The big fish bite that we have all been so anxiously awaiting for has reared its glorious head last night for my boat. If this is what we have in store for us over the next week of trips….I cannot wait! My target areas have still been 8.5-10 foot of water in the gravel/weeds mixed area adjacent to deeper water. By the sight of these of these pictures, you will see that these fish have had the feedbag for quite some time. Finally, we are seeing what Mille Lacs lake is capable of producing….10lb. + fish! Joining me last night was Dr Jesse Ternus of Ramsey, Mn and his brother-in-law Darrin.
Last night, we got on the water at 6:00pm and started trolling a nearby popular weed rimmed bay. The plan for the night was to visit a milk run of spots in search of a good solid bite with hopes of finding some better-sized fish. Up until this point, 25-26-1/2” fish was most of the better quality fish that my boat had witnessed in the last several trips. By 8:00pm, we had made contact with only a few smaller walleyes plus a couple toothy pike that swam away with a couple of my all time best running stick baits. At this point I made the call to move up the lake a ways to visit some other producing spots in hopes of hitting the jackpot. After a little hide and seek, we finally starting to put together a pattern that shown potential. After a couple missed opportunities, THUNK…. I put the coals in to a very heavy 29-3/4” walleye that hit the digital scale at a hair shy of the 10# mark. After a quick couple pictures, she was released.
From 9:45pm until midnight, we saw periodical short lulls in the bite, but enough activity on the graph as well as a few fish mixed in to keep us enthused enough to stay put. Shortly after the cloud cover had started to part away, the action started to get more consistent and Jesse took charge immediately and set the hook into a MAMMOTH 30-1/4” walleye that hit the scale over the 10# mark. This impressive specimen marks “The Doctor’s” personal best in the walleye department!
Nice fish Jesse and Congrats! After a couple high fives and celebration hoots, Jesse was not to stop there and drilled another big fish taped at a healthy 27-1/2”. Jesse and Darrin went on to catch a handful more smaller fish from this very same area that produced several big fish a couple hours earlier.
What was the winning ticket? Downsizing our lures to smaller firetiger colored profiles appeared to get less numbers for us on this particular evening, but the quality of the fish was surely a mark of something that was triggering these huge walleyes. Why smaller right now? The only acclimation that I could dream up was the fact that my customers from last week had called me to let me know of the amounts of 4” perch buried in their stomachs and naturally thought it might be worth the effort. With all the abundance of perch that we are in competition with right now, matching the size appeared to be the ticket for our boat on this particular trip. Although this may not be my preferred approach come the full moon trips that I am running, but I will definitely not rule it out for tricks to dig out.
I will see the rest of you up on the pond this week!
Good luck!
Awesome Steve Cant wait till later this week
Nice job guys! Congrats on your big fish Doc!
I am really starting to get the shakes now. Great report and fantastic pictures of some Mille Lacs hogs. Can’t wait until Wednesday. Steve, if it isn’t too much trouble, please save some of those big piggies for me and James!
Some really nice fish Steve. Sounds like you are having alot of fun up there.
Thanks, Bill
Great fishin’ Steve. Glad to see that the big gals are hitting on the lake.
Just like all your reports, the article was very informing.
By the way, I enjoyed reading the article about you in North American Fisherman (Oct/Nov issue).
Steve, nice work up there…that fish is a beast. If I’m not mistaken the most commonly used size HJ is the 12, so did you go down to a 10 or even smaller than that? I’ll be up tomorrown night and Wednesday, maybe i’ll see you up there.
Micah,
Yes, I had jumped down to the junior suspending rogues and #10 husky, both firetiger and lazer craw color patterns took the big fish for the night.
Jesse,
I had verified my digital scale last night at home to several other home scales and found that my digital scale to be consistently 6 ounces shy….so both of our big fish weighed an honest 10#……..2 fish on the 10# mark in one night! AWESOME!
Thanks again guys for joining me on Saturday night! I look forward to fishing with you guys again sometime!
I hope this is sign of good things to come this week!
Nice report Steve!!! Heading up today for a ten day run on the pond. Been a tough fall so far but we will get serious tonight. If you keep putting out posts like that I might just have to spend a few nights on your side of the lake, but I hate fishing weeds. Anyway scale varified 10 pound fish of Mille Lacs is a true trophy a very very rare fish 2 in a night is awsome! You are much more likely to catch a 30″ that scales in the 7-8 pound range than a true ten and that fact that you are pulling the big fish out of weeds is even more remarkable. Since the fall of 98′ I have not seen a 29″ or 30″ class fish ever break the ten pound barrier. If your scale is right we might be shifting twords better times on Mille Lacs again. BTW I see we both fish Erie the same week in April each year. We might have to due a little fishing together. Good luck
eyefishing,
My thoughts exactly on the big fish weighing that heavy. I told my customers that night that I get one over 30″ a year and they have all hit the scales around 8# in years past. The fish over the 28″ range this summer all weighed for tournies at around 7# give or take a bit. So seeing these fish that heavy now is quite a site. They reminded me of the few hefty river fish we catch in November back down on the river in Pool 2.
Good luck on your end of the lake! Would love to hear how you end up after your 10 day marathon.
Unbelievable! What a night on Mille Lacs. I hope to see two ten pound+ fish in the next decade.
Yup our last honest 30 1/4 was 7 pounds 8 ounces that is in the October full moon phase. Sad to say that is a pretty typical fall scenario on Milly. Sure would be nice if things were changing. I will be measuring and weighing a lot of big fish over the next couple weeks and should be able to have a deffinitive answer on the weight statistics. Seems on an average year the only fish that come in above weight consistently for the fall night bite is the 25-26″ class, after that they start to drop off.
Thanks Jolly, what a night, not one but two pigs!! Unbelievable. Steve really made for a good night for my brother in law and myself. I guess every bird eventually gets a worm.
jesse
Steve, time to get a new scale. I thought that seemed a little light! The feeling is mutual, Darin and I really had a good time and learned a lot from you. Looking forward to the next time.
Jesse
Thank you guys for all the kind words. Nothing get my ticker going like some big fish like these! 30″ fish for me out of Mille Lacs are very rare and see one this fat was a true blessing!
brooktrout,
Good luck to you and James this week! Gonna be a good week up here!
Tony,
Thanks for the nice words as well. Glad you liked the article. Kurt Beckstrom did a nice job on that article and replayed our evening we had together to a tee. The water temps were very cold up there last year when we did that trip. After all these years, it still amazes me that these fish will hit a stickbait trolled at .8mph in 35 degree water. Nice to see those old wives tales are broken from time to time.
Jesse,
That scale hit the trash can soon after I saw how off it was. Congrats again and good luck to you up there this Thursday night! See you up there!
Dr. Jesse
Make sure you show him these pigs and rub it in. Steve, great report.
Glad to see you guys got into some big fish. I have worked with John at the City of Ramsey for the past 4 summers. He has been talking about this trip since July. I can’t believe he traded his seat in the Ranger for a seat in a tree.
Dan,
It was my fault that all these guys could not fish together on Friday. I had conflicting committments that had me switch the days trip from Friday to Saturday.
John…..if you are reading this, sorry buddy and I hope you join us on possibly a another trip someday!
He told me the whole story about the dates, but I just like to give him a hard time. I am sure he will read this and he’ll probably make me pick up road kill next summer or something. Oh wait, I was already the road kill guy this summer, it can’t get any worse from here.
Dan, I can hardly wait to rub it in his face. I pleaded with him to stay home but he already had obligations to hunt with his father in law who arrowed a buck that weekend so I guess we all won. Get a trip lined up with Steve! The guy can fish and is very knowledgable. Maybe, just maybe the three(John, Dan, Jesse) of us can get a mid-lake crank trip lined up for this june with Steve? Well talk to john. Remember, the fall is not over yet, I am still going to try to get John out on the water. And can someone please tell me how to get my picture into my URL? Dan, take care.
Those are once-in-a-lifetime trophies,congrats. I will definitely be looking into a fall smallmouth trip with you Steve, can’t wait!!