Mille Lacs walleye and perch report 1/26/06

As the end of January comes upon us, Mille Lacs offers a few challenges for the hard water angler. Late season walleye hunting puts many anglers in rigorous searching. With a bit of knowledge and a dash of determination, you may reap the rewards. I’ll say that was the set scenario for this Mille Lacs trip. After so many days of searching through the season, the average angler finds himself a bit worn down and ready for some action. So lets be happy that the perch season is upon us and enjoy our final month of the walleye season.

My thursday morning began out on some mid lake areas that had been producing some notably large fish with a few slot fish eaters here and there as an added bonus. However this wasn’t the case for this day. I found myself in a fluster of choices of where to go next. I cannot emphasize how important mobility is in this or any other angling scenario on the hardwater. By 10:30 I was fishless and still eager to find the state fish. A bit concerned that the morning flurry was on its way to the end, I found myself fishing many gravel transition areas. It was there that I was bombarded by active aggressive fish. I say that because throughout the early parts of the day I was consistly marking fish, however biters were not an abundance. This is where all of my fish for the day were caught. I even got them to smile for you in the first picture above.

Its a real treat for a walleye angler to come across agressive fish mid day. This was entirely the situation encompassing me on thursday. At 2:00 I was consistently marking fish on the Marcum and icing some nice eater slot fish. I managed my four fish and a bonus 24 incher that absolutely hammered my glow devil and I nearly lost my phone, rod, and a good fish. A word of advice; don’t take phone calls when you’re fishing. The other interesting aspect for the days hunt for walleyes was finding them on top through mid day in numbers not just straglers. All of the days fish were found in 27 FOW. As an added bonus, simply heading out a bit deaper put myself on a few very respectable perch. "respectable?" you may ask how big that is. Well lets rest assured that 12 iches makes the eater walleyes look puny. This is plain to see in the photo.

A few more perch and that was the end of my day which was complete before dark or "night bite" took place. I found this to be a common feature of the Mille Lacs transition areas later this walleye season. I wasn’t able to set the hook into the lips of any big girls but I hope to have a few to share with you before the trips to Winnie take up 99% of the trips.

This trip to the Pond will remain in my memories for a while though because of the freak rain storm I drove to shore in. It didn’t just drizzle, it poured! Driving home in January in a down pour. Only in our great state of MN.