Early August Mille Lacs Lake Open Basin Trolling

The open basin trolling bite on Mille Lacs continues to produce results for my boat as the summer heats up. This weekend, the anglers with me caught 78 walleyes and 3 of those were over 28 inch mark.

Joining me for some fun fishing was my wife Tina, our son Ian, my nephew Derek Krueger, and our friends Troy Rahn, Ryan Wellcome, Tony Sierra, Joe Wellcome and Andy Lapinski.

On Sunday, we had 6 people in my boat and had a blast trolling 6 lines. Only once did we encounter a small tangle. Talk about fun especially when you’re trolling 6 leadcore lines, 4 of them on planer boards and then the 2 outside boards fire at the same time! We ended up catching 36 walleyes on Sunday and left the water at 4pm.

An important concept to understand when open water trolling on Mille Lacs is what I refer to as crankbait depth control. Many times I get asked, “What depth are you running your crankbaits?” I try not to think of it this way and the reason being is when you’re trolling 2 mph and covering 2 or 3 miles in a troll run, your fishing depth can vary a few feet. Maybe at the start of your run you’re fishing in 30 feet of water and then by the end of your troll run you’re in 35 feet of water. If you’re trolling in 30 feet of water and your crankbaits are at 28 feet – your crankbaits may be underneath the walleyes. Or vice versa, if you’re fishing in 35 feet of water, and running your crankbaits at 28 feet, your crankbaits may be too high.

Instead of thinking I want to place my crankbaits at 28 feet, I think of it as I want to place my crankbaits a number of feet off the bottom and a couple of feet above the arcs on my sonar. For example, if your sonar is marking walleye arcs four feet off the bottom – then I will place my crankbaits 6 feet off the bottom. I look at my current fishing depth and calculate how deep I need to place the crankbaits and let out the appropriate amount of line. I then watch my fishing depth like a hawk. If the fishing depth changes, I then change my crankbait depths accordingly so to remain 6 feet off the bottom.

There are two ways you can do this – one is to simply move your crankbait up or down the water column by changing how much line you put out. Another way to do this when fishing with leadcore is to change your trolling speed. A slight change in speed (.2mph) will change your crankbait a foot of depth or more. Try to keep your crankbaits in that “so many feet off the bottom strikezone” and odds are you will catch more fish.

Another key to success is understanding crankbait color patterns as the weather changes. Typically in the mornings or evenings or under a cloudy sky, I like to use solid or brightly colored crankbaits. Some of my favorites are the new Rapala UV colors. These brightly colored crankbaits give off the most contrast compared to its background. When the sun pops out, I then like to switch to chrome based colors and something that will give off a flash or a reflection when the sunlight hits it. I try to envision how that crankbait is being viewed underwater while looking up at it into the water column and towards the sky. Why? That is how the walleye views its prey – they stalk and attack the baitfish from underneath because the tullibee’s eyes are located more towards the top of their head and they can’t see as well what’s underneath them. Again, the more contrast of how that crankbait looks compared to its background – the better.

Storm Deep Thundersticks trolled deep with lead core line has been producing the most fish for me as of late. We also caught a few fish by downsizing our crankbaits. It also seems to help when the walleyes are not very aggressive and hit but don’t get hooked up.

From the sounds of it, the rig and spinner bite is getting much tougher out there. Now’s the time to try open water trolling using crankbaits. This bite has been very consistent for me over the years all through August and up to mid September. As always, I’m here to help so feel free to contact me with any questions.

Until next time – keep trollin’!