Now I have to buy new leadcore!
The depth is nice, but the increased sensitivity has me sold. Even going to a more sensitive rod tip it’s been hard to read the cranks at times. If I can get a better read with the new leadcore, it’ll be worth it. The fact that it’ll give me more depth with less line out, well that’s a huge bonus as well.
Thanks for the tip, James!
The 832 leadcore is FAR more sensitive than the old style line. I think you’ll be very pleased with the switch.
Thanks for the great info! We have done very well in the past pulling bouncers and spinners but really want to try some leadcore stuff. Any suggestions on rod and reel combos that you like for pulling lead or do you have a couple you want to sell?
Awesome job men
James, how long of a leader are you using and what kind of line. I’ve always thought that 30 foot of flouro was the way to go, but I see where at least one guide is using mono. I’ve also heard recent stories of some using 50 ft leaders on Mille Lacs.
Thanks,
Al
I’ve been using 30′ leaders of 10′ flouro but I really don’t think length or material used is as important as being able to put the baits at the right depth consistently. 15′ leaders… 50′ leaders… mono or flouro… if you get the right bait in the strike zone they’ll smoke it.
I have a couple of general questions related to attaching planer boards when using leadcore.
I understand the basic set-up 5 colors of leadcore on the real and 30 ft of 20lb mono/flouro for the leader.
1. The front line attachment is this just placed flat between the sping plate holder? or is is wrapped around. I saw a couple of youtube videos that talk about wrapping the line around the front pin. With leadcore that would kink the line right? do you adjust the spring plate by tightening down?
2. how do you prevent the planer board from coming loose and floating adrift?
what’s the best way to attach the board?
thanks
Dave
I don’t attach the board to leadcore itself. The clips break the internal lead filament and the leadcore in front of the board running back to the rod drags in the water causing all kinds of issues with the way the boards run as the leadcore drags in the water. It gets even worse in with any kind of waves.
If you want to run boards and leadcore, segmented sections of leadcore is the way to go. I run 3 colors on Mille Lacs with a 30′ leader on the lure end and backing of 17′ mono. I attach the board to the mono after the leadcore.
Hope this helps.