Weekends in October, my voicemail says "Hi you have reached Chris Tuckner, if it is dark, chances are I am chasing walleye until sunrise!" This time of year is awesome! Deer hunting, waterfowl and upland game hunting, you name it! If it is fun, happens in the fall! Talk goes from boat performance to winterizing….WAIT A MINUTE! This is the best time of year to chase the State’s premier gamefish! Now I know that there are many among us who have not put away the leeches, crawlers and minnows yet, but the crank bait bite is really beginning to heat up in the shallows. I like doing this because I get to see different structures that I went over at warp 5 during the summer to get to that "Spot" or rock pile to cork for a few hours. You see some pretty neat structure throw the eyes of your electronics this time of year. I know I dropped 5 icons for future reference for next year’s opener and corking.
Fishing in the dark, and I mean DARK brings on its own set of challenges. Such as taking pictures in the dark! It is hard to focus the camera on the victim, and successfully complete the shot! Thanks for cutting out the ugly part of my face ElRoy! LOL! This time of year, fish are very shallow. I can tell you with certainty that no one we saw this weekend was fishing more shallow than we were. Earlier in the day we saw lake shiners jumping out of the water EVERYWHERE! We knew it was a matter of time before the feed bag went on, or the dinner bell started ringing. I contemplated holding ElRoy’s head under water to listen…but he wanted no part of that. So we opted to cruise the rocks, and transitions from rock to sand, to just sand. Although we got fish on all structures, the sand bite was the BOMB for numbers! We landed no piggies, but got double digit counts on 17"-19" fish, with two doubles coming over the sand.
Smithwick Rogues, and Super Rogues in chrome were the hot lure, being pulled at 1.5 to 2 MPH. The Shad Raps that were hot for us a couple weeks ago were cold for us this weekend in our boat. Throw on a Rogue, and get bit. Change it up….Back to the Rogue and get bit! On and on it went. I think with the lack of the moon, the rattles and the depths we were targeting, the Rogues hit the sweet spot! I often thought that fish would concentrate on areas where there was ambient lighting from home lights along shore. It was just the opposite. We caught most of our fish when it was dark BLACK! I mean absence of light! TOTAL darkness! (The Northern Lights were pretty cool!) I was really relying on my Lakemaster/Garmin setup. By the way, I found many instances on the east side where the grid lines said I was in 9 feet + of water, and both my graphs read 3 feet! I know both major systems have glitches…
We spent a good chunk of the day Saturday speed trolling for musky. Trusty ElRoy was pulling a large Mepps style bait. When all of a sudden he says "Fish on!" Ok, now we are fishing musky, trolling baits as big as my head, and he says "Fish on!" Naturally, my pea sized brain starts thinking, get the net, and get ready to coach ElRoy like he was in labor…This thing is going to be 50"!…..I look over at his rod tip…It looked pretty anemic…."Where did it go?" I asked. He said "It’s still there"…As you can see it was not what we were expecting. (No this was not a staged picture!) I slid the net away sheepishly like I was just relocating it to a better spot…
We did well in the late afternoon on jumbo perch. We ended up with 11 very respectable fish. Jointed #5 Shad Raps in Crayfish color were the ticket again. The 10-12′ rocky humps were the places to be. Many we cleaned were still gorging on crawdads. As is always the case on Mille Lacs, if you were good boys and gils on the water that day, God treated you with one of these beautiful Mille Lacs sunsets!
Don’t wait for the moon! Get out there and fish! They are ready and waiting!
We also had a high 30’s pike up to the boat a couple of times after it blasted ElRoy’s Ringy up shallow. He busted us off after round 3 next to the boat!
Also worth noting. I spun on Power Pro 20/6 on two Shimano Tekota’s for this fall’s night bite. This weekend, we lost 6 high buck crank baits on run of the mill rock snags. The kind where you get hung up, and flip ‘er in reverse, and go back over it and it pops off. Well the PP just broke! I found that the outer sheath wore down very easily compared to Fire Line. This happened to me once before when I tried PP, and guys told me that I must have had a bad batch. Well, both reels functioned the same.
Note to self…re-spool with 14/6 Fireline before the full moon!
Great report Tuck and thanks for the tip on the Power Pro
I have been debating on switching, cause I have heard from people that Fire Line stinks and Power Pro is the way to go. I can set my mind to rest and know for this Fall Trolling thing that Fireline and Spider Wire Stealth is still the way to go! Thanks and look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks. I will be up there this Friday and then heading to the cabin to check on a couple rifle stands I have. 
Thanks Tuck !! – Great Report
HJ 12 and Suspending Rogues 
I found the same to be true. Still stick’in the shallows 2 – 5 ft – 2am – 4am. What time frame was best for you ??
Its only going to get better
For us it was 10:30 to 11:30 and beyond…but that was the hot hour. We would go for a while, and then Boom! A double…
I fished this way on Lake Ida in Alex. Sand is a big draw for lake shiners and other small fish this time of year. Perch are schooling up big where harbors meet the lake, and also in the weedy areas, perch are more prevalent. When those weeds lay down…look out! It is shaping up to be a gang buster moon bite!
Nice report, Tuck. I’m thinking that perch thought Elroy’s bucktail was one of his buddies … or maybe a gal he’d like to get to know better!?!?
hi Tuck,
Very nice report. Am expecting a lot from your boat in the next couple of weeks. Best of Luck.
I DO know that luck has not much to do with it at all.
You will do well.
Jack..
Thanks for the report and heads up on Power Pro. I recently bought 8 spools of it so am hoping I don’t have your problems with it. Will be comparing it against Fireline for sure as I have some of each on my reels. Look forward to your reports on the big pond this fall.
Thanks, Bill
Thanks! I expect a lot out of my boat too! I hope my boat knows that!
The Power Pro has me bummed out. I do like the way it spools, and rides on the spool compared to FL. But we found ourselves re-tying after almost every snag that we were lucky enough to get out cranks back on. In most cases, the outer sheath would be worn off and frayed, and a very thin strand in the middle remained which you could break with a tug.
I think you got a bad batch Tuck. I’ve been running the same PP on my counters for two years now. I break off occasionally, but that happens.
Now I don’t have the hours on the water you might, but this was brand new right?? I would ask for a refund. I’ve had better luck with the PP vs FL. The PP seems to fray much less for me anyway. Good luck!!
I was told that the first time I tried it! Same thing happened then too. All I know is that we lost about $30 in cranks last weekend that I am sure we would not have if I was pulling 14/6 FL. I am chalking it up to experience, and calling it a day…
You can keep your fireline and your power pro……..
I have yet to ever have spider wire ever, ever fail or disappoint me……..
run 20# power pro on my rods also. Spend a fair amount of time dragging lures threw the rocks with it on the river with not many problems. My first thought about those rocks on Mille lacs was that they where a bit sharper than what is on pool 2. I did watch Jon go threw about $30 worth or lures on mille lacs useing fireline a couple of week ago. From what i saw that might not be the answer either.
I second the spiderwire line statement… I will never even consider looking at fireline, even if it is in the free bin, I won’t touch it, Especially with the new Spiderwire STEALTH, this stuff is awesome, no digging into the real when you have a good fight here. The next cast is flawless. This is way better than even regular spiderwire, which itself outperforms any fireline on the market.
To each their own. I dislike the way FL digs into my reels. I did not notice that with the 20/6 PP. But, I fish Mille Lacs a lot over the rocks, and I troll the midlake a lot with boards, I fish the river all summer and snag logs & rocks, and I cannot ever remember losing a lure due to a snag with FL. We lost a ton of cranks this last trip with PP. Spiderwire may be next. I have not tried that yet. Is the Stealth a modified mono? If so, I will stick to FL.
Thanks for all the input!
Tuck, just do yourself a favor and go with the Spider Wire Stealth in the 20lb test/6lb diameter. All of your probelms will be resolved
.
Stealth is not a modified mono it is a braid. Let me know how it works for ya
I had a mess with Fireline just last weekend….it was bad! I might also be looking at stealth…………….
Dustin is right on the money. I fish for bass only and fish the 20 lb on my casting reels, and use the 14lb or even the 12lb on my spinning reels. Any of you guys who switch to the Stealth will love the feel and performance of this line. One of the main highlights of this product is that it prevents digging into the reel when you are fighting a fish, and it works. Like I stated before your next cast after fighting a fish is great. I use to use the spiderwire fusion and after a fish my line would sometimes be a mess. So they took the best, in my opinion, and like always made it better. I went on a trip with Steve Dezurik recently, though, and used 6lb mono on topwaters, tubes, and jigs, and this was an eye opener and a totally new experience for me. It took awhile getting used to it, and it might have cost me a couple fish, but every technique and application has its pros and cons, and as we all know, I will go with what Steve D. says for the best odds.
Another question for all you guys sponsored by St. Croix Rods. Do any of you ever look to get rid of some of your older or more used ones for cheap? I love the rods and don’t mind if they are used, just don’t want to spend the dough on the new ones. Thanks for any input.
-Jeremy LaVelle
Chris, I’ve gone the other way, i.e from Fireline to Power Pro. I was having the same problems with Fire Line that you describe with PP.
I also found FL to be unsatisfactory in the winter, whether open water or Ice Fishing. Too many broken lines, either setting the hook or snaping a cast.
My thought is that FL is too brittle a line, especially in the colder temps. I think PP is softer and casts much better.
I’ve been using PP for 2 full years to date.
Go Figure !! I guess that’s why we have so many to choose from.
Thanks for the good reports
Bob M
I will have pictures tomorrow of what I am talking about. Tonight I am to beat and beat up to do it!
Tuck;
The vast majority of my reels are spooled with spiderwire or stealth.
Swing on over to the house some eve and I can show you what I got and how they spool. I still have the same line on some reels, where it is over 4 years old and holds out VERY well yet today, where I don’t need to change.
I got the pond in the back to, where you can test some casting…..