Transition was the theme for my boat this weekend. Well the fish seem to be in transition as you can catch them right now anywhere from shallow rocks, actual sand/rock/gravel transition areas, or even way out in the mud. My presentations are also in transition, as all are producing fish right now. I tried many different presentations from Cranks, Slip bobbering, rigging and pulling spinners and all produced fish for me. Another thing that was in transition from last week to this week, was the weather. It went from 31 degrees last week on the pond, to hotter than I ever remember in May. Finally, the bugs were in transition too. The may flies tapered off their torrid pace to only a few, but were replaced by biting black flies by the gazillions. 
At least the mayflies didn’t bite. We found a very good bite as I was scouting for fish for a few upcoming tourneys here the next week and a half. It seems as the heat is turned up, my girlfriend Stacie does her thing and catches big fish like this one. This was her 2nd largest eye to date!
Read on to see how the weekend went for us!
Saturday night we (my buddy Torre, Stacie and I) anchored up on a reef on the Eastside rocks and found the 15-17” fish really active. We were fishing in about 14 feet of water with a glow jig under the slip bobber. Like most everyone else, we had good luck finding fish for the frying pan. We ended up only keeping 5 to eat that night when we got off the lake. Sunday mid morning we headed out to the mud to check out a few flats trying to locate some fish and some right fish for the next week or so. Well after just cruising around and looking for fish using my Lowrance X-15mt Sonar and 3500 C GPS, we found that indeed the fish were down there. Most of the fish we graphed were holding either tight on the break or right on the bottom of it. After checking several flats we decided to anchor up on one of mine and Torres favorite flats in a corking spot I have not visited since 2004. It did not take long to find that the fish were still there and ready to bite. In about 3 hours time we had boated around 15-20 fish, with only 3 of those being under 21”. Torre caught his largest Mille Lacs eye (pictured on the left here) and Stacie boated her 2nd largest to date. I think we had two doubles corking that morning/eary afternoon. This bite tapered off shortly after noon and we headed to check some more spots. Man was it hot and the black flies were out in full force. 
My dog Rufus, is now on a mission to kill anything that flies near him. 
Monday morning Stacie and I got on the lake early, not spending to much time actually fishing, as again I was using my electronics to locate schools of fish. We would catch a couple of fish off a school and see the size of them and move on to search for another spot trying to locate some larger slot fish. We chose to rig with 8-9’ snells rigged with a leech, a presentation that was fairly new to Stacie. She caught on fairly quickly as she started boating fish in no time, after realizing what a bite felt like. I can’t believe how good of a stick she is becoming. 
After watching her fight some pretty good fish the last year. I have really seen her excel in handling these fish and bringing them to the net, as of late. Although after having her fight a couple bigger fish on my new St. Croix 7.5’ Legend Tournament rod and 9’ St. Croix Wild River that I use as my bobber rod, I think she may want one too. She brought in a mid 20 inch fish rigging yesterday. She turned to me and said, "Wow that rod is smooth." (Oh and by the way those two rods absolutely rock. 
I have never fished with 2 better rods and no, I’m not sponsored by them. ) Using my Minnkota Vantage trolling motor was the key for me putting more fish in the boat. I was able to keep us at a slow speed of under ½ mph in the strong winds. Even more importantly, it kept us riding up and down the breaks of the flats with precise boat control. Keeping our bait in the areas that were holding the most fish 100% of the time. This paid off big time as Stacie and I boated fish at every spot we tried. Here in the third picture is nice over fish that is a pretty common size that seems to be out there. Many of this sized fish in the system right now.
The lake seems to be holding a ton of 2 sizes of fish, 14-16” and 22-26” fish. It has been really tough for me finding the bigger slot fish and have not pulled a 28” plus yet this year. I hope to find these fish over the next week and a half. The bite is definitely on, if you can find the fish. I have never experienced so many doubles (2 fish on at once) as I did this last weekend. I think we had 5-6 doubles this weekend. This will be my last report probably for a couple of weeks as I will be busy fishing Tournaments and will not have access to a computer. Starting this Friday, I start my 8 days straight of fishing the pond pre-fishing and fishing for these tournaments. If you are wondering if the may flies killed the bite, they didn’t. There are some nice fish being caught and many nice fish for the frying pan. The water temp on the lake right now is close to being what it was June 17th last year. The highest I had this weekend was 65.2 degrees and I think it started out around 60.5 degrees. The key depths or areas for me right now seem to be about 14-17 feet on the rocks for evening slip bobbering, 17-22 feet and 27-28 feet transition areas for rigging and pulling spinners, and right on the breaks of the flats for rigging and corking the deep. I look forward to seeing a lot of IDA’ers here the next week or so. Stacie and I really enjoyed visiting with Hooks and family this weekend. Hooks, next time I will have a beer, I promise. To those of you I missed this weekend, I’m sorry but time sort of just flew by. Until next time, have a great few weeks and get out and enjoy the bite on the pond.
*CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE*
Another one of Stacie.
Torre with a Corking fish.
Anybody know what this is??? Torre caught this 23″ fish with these growths on it???
Me with a early morning fish.
Nice Report Rob!!!!!
Where were those fish last weekend???
Rob, does she know what the HDH is???
Great report!
Rob,
Nice report!
It was nice to meet the gal who keeps you in line too!
Saw you heading for Hunters last night……………you stopping to eat?
Great food huh?
See you tourney guy’s friday!!!
Great report Rob-
Surprised to read about the black flies. We didn’t have any at all. Friday we had a few knats around us with zero wind out there. But that was as bad as it got.
We got chewed but them SOB’s too.
D, these were the non-drinking flies…
Those growths on that fish are called Lymphosithis(sp)?They are cold water sores.The DNR told me they were caused by cold water and stress on the fish and should go away in time.He also said the fish were OK to eat.
Rob,
Good report. Good luck on the upcoming tournies up there.
How did your new trollmaster work? Have any problems?
Did you have a chance to do any trolling with all the wind?
Thanks Guys.
Derek, she’ll know now.
Thanks a lot 
Castaway, I have seen those last Fall on a fish, but never this many and they looked different. Very well could be thanks.
Steve, I actually did do some trolling Saturday morning/afternoon by myself and late afternoon Sunday. Torre spanked a real decent mid 30’s pike Sunday and I pulled a real nice 25.5″ eye Saturday. These were the 2 largest fish that were caught trolling. The trollmaster worked fairly well. Although I think there is like a dead spot where it seems not to do anyhting??? Then I will turn it one revoultion and it really moves the throttle a lot??? It was tough with the wind to tell, but I may need to adjust her a lttile? Thanks again Steve. Those places were holding fish we talked about. Deep RR and Deep Little RR were the ticket in about 24-27′ of water and about 1.7-2.2 mph.
I didn’t want my report to go on any longer than it did, so I left it out of my report. 
Dman I have never seen the black flies as bad as we did on Sunday.
Horrible would be an understatement and man do they like feet, ankles and black Dogs. 
My poor little buddy. 
They were out on Monday but not quite as bad, but still horrible. 
Cal, there are still fish on those ‘Humps’.
Lubriderm……SP15 brand
Skin lotion that keeps the hands from chapping.
Sun block
and
for whatever reason, the black flies will not bite you at all, wherever you have applied the lotion……not even on the ankles……
Interesting….. I was using a lot of the Wallgreen store brand SPF 15 and SPF 30 lotion last weekend on the pond. I noticed a LOT of black flies in the boat, but they left me alone completely.
I’m not a person who uses sun screen very much, but after seeing a few folks burned to a crisp Friday evening when I arrived, I vowed that would not be me!!! Man were they miserable for the rest of the trip…
Oh, did someone say the fish were biting….????
-J.
JJ.. I heard you on 82 talkin about the bronzeback bite.. any piggies?
No pigs. Hit my milkrun by Big Point and pulled 2 fish there. I was getting sloppy seconds however as a bass boat was pulling out of the area when I arrived. Got 3 more near some south end markers that need more exploring next week.
-J.
My Boss’s neighbor (the wife) pulled a 22″ plus off the dock fishing for eyes Sunday night.
He said the thing was enourmous. About 9:45 pm on a leech under the bobber.
Excellent report Rob!
Great report Stacie…..I mean Rob
Looks like the fishing was a blast
Bret
Good Report Bub
Just to report on the fly thing. Thanks for the tip on the Lubriderm Gary. I have Stacie looking at getting some of this. DMan, We encountered most of these flies out on the mud. Close to shore it was not a problem. Get on the mud a different story.
Also Tuck dropped me a line last night. He mentioned the Eyes really are hammering his cranks when Dire Straits(sp?) is playing. Don’t forget about Bob Segar either.
TRIED THIS ON THE MISS HERE IN LACROSSE LAST SUMMER IT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME UNLESS I PUT A TON ON, BUT I THINK A TON OF ANYTHING DOES WORK. SKIN SO SOFT FOR THE FLYING VAMPIRES DOESN’T WORK FOR ME EITHER ??? MUST BE MY BODY CHEMISTRY
Thats been known to happen!!
This report is just over a day old and it almost has 1,000 views. Imagine that
I’ve hired two great looking models to fish with me tommorrw and Friday!! I hope to get some great fishing pictures up with my report!!!!!
I’m thinking it might help!!
It’s all about marketing Bob!!!
Oh ya, and bikini!!! Man can they grow in SD!!!!
Hmmmmm…..
I don’t seem to remember the navel ring from last summer. Is that like a new confidence building thing to catch the larger fish?
Great report Rob. Keep them coming.
Why has the first picture been downloaded 648 times so far and the rest barly make 300?
And why have I read this fishing report 4 times this week and I don’t even fish Mille Lac
Mr Twister
Because there are LARGE volumes of information in this report.
Sometimes you just can’t get enough information
when doing research it’s best to check, check, double check, and recheck your information
dave
When the information is that good, you have to keep coming back.
Yes, lots of good info about the large rock humps..
Hi Definition Humps
I don’t think it is so much the humps, but more in the transition valleys that are holding them!!
Lip, ya gotta stop doing these things….even with Mr Holst’s new server, you’re putting serious extra traffic onto it and slowing the overall performance
I’m trying to find a new avatar for the summer. Any ideas anyone?
Just kidding,
Lars
I’m trying to find a new avatar for the summer. Any ideas anyone?
Just kidding,
Lars