Mille Lacs Lake walleye fishing report 5/17/2004

It was fun to get back on the Big Lake once again as my last time of 2003 was with the frigid temps of 14 degrees in the Nov full moon. Well it felt like things had not changed a bit as we started things off once again a real cool morning start. I got on the water at 5:30 am Saturday morning and headed for one of my nearby favorite sand/rock transition rigging areas. After a little hide and seek with a few walleyes on the graph, things were looking a little slim for the amount of activity I expected to see. I found a few fish out on the end of a rock point that lead into a sand gravel mix. I worked these fish real slow with a light wire hook and a nice healthy leech to no avail. I made one more additional stop to a nearby weed line that fell quickly into deep water. Here I long lined a light 1/16th oz bullet sinker and a 6-7 foot leech tipped snell and got bit right off the bat. Although a quick response, this bite died quickly as the sun began to hit high in the sky.

At about 7:30, I shifted gear180 degrees and dropped my rigging rods and went trolling crankbaits. I went back to my first spot that I started in the morning where I found a few fish hanging on the end of the point in slightly deeper water. I rigged up a spoonbill Rogue and longlined a crank over top of these fish slow and methodical to once again no-avail. I changed it up again and grab my leadcore rod out of the rod locker and threw a small 4-1/2” Roach Rogue on and trolled slow over these fish twice before I boated my first walleye. A healthy 27” fish gave me the first decent sized walleye for 2004 opener water season. I continued to probe around with this technique only to be denied any takers. At about 10:00, Shawn Johnson (aka..Shaggy) hopped aboard with me and we went trolling crankbaits to some nearby gravel flats.

Shortly after getting our trolling spread set out, Shawn scores first with a nice 29’ fish that fell victim to a crankbait hugging the bottom over 33 feet of water. Nice fish Shawn. We continued our troll through this area to find many large schools of walleye holding just off the gravel flat that topped out at 24 feet of water. The deeper walleyes that we were targeting definitely had the feedbag for a little while as we proceeded to boat 6 more walleyes, mostly to which were from 20”-25”. At about 2:30pm this bite shut down quickly only to leave us searching of more schools holding just off these flat areas. Many areas looked fishy, but timing is everything early in the year like we have right now. Taking advantage of these schools when the fish decide to feed is a must for optimizing your days catch.

At sundown, Shaggy and I went shallow to some nearby fall trolling areas that produced well for us over the years. Seconds after we re-rig our trolling rods over to Bomber Pro15AP’s we got bit! This bite was hot and heavy after dark in the 8-10 foot areas adjacent to deeper water. Although these fish did not rank as trophies in many anglers eyes, they became perfect fish for an easy meal. Many of these fish ran from 19”-22” with an occasional 23”-24” fish mixed in. 1.5-1.7mph was the magic speed for our boat on this evening. We got into small schools of fish that were very tightly grouped and figure 8 style trolling passes over these areas produced many numbers for us. Although the day was long with spirts of activity, we ended the day with just over the 25 fish mark with 2 fish over the 27” mark and a 2 man limit to take home.

Look for things to improve drastically In the coming days as we will get some more stable weather and warming water temps.

Good luck to all!