Mille Lacs Muskie Report, Sort of…..

With the next stop on the Hartman Tournament Trail coming up this weekend on The Pond, fishing partner Bob Bowman and I have been spending every available hour out scouting looking for active fish. Unfortunately, I have nothing good to report, as fishing has been very slow since the beginning of the month.

All told between Bob and me we have probably logged over 100 hours this month on the lake in search of any type of pattern that might be taking shape. Towards the beginning of July documented catches of fish on the North End peaked the interest of many musky junkies with good fish coming as shallow as 4 feet of water on cranks behind boards in the sand. There was also mention of Cowgirls producing, but at this point I am no longer surprised as that is all anyone throws on Mille Lacs these days. This phenomenon that happens every year, offers true trophy potential day or night, and those who have polished their craft with boards take serious advantage of it. Once pressured, the fish typically move just off the shallow flats from Red Door to Malmo and out onto the first break. Which on the North End in some spots is as steep as it is weed covered. I was witness to hoards of anglers speed trolling for gold, masts deployed looking for that needle in a haystack along the 5 mile stretch. Truth be told however, I only saw a net come out once, and the fish appeared to be a pike. Then let us consider options to the west; Knox Pt, The Culvert, Myr Mar, Garrison Break, Garrison Reef, and so on. These spots have absorbed much of our time, day and night, but alas to no avail, entire days gone without a single fish sighting to show for it. I know it has been rumored that some people have bucked the trend, scored multi-fish days or nights, and continue to see fish with regularity. I believe it to be true; Mille Lacs is too good of a fishery to not be producing somewhere, somehow. I have been told by fishing aquaintanences that are getting out during the week, Vineland is offering up fish just off the edges of the beds; however what we’ve seen is that on the weekend you are going to have to take a number to fish any of it. On to the south end, Wahkon seems as good, if not better than any other year with the weeds south Half Moon and Upper/Lower Twin, lush and green out to 10 feet of water. An absolute musky paradise if you ask me, or any of the other guys in the umpteen boats that pound it every day. Oh, and let us not forget the south side stones, I believe a silver haired gentleman coming into Hunter’s in a well adorned Warrior on Saturday morning summed it up the best; “There were 12 boats on three mile, we were the only ones fishing for walleyes!”. I have even been able to talk Bob into trolling around the flats for the elusive Mudski, that have been showing themselves to weary walleye anglers from time to time, but yet here I post this report with not a fish picture to share….

That said, here is what went down this past weekend. Bob and I hit the water at about 10:00 Friday night with what can only be described as a full blown Hollywood Blockbuster of Mother Nature’s electrical abilities. I can honestly say I have never seen lightning like that before, and hope never to again. We knew time would be short so we gunned down to Indian Point to cast the rocks with what little time we had. In less than an hour we had one short strike and I boated this 21” Smallie, on what else… a Siligirl!!! We had no more than released the fish, and the sky just to the west lit up with multiple bolts of trillion watt energy, we called it right then and there, hammered the throttle and b-lined back to the docks.

Saturday we stayed on the south end of the lake. We fished The Tundra, The Graveyard, Wahkon Bay, and Vineland Bay. Bob picked up a nice pike, had one miss on our Goonie Dawg, and one other really small musky follow on a Dunwright Lifelike south of Half Moon amongst the acres of cabbage in 8 feet of water. We didn’t have anything happen on the rocks, so we then packed up to wait our turn in Vineland. We fished for about an hour on the southwest side of the hole, and then finally, we saw one. I was ripping a black and silver grandma through some shallower weeds when the upper 40’s fish came like a streak right next to the boat. The bait was fouled and I was looking into the sun, when Bob saw the fish coming down the side of the boat. After exclaiming in a not so particular fashion there was a nice fish behind my bait I glanced down in time to see it shoot off the bow, and back down into the weeds. We hung around the area for about fifteen minutes, then I got a strike, right when the Grandma came to a pause, I reared back and gave her a rip, but all I felt was two headshakes and then nothing. The end of my line felt light and I assumed the worst, a bite off. We fish flouro leaders and getting bitten off is a definite possibility on bigger fish. Once I got my line back in the boat I made an odd discovery, first I was bitten off, about two inches above the clip, but somehow the back hook of the bait slipped through the top loop of the crimped leader and the bait was saved, weird…. As near as I can tell the fish moved to strike the bait on the pull, but missed when it paused. Possibly the same fish, however in our minds highly unlikely.

Sunday, we again opted to put more time in on the North End, we worked from Garrison to Barnacles, including all points in between. The highlight of the day was while fishing a Dunwright Dancer I had two bull smallmouth come charging up at my bait. After getting an up close look at both fish I dove into the rod locker scrambling to find a bass rod buried under the musky sticks. I tied on a Mann’s Baby 1- and tossed back into the area where I had just seen the fish. Second cast my bait got swatted by this beefnocks 21.5” pictured above, a lengthy tussle on a Loomis drop-shot rod, and I had her in the boat. My best smallmouth from Mille Lacs and certainly one I won’t forget.

Well, that was a lot, I guess there is much to be said when I musky guy can do no right. Despite our dismal efforts thus far, hopes remain high for the upcoming tourney. Bob will give it one more go tomorrow to find us some movers. Last I heard there were only 50 boats entered in the tourney, so I would invite anyone interested to come up and fish it this weekend. You can register Friday at McQuiods, between 5 and 9 pm. Cost is $350 a team, and at this point the weather looks nice.

See you on the water….