Mille Lacs Lake report 2-6-05

By Bob Carlson 0

I spent some time this past weekend following up on some perch fishing leads. I had received some reports of nice sized perch being caught in the last week. Some reports had come from 9 mile and the other from the Boot and Shultz flats. The walleye bite has slowed up from the flurry in early January to still a few being caught.

Saturday morning I was fishing off the flat in 32-33 feet trying for some bigger perch. All I found were small 5-6 inch perch with no jumbo’s. I spoke with a fellow fisherman yesterday that said his group caught some nice perch in the same area as I was fishing……go fiqure!

Sunday I thought I would try the mid-day into the afternoon and see if the jumbo’s might show up. They didn’t, again only the small ones. What this is telling me is that there are some big perch to be caught, they just have not gone on a feeding frenzy yet.

The perch contests are coming up in just a few weeks. The Hunters Point perch and pout contest is Feb.19th and the Liberty Beach Perch Extravaganza is Feb.26th followed by the White Cap Inn perch pounder on the 12th of March. It’s perch time on Mille Lacs and I hope the jumbo’s show up soon! The snow has melted on Mille Lacs leaving enough snow to make it a bit difficult to get around off the plowed lake roads. Hunters Point has a good road out to the Boot, Fishers and Shultz flats while Liberty Beach has a road out to the 9 mile and Sliver flat areas.

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Bob Carlson

I am a retired guide on Mille Lacs. I have 50 years of experience fishing Mille Lacs Lake.

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  2. As I looked over Bob’s shoulder, I could hear him talking to the perch on the Vexilar. Bob, you can get help for that! We found it does not make them bite either!

  4. The “Jesters” showed up on 4 wheelers for some afternoon entertainment. Tim “Hooks” Hukreide and his buddy Jeff showed up. The ride back from 9 mile was a little wet to say the least! Jeff was soaked from the slush!

  5. Thanks Hook and Bob for yet another great weekend! The fish were not cooperating, but it was fun none the less. We did manage 3 nice tulipee and 4 decent perch, and a few small walleye.
    See you for the Hunter’s and Liberty perch tournaments!
    Tuck

  6. Thanks for the great fish fry Saturday nite Chris…….Isn’t this fishing thing fun? Glad you brought some fish from home.

  7. No problem! If Hook lets us mess up his garage again, we can have another during the Liberty tournament! As long as the ice holds out down here the panfish bite should hold out! It looks good for this week. ElRoy and I are going to Red next weekend. Hopefully we can ice some up there.
    See you in a couple weeks for the Hunter’s tournament!
    Tuck

  8. Yes the bite has slowed and I still have not found a Jumbo.
    9 mile was hot until about a week ago for walleye 9 to 13 1/2 inchers.
    Sorry I am the jerk that had the plow at 9 mile Getting my soon to be frozen in shack out of there.
    She’s all propped in the middle of nowhere closer to shore getting ready for the 3 perch contest good luck.
    We did the same thing Red LK crappie fish fry on Mille lacs.

  9. We had some good info on a bite off of Center Bar yesterday. Caught a couple of small walleye and a keeper perch. We got off the lake at 10:00 AM due to “Boring Conditions.”
    Tuck

  10. Hey…….was that your 8×8 particle board house with the white Dodge 4×4 pulling/plowing? if it was I was in the green Otter right next door! Fox 9news was out on 9 mile Sat. interviewing fisherman using wheelhouses. They are having a big todo with having to pay $30-$35+ to pull thier rigs out on the ice. They think they should have to pay only the normal rate of access? Others are just complaining about the $10 rate for access. I for one know of what the resorts go through in making the roads and maintaining them with the snow and wind snows we have. Yes, they are making some money, but aren’t they in business to do just that? The gal from fox 9 news has a post on FM requesting emails to the debate: Kim Kruger at [email protected]

  11. I have my perm out on the gravel out of fishermens wharf and the fishing has been slow the last couple of weeks.Still picking up 6 or so a day mostly after dark and most under 14 inches.Still seeing eyes on the camera swimming thru and have noticed a few more perch showing up.Saturday I had a bite on the rattle reel and as I was pulling it up thinking it was a keeper walleye turned out to be a 14 inch perch.It weighed just shy of 1.5 on a hanging bait shop scale.Unfortunatly no perch contests going on but it reminded me to buy my buttons for Hunters and Liberty.One of these days I will have to break down and get a digital camera but they took a picture of it at Fishermens Wharf and said they would put it on there web site.There may not be a lot of big perch in the system right now but I think there will be some huge ones caught this spring.See ya on the pond.

  12. BTW, what is “Up” with the upside down walleye Bob? He must have really been confused too! I will have to start turning my minnows upside down too now!
    Tuck

  14. Sounds like you guys had a little fun last weekend. I’ll be down for the Liberty Perch Tourney. Hopefully the perch bite picks up a little by then. See ya guys then.

    Josh Hukriede

  16. If we’re gonna have a fish fry for Liberty we have fish in the freezer and Josh can bring some from Devils Lake!
    I wonder if we’ll have time for a game of Holdem? I am sure the chocolate will be flowin’!!!!!!

  17. Quote:

    Hey…….was that your 8×8 particle board house with the white Dodge 4×4 pulling/plowing?

    Yep that was us My friend Jeff said he talked to you earlier

    he over did it on the plowing sorry about the noise, the house came out like butter…..I had some good days in my Trap right where you were fishing…Good Luck….

  18. You know what Denise? I may just give them my $20, and eat chocolate with you and Deb!
    Thanks for the cookies Saturday night!
    Tuck

  19. Chris, I have put my minnows on up side down for years in open water fishing. It looks like a injured minnow struggling which attracts eyes.

    Thanks for the report Bobber. And Thanks for the pics Chris. Bobber in action=

    Thanks, Bill

  21. Hey Tuck. We’ve done pretty well this year so far out at Devils. The walleye bite has been great this year. Unfortunately the perch action has been pretty slow this year. But the walleyes have more than made up for it!!!

    Hold’em after the Liberty Tourney, I’m in.

    Josh

  26. We would need some references……..a letter from your bank would also need to be supplied!

    I don’t care…..ask those guy’s

    anyone can join us down at the drawings at Liberty. We always stand on the northside of the crowd……just look for a bunch of people having way/way to much fun!

  28. This one is from 2 years ago……..Neil with the second place fish! Oh ya that’s Dicky from White Cap standing next to Neil!

    Oh and there’s the pink fish house again……..it’s always on the hot spot!

  29. Wondering if anyone has any pointers out there. A wild group of 15 of us from Iowa are heading to Mille Lacs to Twin Pines Resort and stay in their large ice house the 25-27. Any tips as far as jigs for perch. Where’s a good place to have a beer or good time? Any fun tournaments that weekend? Thank You!

  30. Well, you will be on the westside of Mille Lacs…….Liberty’s contest is on the 26th on the eastside…….the Blue Goose Bar is just down the road from where you will be at!!! And it’s THE HOTEST place to be on a Saturday nite! for around these parts any houe…..as far as perch fishing goes. I would fish small, small jigging spoons or a small jig tipped with a small crappie minnow or wax worm. Jig just above the bottom to up to 3 feet off it. you’ll have fun!

  31. I along with 3 others will be staying on the lake this Sunday through Tuesday. This will be the first time most of us will have ever been on Mille Lacs and now of us have ice fished it. Wondering if anyone has any tips for some fist timers on the ice there. Also how deep is the ice? Will we need an extension for our auger?

    Thanks!

  32. We have been fishing the flats. You can get to 9 mile from Liberty Beach, and the Sliver and Center Bar, as well as Fisher’s from Hunter’s Point. Bob Carlson “Bobber” is out today, and will probably have a post. As far as the extension goes, you shouldn’t need one. Bring waxies as well as minnows. Nothing has been very consistent as of late. It is one of those bites where you just need to be in the right place at the right time!
    Tuck

  33. Hey Eye, I still haven’t been able to get up there…however, I keep my eye on the board until such time as I can get my partners to go fishing. Any idea as to the ice depth in inches? Present snow conditions? Lots of heaves or wide open cracks? Thanks in advance!

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