Mille Lacs Night Trolling Walleye Report – 10/3/04

We really needed some cooler weather to come in and drop the water temps to get the fish going… and we got EXACTLY what we asked for! Brrrrrrrrr!~

Water temps have gone from the low 60 degree readings taken this past thursday AM down to mid 50 degree readings taken Sunday AM just before leaving the water.

Here’s the latest water temps taken off the main lake (temps in the bays can vary quite a bit) around 3 AM each day.

Thursday – 9/30: 60.5 degrees

Saturday – 10/2: 58.5 degrees

Sunday – 10/3: 55.5 degrees

On Wednesday night / Thursday AM I fished with Wes Peterson and fishing buddy Ken. As had been the pattern for the last 3 or 4 trips prior we saw a decent bite around sun down and then sporadic action until around 2 AM when the bite gradually begins to wind up with a steadily increasing number of fish of all sizes with our biggest fish of the night coming just before we leave the water. Ken’s shown here in this first photo with our biggie of the night, a fat n’ healthy 27.25" walleye that took one of those modified shallow shad raps. On this night, with the water temps still on the warm side of 60 degrees those shad raps pulled at 2.2 mph still seemed to be the ticket with all but one of our fish coming on those doctored baits.

I lost my Thursday night / Friday AM trip due to the nasty storm that went through. We received about 1.5 inches of cold rain and from about 10 PM – 2 AM we hada pretty good lightning storm pounding away over the lake. I missed my shot at fishing with long time customer Frank Lukes of Rochester, MN but I do feel good about not risking life or limb in a thunderstorm in pursuit of some fish that can always be caught ‘tomorrow.’ I’ll find a way to get with ya’ yet this fall Frank!

Last night (Saturday PM / Sunday AM) was a WONDERFUL fall night to be out on the lake. Temps started out in the upper 50’s and the winds fell off towards sun set. Low temps hovered in the upper 30’s – low 40’s so conditions were completely comfortable and for one of the first times this fall we were able to move around the lake w/o being limited by wind and waves.

Water temps have fallen off considerably and as is expected, larger numbers of big fish are now available inshore. The shallow shad rap presentation fooled 4 or 5 fish right around sun set but that bite is definitely on the way out if last night’s successes are indicators of what is happening now.

The stickbait bite is on! #12 Husky Jerks (HJ’s) took all of our fish after midnight. The peak bite times of "1 AM and later" continue to hold and may even be more pronounced now that we’re on the back side of the full moon phase. After midnight my boat when on a real good run with the bigger fish, all caught on #12 Hj’s, from 8.5′ – 9′ of water. Trolling speeds slowed down to 1.6 mph and line lengths of 100′ – 115′ put the most fish in the boat.

I fished with Dave Bounk and his son-in-law Jake on this night and for most of it, Jake had the hot hand. Starting right around 1 AM he kept me busy netting, measuring and then taking photos of his fish!

Our hot color pattern for the night was firetiger. We tried clown and several craw patterns without so much as a sniff to show for those efforts.

My advice to anyone going out right now is to be on the water and ready to fish hard after 1 AM. During the sun down period we are seeing some fish but they tend to be smaller; 18" – 24". After 1 AM the biggies seem to make an appearance and all those itty-bitties more or less dry up. We’ve been leaving the lake around 3 – 4 AM each night and the bite is on a noticeable up-tick as we pull our lines and head to the docks.

Thanks to all those that have and are sharing their Mille LAcs Lake reports with all of us here on IDA. Keep it going!