Cranking on Mille Lacs 7.09.05

By robstenger 0

Well, it was a great day to be out on the water hitting the open water trolling bite Saturday! There were a ton of boats out there. The sun was hot and there was just enough breeze to keep it somewhat comfortable. I had high expectations for the day as I was out by 8 am and had 4 rods going in my boat. I shared the boat with Stacie, her brother Tyler and my college buddy Lumes. It did not take more than 20 minutes before we had our first board start to jump and Tyler was tangling with his first Mille Lacs lake walleye! The fish pictured here hit a Gold and Black DD Reef Runner in about 30 foot of water. This eye was a nice 24.25"er. Nice first Mille Lacs Eye Tyler

Lumes was next in the saddle and when we noticed a board lagging behind a little, Lumes reels in the smallest fish on a board for the year for my boat. A 14" walleye. Go figure and leave it up to Lumes. Not wanting to jip Lumes, I put him back on top and when a fish slammed an outside board with a crank running 20′ down. This was the 3rd fish in a row on a Gold/Black Reef Runner. When Lumes got it close ot the boat I could see it was barely hooked with one hook and told Lumes to take it easy. As soon as I got her in the net, the hook popped off, whew! This is the fish pictured in the 2nd picture here a very healthy and fat 25.5".

The fish were found to be scattered all over the water column on this day. I mainly targeted the fish @ 20′ and 30′ down. The speed I tried to maintain was between 1.7 and 2.1 mph. I did get one of the high fish to go and was caught about 8′ down on the Gold and Black Reef Runner. I did not meet my expectations for the day, but still enjoyed a good day out on the water. We ended up with 6 fish and lost one. The largest fish was Lumes’s 25.5" and the smallest also went to Lumes @ 14". Stacie and Tyler caught the rest of the fish between 20.25" and 24.25". With only 2 picture worthy fish for the trip! Sorry Guys, she said her fish were to small for pics. The bite has not been as good as I was hoping it would be this Summer. At least for me, I have been unable to figure out a decent pattern. Although it is tough when you only get a day or half day on the water each week. I was hoping I would be able to have either longer days or consecutive days on the water, but it just hasn’t happened for me this year. The fish are definitley schooled up and are there, it just seems that they have been a little slow coming to my boat

It was nice seeing some fellow IDA’ers out there this past weekend! Jon J and Mike W were out there this past Saturday trolling around the great wide open. I think they ran out of sunblock though It was really great finally meeting bri_bigeyes (Brian) after sharing information and tips all Summer over the site and phone. That lucky Dog pulled a beauty 29" Friday . Let us know how Sunday went for you Brian! Until next time on the water, have a safe and fishy time !

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robstenger

Favorite thing is chasing Monster Bucks with a bow. Fishing eyes and chasing those ringnecks with my buddy Rufus is hard to beat! I fish Mille Lacs,Pool 2& Minnewawa the most. I run a Red Ranger 620 with Mercury's, Full Bio ›

0 Comments

  1. Thanks for the report LR. I was out there Saturday as well. I seemed to have better luck with lead core. Trolled for about 2 hours and got 4 beauties around 22″-26″. All of these fish were VERY fat and scrappy. I couldn’t belive how thick they were around their backs!! We went to a gravel hump and really beat ’em up rigging. It was one of the best days I’ve had on the pond in quite a while. Can’t wait to get back

  2. Here is a nice 26.5″ that my brother got that same day. This was off his camera phone. This fish hit a “Cheap Sunglasses” DD Reef Runner 30′ down.

    Jason, I hear you. It sounds like the rigging bite is exceptional right now on the Flats. I “heard” the winner of the Red Door tourney this weekend had 2 over 28″ and 3 slotters rigging . I’m itching to get back out there also. Thanks for the report Jason!

  4. On their own Chappy. According to the Troll Bible, they can achieve like 34-36 feet or something around there on 10 lb Fireline. That is part of the reason why I love using them. No lead, no dipsy’s, etc. Just less things for error.

  6. I have tried short stints of them. They say they are suppose to hit 30′. I’m not sure if that is with mono or super? With out having an idea of a dive curve, I have been hesitant to use them too much. There are a few colors I reallly like in that DD Tail Dancer. The dive curve is suppose to be out in the next addition of the trolling bible. If anyone gets that and would like to fax it too me I would appreciate it

  9. I was hoping that you might be able to help me out, me and the “meat Wagon” were up last weekend and tried the planer boards for the first time and met this new metheod with a little resistance. We had a hard time keeping the board clipped to the line, was the water too rough? any help would be greatly appreciated.

  10. If your board was slipping, try wrapping it around the clips twice. Also, the red clips with the peg that runs through the middle work best. I also use 2 clips on the front triangle piece. I am using the Off Shore boards. The new OR-18 releases are real nice as well.

  11. What kind of boards were you using? What type of line were you using. I typically “double wrap” the front clip that comes from the boat. I did end up losing a yellow off-shore board last weekend (came undone) and had to pull all 4 boards in a turn around to go get her, what a pain and a hassle. I like to use the orange Church Tackle brand (WalleyeBoard) better. With this board if it ever to happens to come unclipped, it still stays attached to your line and all you have to do is reel in that rod. I have used these Church Boards in big waves and not had many issues. Click on the attachment to see the board Church’s Walleye Board

    If anything last weekend was the calmest day I have had pulling boards this year I believe. Try double wrapping around the clip and see if that helps!

  12. Rob,

    It was great meeting you in person finally! We fished from Thursday afternoon until Sunday (the WWA was on Sunday)with varied results. On Thursday I picked up a fish that was close to 28″ and another that went 29″, so we decided we were probably going to go for broke for big fish. Friday and Saturday was HOT and the fish were not coming to the boat in great numbers on the trolling bite. We averaged about a fish every hour and a half or so. We did have a pretty good trolling bite in the evening on the east side rocks for some small slot fish. Sunday came and so did the wind. We heard Saturday night that many of the larger mud flats began producing tremendous numbers and size of fish after being slow all week with the may fly hatches. Anyhow we hadn’t pre-fished them and with the rollers on the lake we decided to stick to the board bite. We ended up having one of the funnest days on Sunday, boating 13 fish between 7:30 and 1:30, the problem is we couldn’t get that one over 28″. We had one 18″ slot fish and two that were maybe a 1/8″ over 20″, plus a couple that were around 26-1/2″ . Anyhow, the guys on the mud ended up putting a lot of slot fish in the boat as well as some big fish. I give them credit, to pull rigs around in that wind and be able to feel the bites takes some skill. All of our fish for the trip came on reef runnersand deep rogues, with most of the fish coming in the 24-30′ water column over 34′ of water. We typically stayed at least a 1/2 mile away from any of the flats. There seems to be a ton of fish out there, but other than Sunday it seems like the bite has been slightly off this summer. Here is some shots of some fish from the trip.

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