With all of the recent advances in the fishing industry leaving many of us with expensive boats and gear it’s often very easy for us as fishermen to take ourselves and our hobby too seriously and forget to just have fun. So what happens when Mother Nature throws you a curveball and leaves your favorite lake more than 90% covered in ice? Well for our group instead of spending our usual serious opener pulling all night trolling sessions we spent it rekindling our childhood fishing techniques and it turned into an awesome weekend of unconventional fishing!
Faced with 25-30 mph winds and uncertain ice conditions for Saturday morning we decided not to fight the weather and instead hit some of the local Malmo area creeks chasing pike, walleyes, and even rough fish. As it turns out I had forgotten how much fun there is to be had this time of year without even launching a boat. In fact it was such a good time that it was after 6 PM before my boat even left the garage.
Finally, after a quick barbeque we headed over to Mille Lacs and upon arriving at Barnevelds Resort on the North end we found several hundred yards of open water and hardly another boat in sight. The first thing we noticed pulling out of the harbor was the water clarity as without any wave action to stir the water we could easily see bottom in up to 8 FOW and were even able to see several walleyes just as we idled out of the harbor. Next was the water temperature which was aleady 40 degrees?! With the ice pushing us off of our normal routine the first step of the evening, before we even wetting a line, was to put the HDS to good use and do a bit of quick scouting. After finding a few shallow transition areas where the bottom changes from rock to gravel/sand we went to work pulling crankbaits starting with 3 different types/colors. We quickly started to find a pattern and in no more than 15 minutes we had our first fish in the boat, a healthy 19″ walleye, on a blue/silver #7 SSR Shad Rap. After another quick strike on the same line we switched another rod over to a brand new jointed SSR and in short order had our 2nd and 3rd ‘eye in the boat. We ended the night with 7 ‘eyes (a couple of would be box fish that we released) with only 1 or 2 that I think might have been females.
It turns out we had so much fun on Saturday that we decided for pretty much an exact do over again on Sunday. The only difference was that the weather was nicer, we caught bigger pike, and we ended up with 8 walleyes instead of 7. What we found over the course of our 2 evenings on Mille Lacs was that mostly male fish are present as most likely the females are still in spawning mode and have yet to put the feed bag on. Typical size was from 18-24” with about 1/3 of our fish being keepers. The smallmouth were also present and actually started to go pretty well on Sunday when we found water temps as high as 42.
With and warm weather early this week I’m still hopeful the ice will be gone by this weekend and the fishing should only get better. Good luck and good fishing everyone!
A shot from one of our creek fishing locations… A confluence where two small rivers meet near our cabin.
watching a sunset and a bobber at the creek.
Not many things are more peaceful than grabbing a couple
Something that I hadn’t done since I was a teenager… Suckers are actually very good tablefare when smoked properly
A couple pics of fishing next to the ice sheet. A brand new technique I learned (that I doubt I will ever use again) was using a planer board to run lures right up next to the ice sheet without spooking fish. Both walleyes and smallmouth were hiding in the shadow just under the ice during daylight hours using it to ambush prey.
I posted this to my FB page with the description “how to make a 24″ walleye look tiny”… This picture simply doesn’t do justice to how big this smallmouth was. She taped out at just under 21” and weighed in at 5.8#’s on a digital scale but I’m pretty sure it might have been a little light as she was an absolute chunk!
Great stuff Will!!
Awesome report! JSR’s have always been a favorite lure of mine for most non-basin trolling applications. Not surprising to see a shallow-water version of the same bait also working well when fish are pushed up tight.
More than anything I think you guys seemed to enjoy the opener and all its festivities from the pics. Why let the weather kill tradition when you can get after suckers! Loved the report.
Joel
Great Job, Will!
Nice fish!
Awesome report. I either saw you guys out there, or there was someone else putzing around with planer boards right next to the ice.
Nice job there guys!
-J.
Will !!!
That has to be one of the funnest reports I have read in a long time !!!
Great job !!
Great job Will making the most of the opener!
You guys spearing those suckers in the creek brings back some great childhood memories. 
Who says you need a boat to have fun fishing! 
Great report Wil. Spent many a spring day spearing suckers on a creek just north of you guys in my teen age years.
That look like a blast! Maybe in another 60 years you can use your hot planer board bite next to the ice sheet!
Definitly could have been us. I’ve got a black and silver Lund ProV with tan lettering… If you see me make sure to
and say hello
I might do that.
Or maybe I’ll just pull in front of you a 100 yards, toss out the boards, and see if they’re biting!
Nice report. I am sure this was an opener we won’t soon forget
cool report Will. There’s a ton of “other” stuff to do over opener. We enjoyed chasing suckers through the creeks over wy Wealthwood, but that was years ago.
does anyone know a current water temp on mille lacs?
It’s in the mid to high 40’s.
thanks will!