Mille Lacs Smallmouth

Lake Mille Lacs can amuse and confuses me, both sometimes at the same time. In this report, I will talk about smallmouth, walleyes and even muskie. This report will talk about two trips that were taken on consecutive Mondays with two different people, Darren and Dale, with great results on each trip.

Yesterday I spent the day with Darren, the fishing manager for Sportsman’s Warehouse in Woodbury. He has never been on Mille Lacs so he was pumped to get up and see it as will as fish for some of its sumo smallies. We arrived around 8am and were fishing by 8:15, five casts later Darren had his first “pond” smallie, a thick 17.5 incher. Not be be out fished in my boat, fishing my spots, on a lake that I am on at least ever other week, I got on the board with a stout 17 incher. The lures that we would be fishing with today is the same as most of my trips, 3 to 4 inch tubes on 1/8 to 1/4 ounce jigs fished with med, med-light rods and 6-8 pound test. Sometimes when you hook a smallie you can see other bass swimming along with it as it is coming to the boat, this is a good time to have the other angler throw out a lure in the general area of the hooked fish. Using this technique we hooked many doubles. The only problem with doing this is that we you are both fighting a fish nobody can get the net. Nice problem to have if you ask me. After moving a few times and picking of a fish or two from each reef that we went too. We never found the sumo smallmouth but we found a decent supply of fish to keep us entertained most of the day. The last reef that we went to Darren hooked a nice 18 inch smallie and a monster smallie tagged along side that dwarfed his fish but it would not take anything that I offered it. Just after that fish I saw a school of walleyes, about 10-15, in 4 feet of water about 2 feet down. These eyes were all over 22 inches and this is at 11:30 with a bright blue sky. I also have one other fish to tell you about but I will make you read the rest of the report first.

Last week I had the pleasure to share a day with an old friend, Dale. We have shared a boat a few times mostly chasing smallmouth either on the Mississippi or Mille Lacs. We started on the West side early in the morning and wanted to try a topwater bite. I have never got on a good topwater bite and this day was no exception. We threw poppers, chug bugs, buzzbaits, skitter pops, and zara spooks all with the same results. NOTHING.

I switched to a hidden weight spinnerbait, a small profile 1/2 ounce lure that can really be burned with no chance of rolling. This is a reaction bait as the fish have a second to either bite or not. After a dozen cast I got a 15 incher, not even camera worthy. The wind started to really howl, blowing right into the shoreline that we were fishing and it did not take long for us to decide to move. We put the boat back on the trailer and drive to the other side of the lake thinking that it would be calm. This is where I am confused. The wind was howling into the west shoreline and we get to the east shoreline and it is blowing into that shoreline also. This access is almost directly on the other side of the lake. I have no idea how that works but we decided to give it a chance and see how fishing was. It did not take long for us to find the fish that we wanted. Summer pattern smallie fishing, Big Boulder=Big Bass. We would pitch pumpkin color tubes into the shady side of the rocks and get bit. Dale landed so many fish right away, it had me doubting my presentation but with a minor fleck color change I was back in the game. Sometimes a small change in fleck color or a lighter jig weight can make or break a day so even if you have caught a fish or two try a small change and see if it helps, you can always change back to your original color. We caught bass ranging from 16 to 19 inches.

It was another great day on the water with friends.

Back to the trip yesterday, I hooked into the biggest fish that I have ever caught. A 47 inch muskie. It was caught on a 3.5 inch tube fishing for smallies.

I should be jumping up and down with excitement BUT I can’t. I fought the huge fish for far to long with the gear that I was using. No net big enough. The warm weather and the long fight really stressed the fish. I chased her down twice with the trolling motor. After a very quick picture she was right back in the water. I worked on getting her recovered and after a few minutes she tensed up and with a slow deliberate tail kick she slowly swam away and into the deep. I hope she makes it as I tried to do everything that I could for her. Thanks Darren For the help getting that girl in the boat.

More pictures to follow

Until next time,

Ron