After a several-week hiatus from fishing Mille Lacsm I was able to break away for a few hours on Saturday evening to hit Mille Lacs in search of some hungry walleyes. Joined by my good friend Garret, I hit the water just before 6 p.m. for about 2.5 hrs of fishing. With fall just around the corner, and night temps dropping into the 50’s, the fish are starting to move toward shoreline breaks. So even though our gameplan was to troll the open basin rather than heading to the middle of the lake, we chose an area not far from some of my favorite fall trolling runs along the East shore rock reefs.
We began with Garret running a Rapala TD-11 long lined behind a planer board while I had a Storm Deep Thunderstick directly behind the boat on leadcore. No more than 5 minutes had passed when the board started thrashing and Garret was hooked up with our first fish of the night, an extremely healthy 27" hawg.
In short order, the clicker on my leadcore reel started screaming and I brought my first fish of the night to the Frabill. But after watching Garret land three more big fish on the board line, it was apparent the better pattern for quality fish on this evening was on the boards, so I quickly made the switch.
It’s no secret that one of the biggest factors in catching fish in any situation is to find a pattern that closely matches the natural prey, and for open-basin walleyes on Mille Lacs that primarily means tullibees. One of my favorite baits in this situation is quickly becoming a Purple Clown Flash-colored Rapala TD-11. Hopefully I’m not giving anything away, but you can expect to see this exact lure show up frequently in an upcoming IDO TV episode on Mille Lacs that I filmed with James earlier this summer.
Time sure goes fast when you’re busy netting fish and shooting the breeze with good company, as it seemed like we had just started when sun began dipping below the horizon. What began as nothing more than an excuse to spend a few hours on the water with one of my closest friends had quickly turned into an awesome night of fishing! Garret had the hot hand, as he landed six of our 10 fish, including two over 26 inches, one over 27 inches and one just over 28 inches, our last fish of the evening.
Summer may be winding down, but the fishing on Mille Lacs continues to be on fire!
Not only did we have a productive evening of fishing, but Garret also helped me get ready for one of my other favorite outdoor activities… Chasing whitetails!
We spent Saturday afternoon setting up a pretty unique new hunting blind and for anyone who’s into hunting as well as fishing I posted a few pics over on the IDO hunting site
IDO Hunting Site – Link
Nice job Will and crew! Back up this weekend chasing smallies. Well, thats the plan. Its monday.
-J.
VERY Nice, Will and Garret,
Jack
We gotta coordinate our weekends better John… Woulda been nice having an extra rod in the boat last weekend.
I hear the smallies are really snapping up there right now. Good Luck!
Nice report!
What depths were you targeting?
We fished a couple hours Friday/Saturday night and pulled in one each night (22″, 24″) pulling lead in 28′ FOW in the NE corner of the basin.
Gonna be up again this weekend without the kids…so hoping to get more time on the water!!
We were fishing in 32-35′ FOW.
BTW – Were you ever able to take your daughter out and get her on fish?
I was and appreciate the suggestions. We hit up the beach at Clear and were able to get her on her first fish…she had a blast reeling them in (unfortunately the pics didn’t turn out). Her attn span lasted about 15 min but the little sunnies were right off shore and she reeled in a couple of them all by herself on her barbie rod (after I helped get them hooked). After that we had fun swimming at the beach….it was a fun day!
Say hi if you come across an older 16′ Bass Tracker with camo seats in the main harbor at Fishers.
John
Nice job boys!
Great report!
got to get me some of those Raps, nice report.
Sweet fish Will! Good to see some overs are being caught as well, and congrats on the great fishing right now.
Joel