We started a bit slow… but finished the September full moon phase with a BANG! 
This report will be my last report from Mille Lacs until October 20th when I get back on the big water for a second round of trophy walleye hunting with customers. Sunday night was my last night fishing and it couldn’t have started any better!
I spent the night fishing with Pete Vaillant and father and our plan of attack was to be in place on the water and ready to roll about 30 minutes before sun down since I’d been seeing a strong bite right after the sun went down followed by a predictable lull in activity.
I was just starting to get into the explaination of how to properly work our #12 HJ’s when we stuck our first fish for the night. And was she ever a bruiser! Mr. Vaillant did a WONDERUL job fighting this fish to the boat and once the fish was safely in the net and laying on the bottom of the boat I got quite the kick out of how thrilled this experienced angler was over "his biggest walleye EVER!" Moments like that make me LOVE being a fishing guide. 
We started our run right near Garrison over the tops of some shoreline weeds and this first fish was not our last as the big girls were out in force early on as Pete and I got in on the fun with the pair in the second photo. #12 HJ’s in 8.5′ – 9.5′ of water were the ticket with firetiger getting the resounding nod from the walleyes.
With the rather rapid drop in water temps we’ve adjusted our trolling speeds downwards to 1.4 – 1.6 mph to match the mood of the fish with positive results. I did throw in some trolling passes at higher speeds and we caught fewer and smaller fish so do be paying particular attention to your trolling speeds if the fish seem a little "off."
About midnight we ran north to Knox Pt. and stuck a few eaters in the 18" – 19" range but we never did find any of the larger fish on the north shore on this particular evening. That pesky "post sundown lull" is still in play and we were forced to fish through a several hour period of VERY good fishing but awfully slow catching… until 3 AM rolled around. And then, like the evenings prior, the fish just seem to throw on the feed bags again and keep us few guys on the water plenty busy until we’re just about too tuckered out to continue fishing.
This last photo is one of my favorites from my stay up on Mille Lacs this past month. Father and son with a dandy pair we caught within a quick run from the access to end the night. One fish came on a #12 HJ (the larger 27" fish) and the smaller (25") on a #7 shallow shad rap… with those funky little black bars on the sides, of course. 
Well… that’s "it" for me. I’m wore out and ready for home. I’ll see all you guys back on the pond in 2.5 weeks and I hope everyone keeps sharing info on the night bite on Mille Lacs.
Click on photos for larger view.
Another look…
Nice fish James. Good to see the big girls showing up.
TBO and myself made it out on saturday and it looks like we missed the main bite by that much. Joe picked off 2 nice fish right at dark with biggest being 28″. Then it was a slow night after that with just a few fish coming in. We spent most of our time looking for fish either shallow or 10+ feet of water. Looks like that made all the difference.
Im gearing up to get back up there on wensday night. Hope the big girls are still there to play with.
Mike
We started that night be hooking up and loosing our first 5 fish! I was a tad disheartened… especially since 3 of them were big girls and a couple made it nearly to the boat before coming unbuttoned. The last one dogged it out right behind the motor and came unhooked with about 10′ of line out. I was going a bit mental after the 5th one. A couple more and I was going to leave the guys the keys to the boat and swim off into the sunset… lol Thankfully the 6th fish made it to the net and then we were off and running.
It was good to see you and Joe again. When you guys went by and asked what our biggest fish was to that point and I replied “about the size of my thumb” I wasn’t being a smart guy or pulling your leg… lol
James;
How big is that big girl????
How big do you think it is?
9 lbs on the digi scale. She looks bigger in the pic but 9lb is what she weighed. Get this… 27.5 inches long. Girth like no tomorrow. We caught longer fish but nuttin that came close to those proportions.
I’m looking forward to more 28″ – 30″ fish with a girth like that in October.
Amen brother!!!! See you up there in 3 weeks!!!!
Sounds like the big ones are still bitting the same way they where on our trip last week. The biggest fish I took that night had a hook set under its jaw and the other on its nose. Neither in the mouth. It would most likely be easy anough to just loosen the drag and play the fish out a little more but I’m sure if you did that they would just dive into the weeds. Maybe bending the hooks out a little might help. Atleast the early morning fish are more willing to realy grab that crank bait.
thanks James, good reports and great pics, the end of Oct will just be that much better. can’t wait. stay safe, Jack..
Last night “Shaggy” and I scooted up a for a few hours to get back on the bite. We started at dark and fished until about 10:00pm or so. As James stated in his report about a good bite at sundown for a couple hours and then a huge lull……dead on!
They appeared to be biting real light last night as well. We boated 3 fish and lost 9 fish in about 3 hours. THe light biters would comeup and “tick” your lure and then grab ahold of the back treble like she was gumming it and you would set the hook and get about 4 head shakes and gone.
We tried different speeds and colors to help trigger them to take it harder but to no avail. Even waiting a couple seconds before a gentle swing on the hook set gave no better hookups for us. Just goes to show the difference when they feel like hitting the lure versus needing to hit that lure!
Water temps were 56 degrees last night at 10:20pm.
Good to here they are still there. My plans for tonight are to get on the water after midnight and fish the last part of the night. These fish seemed to be a little more serious about eating a crankbait last week. Atleast that was what I thought.
The closer you got to sun up the more serious the fish got about slamming the cranks. The moon comes up awful darn late now and doesn’t get high above the lake until well after midnight… when the fish start feeding. I never made it to sun up with customers but would expect a very good bite.
Let us know how you do Mike!~
Well the fishing was good but the bite was slow. Thought I was in for a active morning when half way thru my first pass a nice 20″ fish slammed the husky jerk. This guy was not bashful about hitting that crankbait. That ended up being the only action I had for the morning. Trolled all over St Albins bay with all the latest lures dragging behind me and no go. I usually wont sit in one spot for that long of time with out a bite but decided to stick it out there last night thinking at any time the girls might come out to play.
It was still a great night to be on the water with light winds and mild temps. Water temp 53-54.
Thanks for the update Mike. Our last night up St. Albans was dead after the sun set bite and we had to relocate to get into the rest of our fish.
When you headed up next?
Thinking about Friday night with TBO. We will be able to do a little more jumping around withthe big boat then.
If I dont make it this weekend it will be next week again. The bug has got ahold of me and since it is not to long of run up there Im going to stick with it.
has any one tryed to put a crawler on the front hooks of the crank when they bite lite like that?
cantsay i do it a lot but it worked for me down on peppin a few times,just some food for thouht
Hey James, what is your biggest walleye on Mille Lacs?
Cole Hale
Mine? A little over 10 lbs caught in the fall of 2002. The largest caught in my boat? 11.29 Lbs (based on length and girth calculations) caught fall of 2002 if I remember correctly.
On Mille Lacs anything hitting an honest 9 Lbs is a big fish, over 10 Lbs is an honest trophy and 11 Lbs fish are awful darn rare. But the number of 7 – 8 Lb fish will blow you away. You coming up in October?
Dad and I would love to came take a fall guide trip with you someday.
Those are big fish.We try hard in the fall on Spirit and West for big eyes.
Cole Hale
I tell ya’ what, I’d be thrilled to get the chance to fish with you and your dad. Maybe next fall, eh?
About those walleyes on Spirit and West… when you guys catch a 5+ walleye on one of those lakes I bet that’s as much of an accomplishment as a 9 Lb’er on Mille Lacs. You might not be able to fill the boat with big fish on water close to home but every time you fool one of those big girls you’re getting a little more knowledge and skill behind you. Fishing for hard to catch fish makes you a much better fisherman… and it sounds like you have a heck of a start on that already.