Mille Lacs – East Side Rocks

Fall fishing at Mille Lacs is something I have looked forward to for many years. Even before the fishing media wrote stories about the full moon phase bite, I knew this time was special. This September did not disappoint me at all. I had a chance to fish with 3 different guys during the 6 days I was at the lake. Friend Chris, Brother Larry and a familiar face to all IDA’ers, Jon Jordan.
Here is Chris with a nice 18 1/2″ smallie taken on a Shad Rap.

Friday and Saturday evening/night the bite was average with decent keeper fish taken but no larger fish over 23″. We were able to be selective in what we put in the well and ended up with a nice length average for our time on the water.
Sunday night our luck changed a bit and some larger fish were part of our catch.
Here is Larry with a nice 27″.

We found that the best lure was a discontinued Husky Jerk, the orange/black stripe #10. This did go against the thought process about lure selection while the moon was fairly bright in the sky. Instead of flash colors like silver and gold the fish were chasing the darker orange. Our best bite was between 10:30p and 12:30a.
Here is my largest at 25″

On Monday evening Jon joined me for another attempt at finding some larger fish. Based on what was learned on Sunday we did not go out till 10. The first pass produced 2 slot fish and the chase was on. We both had fish up to 23″ and then Jon changed to a Gary Roach signature Smithwick Rogue and a couple of split shot. In the next couple of hours he landed 2 – 25″ and a 27″. We were running at 2.0 to 2.5 mph for speeds and had our lures out around 120′ to 150′ behind the boat.
Here is the beautiful 27″.
It was a fairly warm and pleasant few nights on the water. This will all change next month. I can’t wait for October full moon.