The bite remains pretty darn good here on Mille Lacs lake. Although the moon has been reluctant to show herself on the nights around the full moon, plenty of fish to still be caught and plenty of fish to be lost unfortunately for me. The light biters that I have had a hard time with all fall have still found a way to come unbuttoned. Trying different tactics to help hang onto these light biting walleyes includes waiting a few seconds after a hit before applying any pressure to the fish, hitting them right away, letting out lots of line while trolling to help on the stretch factor of the line, and even go as far as applying treble stinger hooks to the back of the crankbait. After further investigation, I have just accepted the fact that some nights they want to hit the cranks much harder than others and that’s the way the cards have been dealt to me. I know I have received several emails from anglers questioning this problem, and all I can say is….I know what you mean. If anyone has a good solution to turning these light biters into boat able fish, I am all ears!
Even though my best bite still remains to be found in the weed to gravel transitions, the gravel appears to be getting the upper hand for my boat over the last 5 trips around the full moon. 8-10 foot of water has been the most productive for the numbers and the nicer quality fish. Trolling speeds have remained constant this week at 1.4-1.8 mph. Making exaggerated S-turn trolling passes has been the key some nights for getting reluctant fish to hit. The slower inside lures seem to get bit most of the time as they slowly come to a crawl speed. The S-turn pattern that I troll has been trying to run somewhat perpendicular to the weed line. Take the boat out to 11-12 foot of water and then start making a turn, by this point your lure is just exiting the 9-10 foot weed line edge. Your lure comes to almost a stall and then picks back up again as you make your way back to the weeds.
The downsizing of lures that I had mentioned in previous reports still remains my focus for last several trips. I have been running the smaller 3-1/2” New Roach Rogues and the Bomber Pro 14A cranks back anywhere from 100-170 feet of line out the back of the boat. Some nights when they are aggressive the 100-120 feet back seems to work very well and other nights when things slow down, getting the lures back away from the boat has given the trick to persuading possibly spooky fish to hit. By having the smaller sized lures on, weed hook ups are a little less annoying due to their prohibited running depths.
With all these factors in place, nights have ranged from 15-25 fish a night for me with LOTS of misses. On any given night, I will almost equal the number of misses to the numbers that made it all the way to the net. That means making contact with 40-50 fish a night…..Arghhhh. We have been seeing lots of tagged 20”-22” fish this entire month, so taking a limit home upon your visit has been pretty easy to do for several guys. The bulk of our nights have consumed of fish ranging from 23-27 with a piggie or two about every other night. Some nights the big fish are on to chew while the same spot gives up smaller slot fish on the very next night. Staying mobile has still been the key to finding a school of unpressured fish that are aggressive and naive.
With water levels on the rise back on the river, I have chosen to stay fishing up on Mille Lacs for the next week or so until things settle down a bit down on Pool 2. So, I have some openings if anyone is looking to cash in on some very good twilight fishing right now. With still somewhat mild weather at our heels, water temps remain to be sitting in the mid 40’s. This bite should continue through the next several weeks until mother nature decides she has had enough.
Good luck to all!
Steve, we switched over to long 9 1/2 foot fiberglass board rods and 10lb mono. After the switch, no lost fish! Sure, no thumping hits, and spongy reel-ins, but hey it worked.
-J.
Thanks for the tips Jon. I am running the Wild River 8’6″ medium light action rods. One thing we did find that worked well was keeping the rods in the rod holders…..not nearly as much fun, but missed fish numbers went down. We did not excersise this approach enough due to the fact that everyone likes to feel that thump when they hit. Maybe have to consider the St. Croix Glass rods and putting the boxing gloves back on for future
to try and see if it makes a difference in my boat!
Thanks Jon.
Deezee, How’s the truck? Did’nt you hit a deer last week?
Chappy,
Yes I tagged a doe just about a mile north of Tim’s place on 47. The truck saw little damage as she just glanced off the very edge of the bumper. I was following James and had zero cell phone coverage to get ahold of him to pull over with me. Otherwise I had no idea what road to turn onto to get to Tim’s place. Thinning the herd a bit that night!
Golly, aren’t the deer easy to hit up there? After a great night of fishing with James Saturday night, we headed back. I had two near misses between Garrison and the casino before one managed to hit me in Princeton. I saw it it in plenty of time (standing in the left lane) and braked and pulled over onto shoulder when it suddenly decided to bolt and plowed into the side of my van (hit right in the drivers door) Although very minor damage to the van, it killed the deer – hope somebody picked it up – barely hit 6 pointer – must have broken its neck. By the way, fishing was fun – took a bunch of pics and forwarded to James – hopefully he’ll post a full report shortly
Steve thanks for the report nice work.
Not bieng a deer hunter I have been chosen to take the wifes up to the big pond Fiday night in hopes to getting a few nice fish. Think it will just be the ladys fishing Im driving Miss Daisey. Any other tips or spots to help put them on fish would be great.
If anyone is up there and sees one guy pulling his hair out and three woman laughing at him it’s Me.
Man….they were like cows Friday night!!! Avoided them all though. Glad it was’nt reel bad.
Get it REEL bad! LOL
Just wanted to thank you Steve for a great guide trip my brother & I had with you on the 28th of October. We really enjoyed your company and the fish cooperated despite the lack of any moonlight. After the storm blew through on Friday night, we had pretty good luck on our own as we boated 15 walleyes incl. a couple of 25-26″ fish and a very fat 28″ fish that weighed a little over 10 pounds. We finally had some moonlight to work with, there was very little boat traffic, and the fish responded. Saturday night was a little slower but we boated 10 walleyes incl. 3 fish in the 25-26″ range. We experienced the same thing regarding light biters as we boated at least 5-6 walleyes with the rod in the rod holder. I would much rather hold the rod to feel the strike though. Thanks again Steve!
EyesHaveIt
That’s interesting. I used a 8.6 rod with power pro and didn’t miss fish over two nights. Maybe they just weren’t hitting light those nights. I held the rod and set the hook on hits. ??
Steve, I would sure like to get on the water with you and dad on Mille Lacs next fall.
Cole Hale
Hey Steve,
Went up to the pond on Tuesday night and thought Iwould give you a report. Not very good! We fished until about 12:00 and only ended up with 4. Nice size though. There were a couple of other boats out there and they all hung it up at about the same time. The 4 we did catch were all within about 45 minutes. Maybe they are feeding sporadically? Oh buy the way, without that red buoy its easy to run your boat aground, woops!! No damage. With cold weather upon us that ends my ML fall fishing. Thanks for all the good info and tips. Hope to get out on the pool with you this winter.