My brother and I decided to try our luck on Mille Lacs for the bass opener chasing some of the bruisers that lurk in the haunts of the ol Walleye factory. We didn’t land any tanks, but I am very impressed with the quality of fish on Mille Lacs. Our smallest fish was a scrappy 14 incher, and our largest was a solid 19. Here’s Ben with the first fish of the day taken on a Super Spook. Right after we saw a 50+ inch muskie, this fish showed herself keying in the last of a long boulder shore before it transitioned to sand.
We launched on the south end out of Cove and were greeted by 2-3 footers right away. We last about an hour and the waves grew bigger. It was downright dangerous down there. One miscue and you could be send into any number of rocks before you could blink. After trailering to the casino launch, this fish took a tube in about 10ft. 3 fish chased my brothers X-rap up to the boat and dropped a tube in for the easy hookup.
Our presentations included topwater, which yielded one single fish early in the morning to twitch baits (x-raps) and tubes. We found almost all of our fish in deeper water after this cold front whipped through the night before. Inside turns on rock piles or steep drop offs like that second fish.
Once the sun got up in the sky, paying attention to where you were casting proved to be very important. These fish were not just roaming around looking for food! You had to actually pick a rock that looked fishy, and work your tube or x-rap down and around it. Tube color for me was white to add to the Mille Lacs white tube "lore". Mostly because I could see it from a mile away and work it precisely, but also because the most succesful x-rap was orange! Go figure. When dealt with tough conditions, i.e. wind, and post frontal, the Mille Lacs Smallmouth can still be taken, but only with adjustments to the run and gun approach, including fishing slowly, and precisely in and around the best cover options available, and moving out a little deeper. Good luck.
Nice job Micah, Looks like a fun day on the water.
I am counting the days for my first smallie trip to Mille Lacs but first I need to chase them in Chequamegon Bay.
Holly Toads, nice job guys
Ron
I have been reading reports about those fish up there and have entertained the idea of heading up. How far is it from here and what is the water like? Is it Michigan or Superior and how big of a boat do you really need? Thanks for the tips, unfortunately, with the water as rough as it was on the south end, we couldn’t hit any of our spots…next time. Holler if you want to split gas sometime and I’ll do the same.
Micah
My fishing partner and I made our 3rd annual trip to Mille Lacs for the bass opener and things started out hot. On Danny’s 3rd cast he had a 20.25″ just under 5#. After netting his fish and taking a couple of pics, I hooked into a 3.5# Largie. 2 mins later I broke my line on a huge smallie. And 5 mins after that I caught a 9.5″ Pumpkin Seed. After our first 15 mins we didn’t catch another fish for nearly 2 hrs, a healthy 18.5″. I was still skunked on Smallies by the time the wind picked up and really wanted to get one out of the way. I didn’t get a Smallie until 10:15 but the wait was worth it. 20.5″ 5#+. After that we battle the 4′ chop in my 17′ Triton. At one pt., Danny said he felt like we were on Deadliest Catch. If we were to do it over we wouldn’t have gone do to the conditions. Maybe next time…..
I will answer all your questions after my trip, as for now it would all be second hand info.
but I think that I have every day off planned untill July 
As for splitting gas, Anytime
Micah,
Great job with the ML SM.. good pics, and good size…
I am going with Ron on Wed. Check the report, Thurs night or def by fri..
Just briefly, Chem Bay is off Superior, at the town of Ashland about an hour or more east of Duluth. There is also a Chem Bay forum listed in WI listings.
more soon.
Jack..