The weather this past Memorial weekend started out nice on Friday and went down hill from there. We experenced rain showers all day Saturday and again on Sunday. Monday started out dry, but by late morning more rain came though the area. The walleye bite was slow with a few fish caught using a variety of presentations.
The walleye that I found this weekend were scattered in a number of water depths. I caught fish in the 19-21 foot sand to rock transitions and also up shallow on the rocks in as shallow as 8 foot. Rigging a 8 foot lindy rig with a red hook and red bead ahead of a leech worked in the 19-21 foot areas. Bobber fishing on the rocks with the rain and cloud cover we had most all weekend was the most productive method.
Friday I fished with fellow staffer Chris Tuckner and we boated a couple of quick fish only to have the bite die shortly after it started. The sun was out with calm winds allowing for a warm afternoon on the water. The sun had warmed the lake’s surface on Friday to the 57 degree mark only to have it drop on Saturday with the wind and rain.
The bobber presentation worked best for both numbers and slot size. This next photo is of a 18 1/2 inch walleye that was a Mn.DNR tagged fish. The fish was caught Monday morning in around 9-10 foot on the rocks near the Lakeside 3/4 mile reef. The largest fish caught bobber fishing was a 26 incher………the smallest fish caught this past weekend was a 16 1/2 incher. I managed to keep a few eaters for the supper table and put a few back to swim another day.
The walleye tournaments start on Mille Lacs with the MTT next weekend June 5th and 6th followed by the Wave Wacker Thursday-Friday – June 10th-11th.
Nice report Bobber. It is always fun to catch those tagged walleyes. We fished right in front of your place on Saturday and Sunday night in about 8 feet of water. We put two nice 18 inchers in the boat each night. We also caught some nice 12 inch perch. The biggest fish was a 23 incher.
I guided up on the big pond Saturday and Sunday, and as Bob said, the bite was tough as it gets! We managed some nice fish Saturday, a few over the slot, and three at 19.5″, and a couple smaller fish that we released. Sunday was miserable! Lightning and thunder appeared to move the fish off the 18 feet rock shelves we were fishing, and moved them deeper. We could see them, but could not entice them. We lost one fish cranking right after we ran over Hook’s snagged line…(Sorry ’bout that!) LOL! Thanks to Bob and Hook for the hospitality once again! The Iowan’s were very greatful, and were happy with the large helping of “Minnesota Nice” they got while here. Hook, remember now, the corn in Iowa leans west because Nebraska sucks…
Inside joke!
Tuck
Tuck
LOL! I caught myself laughing and mumbling that more than once yesterday.
Thanks Tuck, My pleasure
Good company never gets old!!!
Nice report Bobber,
Have the mayflies been a problem yet? My uncle came thru Garrison on Friday night and had a bunch of them plastered all over the front of his camper.
The lake flies were terrible on the north end this weekend.
Gator Hunter
Thanks for the report and pics Bobber. Sounds like you guys made your time on the water pay off even though some bad weather conditions.
Thanks, Bill
Speaking of bass!
Had a pretty good fishing weekend dispite all the rain!
Went to Mille Lacs on friday to fish for walleyes and brought my father in law with me and after fruitless effort of lindy-rigging we decided to troll shad raps and my father in law caught a 22″ walleye that engulfed the whole lure. And the back treble was in the gills.
Needless to say after trying to remove the hooks without trying to do any more damage, the walleye was bleeding. I put in the water and held in the water to revive it before letting go. It swam off ok, but I doubt that fish will survive!
Went back to my in laws cabin on Little Whitefish lake that flows into Mille Lacs and took the wife and my 3 year old daughter, gramma and gramps to catch some sunfish and crappies, we did good. Even my daughter caught sunfish, she had a blast!
Sunday on Little Whitefish, I went out about noon and caught my first walleye (19″) on that lake. Been fishing Little Whitefish since 1997 and haven’t been able to catch a walleye out of that lake until last sunday!
Had to go back to the cabin to eat dinner at 4:00pm so I decided to put the trolling motor in and cast a floating Rapala in towards the bulrushes, going along and catching a couple hammer handle pike, I made another cast and as i’m twitching the lure towards me I get hit, and man it had power. And then my fireline went slack. The fish cut the line with it’s teeth. Then all of a sudden, a pike I figured to go about 3 feet long jumps out of the water shaking it’s head and doing a tail-walk across the water.
Pretty cool to see, but dissapointed about loosing the fish and a good Rapala lure!
Put on another floating Rapala and continued casting and got slammed by a 19″ largemouth.
Kept on going down the shoreline and ended up catching about 15 bass and about 10 pike all the while the rain was coming down. At one time I caught four bass on four casts!
Some were hitting the Rapala as it sat resting on top of the water! What a blast!
Put the two largest bass in the livewell and waited for the rain to stop and took pictures of them then returned them to the lake unharmed!