Mille Lacs is Heating up, June 9th & 10th

By robstenger 0

Well, she did it again. When the weather heats up, so does Stacie’s ability to catch big fish. I’m not sure how she does it???? After spending an intense week of fishing and pre-fishing the pond over the last 7 days, I was able to go up there and let things slow down a little and relax. I have been on the pond for 10 days in a row and I can tell you first hand, the fishing is nothing short of phenomenal. With Stacie starting a new job, graduating and me working & fishing we have not spent that much “QAULITY” time together. So this past weekend, we decided to spend it together. What?????????? She never said “Qaulity” time could not be spent chasing Monster Walleyes. Read on to see how these two fish came to boat.

Saturday we spent the morning/afternoon rigging and pulling spinners on the mud. Then we shifted gears and went corking in the evening on the break of a familiar mud flat. Saturday brought some wind and sun, so we worked the edges of a few very familiar flats with a 10’ snell, red hook and a leech. We were working the 24-32’ depths and noticed that something had these fish a little more scattered then the past week. My guess is the weather that came through on Thursday and Friday had these fish not so concentrated along the edges. However, we wanted to rig so we kept at it and stayed working more of the bottom (deep) side of the break to put fish into the boat. I used my kicker to maintain us along the bottom side of the break, along with either 1 or 2 drift socks depending on the flat and side of it we were working. Saturday evening of corking we enjoyed a beautiful sunset while the wind laid down and it was actually calm where by the end of the night you needed your anchor straight down and you still twirled in circles. The corking bite, like normal came in frenzies and flurries. Where you would see nets get busy neeting fish for 5 minutes and then it would get quiet for awhile until it started up again. Stacie put on a clinic for me and the rest of the people around us. As Stacie and some other lady in the boat a couple down from us had the hot sticks of the night. We were anchored in 26-27 feet of water on again the break /edge of the flat. Stacie’s secret weapon was a red glow jig.

Sunday came and it was hot and flat calm. We did not get out right away, but by the time we did it was packed on every flat we drove by and with out seeing much action, we switched gears and decided it was time to troll cranks. With the crowds of boats up top on the flats and the fish seemingly to be scattered the day before, I thought the areas just off the flats and “no mans land” would be a good place to start. Well it was a good decision because we barely got the 2nd rod out and sat down when the drag starts to scream on my Shimano Tekota as I look back to see the board bouncing in the water indicating “FISH ON”. Stacie brings the fish to the boat on a Hot Tiger (Fire Tiger) Deep Tail Dancer and ties her biggest Walleye to date shown here in the 3rd picture. The Fire Tiger pattern seemed to be the ticket on this day. I tried different Deep Tail Dancers and Reef Runners, even Cheap Sunglasses, but the fish consistently came in on Fire Tiger Patterns. I ended up throwing a growing favorite Reef Runner of mine on (Mixed Veggies –Fire Tiger Colors) and that started slamming fish. I worked 2 different schools of fish and the bite was on FIRE on one of them and the other school we never got bit from??? We hadbeen fishing 32-36 feet of water most of the day. We ended up the day on the double shown in the first picture above. As Stacie got tired of reeling in boards all day she wresorted to sunbathing and reading a magazine on the bow. On our last pass a board gets hit and as I was reeling it in, the other board starts “jumping” in the water. I called for Stacie to reel in that one as I reeling in my fish I stop to take her board off and continue to reel and net my fish as Stacie is bring in hers and next thing you know we have two fish in the net. What a great way to start the board season I’m really looking forward to the next few weeks. I seen a ton of people pulling boards this past Sunday, it is catching on definitely out there.

Well to recap, the fish are being taken everywhere doing about any technique. Some days you need to work a little bit to get them or change presentations, but they are biting somewhere. True Water temps are probably around 65-66 degrees. However I did see 70.6 on my sonar yesterday with the Sun, heat and flat conditions, I’m guessing that was just surface temp. I took a swim or 2 to cool off yesterday, and it felt more like 60. All methods are taking fish just about everywhere. Corking, Pulling Spinners, Rigging, Trolling, etc are all methods that are working right now. Any where from Mud to Gravel, to Shallow and Deep Rocks are giving up fish. Look for transition areas 22-26 during the day and as shallow as 6-7 feet at night are taken fish. The night ban is finally lifted, so I’m looking forward to spending some late nights Corking under the moon with some buddies, but also looking forward to that cranking bite to heat up. I’m really looking forward to getting some new people out on the water and hopefully be taking my nephew and niece out a few times and get them on some fish. Until next time, be safe on the water and may you find your next bite.

*CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE*

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robstenger

Favorite thing is chasing Monster Bucks with a bow. Fishing eyes and chasing those ringnecks with my buddy Rufus is hard to beat! I fish Mille Lacs,Pool 2& Minnewawa the most. I run a Red Ranger 620 with Mercury's, Full Bio ›

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  8. Thanks Guys and Angie!

    Hey Cal remind me to tell you about Saturday night corking.

    I tend to like the Deep Diving Reef Runners better for most days. It dives to the HOT ZONE without any help. On cold front days I will use the Deep Lil’ Ripper for the fish 26′ and above. I also use Super line so I’m able to achieve greater depths than Mono.

    Has anyone seen the DIVE Curve on the Rapala Deep Tail Dancer #9’s (not the #13’s) yet??? If so please PM me.

    Good luck to anyone fishng this weekend. If you see me give me a

  14. I was going to put up a report, but it would be almost a carbon copy. Fri and sat I was able to put in at a north end resort, take it easy out to our fishing spot, and just work one area for the whole guide trips, catching fish the whole time. The boat never got on plane!

  19. Atta boy Lip! Awesome report and you gotta love that pic of Stacie holding two big piggies at the same time.

    Lindy Riggin, Spinner Riggin, Corkin and Crankin! It just doesn’t get any better than that!

    Mixed Veggies you say? I just might have to wipe the dust off of that one.

    I’m headed back up there again tomorrow night.

  20. Hey Rob!
    Great report again sir! I have a technical question for you. Why pull boards when you are fishing in 25+ feet and you only have a couple of lines out? I have some ideas why; but I want to hear your reasoning. Thanks sir!

    Joel

  21. Thanks Guys & Mrs Hooks

    Next time Stacie and I are up, I promise we will stop down to the Huekriede Compund!

    Jack I got your PM.

    Brad See your email and yes Mixed Vegggies has been good to me last year and so far this year.

    Coppertop, I hope she shows me how it is done.

    Joel, Here is an answer to a similar asked question back from a report in July 2005. Joel see PM!

    Quote:

    CE,

    Here is my thinking behind it. Not saying it is right, but I cannot argue with a method that works. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it sort of thing”.

    I usually have my inside board with an additional 50-60′ of line out and the outside boards beyond that a safe distance not to get tangled (25-50′). If I do run more than 2 boards (1 each side) I have the outside board running and targeting the shallower fish higher in the water column if they are present. For obvious reasons that you will spook these fish easier and will most likely move out farther away from your boat path. For the same reason when I run the inside boards, these boards I target the deeper fish.

    My theory of why to run boards when you target these deeper fish (in addition to what Kooty & Buckshot already said)is that you are not trolling a structure and these schools of fish are not holding to anything besides the pods of baitfish and bugs. Typically within these big schools of fish, there are fish all through the water column. Last weekend I was finding fish 8-15 feet down, 20-22 feet down and also 28 feet to the bottom 33-35 feet. My thinking is when you are going over these schools you do spook the high fish to the sides. As you go down the water column I believe that the fish “lower” in th ecolumn sense these fish moving and kind of move with the school to the outside of your boat path. Also they probably do hear your boat above and on calm flat days may perhaps see the shadow?? The other reason to run boards again your not fishing “structure” and your fishing large schools of fish. You might go right over the top of these fish ( I’m starting to be able to tell on my sonar of the fish that I’m right on top of or if fish are out to the side of my sonar cone). Cause of the depths you are fishing 30-35′ these fish could be out to outside to begin with on your Sonar and again not fishing a structuree the school could be out to either side of your boat also. What this does is spread out your presentation, kind of the same way if I have 4 rods going I try different depths to try to find what depths the active fish are at (spreading out my presentation).

    Not sure if this is clear at all, but the fish are just not only directly below your boat out there. These schools are huge an enormous sizes. Some of my trolling runs last for a mile or so. In my opnion these deeper fish do spook or move out to the sides somewhat from either your boat or feel the school moving above them. Not to mention the school is WAY wider than your boat & sonar to begin with. The other thing as mentioned in the begining if it ain’t broke….

    Hope this helps I did not have much time writing this!

    With all that said above, Can you still catch fish long lining cranks out the back??? You sure can, but I’m into increasing my odds every bit I can, and I know for a fact that most days running boards does this for me in lieu of no boards.

    If anyone reads FLW Walleye Magazine, there wa s a great article on boards a few months back (April???)

  22. I thought you might be thinking about spooking fish. I didn’t know the size of these schools is so enormous. I would imagine on really clear lakes like Mille Lacs or one of the Great lakes that makes sense. I’ve become to used to the Muddy Miss where boat spookage may not be as big an issue. Thanks sir! I’ll check that PM now.

    Joel

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