Mille Lacs Fishing Report 8.24.07

There is a lot of competition in regard to the amount of baitfish swimming around in Mille Lacs. According to some DNR reports, the spring perch hatch in May was a good one and now these perch are bigger and quickly becoming a favorite prey for the walleyes. The tullibees (ciscos) are also in good shape and unlike last year when hundreds and hundreds died off during a week long hot spell. Bottom line is there is a lot of food down there for these walleyes and you have to be patient, put your time in on the water and hopefully find a pattern that will entice these fish.

Joining me on Friday was a good friend and fellow IDA’er – Brad (point man) and his cousin from Arizona – Briggs. Brad has a cabin down on the SE corner of the lake and usually spends his time targeting smallies on the rock piles along with shallow walleyes. The last time we were out together was 2002 when we caught about 30 some eyes. I told Brad it wouldn’t be like that again, but if we put in our time and be patient, we could still catch some quality fish.

We set our first troll run right where I had some success the previous time out. I was marking a lot of baitfish, but no suspended walleyes. About 45 minutes into our first run, I finally marked a couple of suspended arcs and soon after – BANG – the port side planer board took off. Briggs was at the helm and we were fighting our first suspended walleye of the day. Briggs never trolled cranks before with planer boards. However, his experience showed through and he quickly caught his first planer board walleye – a 26 incher that fell victim to a #11 purpledescent deep tail dancer – 130 feet back. As soon as we had her in the net – BANG – the leadcore rod took off and we were right back at it. This was Brad’s first time fighting a fish on leadcore! Shortly after, that girl landed in the net too – a 25 incher caught on a #11 deep tail dancer – silver flash – 90 feet of leadcore and 50 feet mono leader. As I grabbed the fish and started to get her out of the net, the starboard planer board started thrashing back and forth in the water. Briggs was back up and knew exactly what to do. Brad steered the T8 kicker while I was getting the net free of hooks. Eventually, this girl made it into the net too – a fat 27 incher caught on another purpledescent – 120 feet back. Three fish in about 10 minutes! What a great start!

We decided not to go any further because we wanted to stay on top of this active school. We quickly motored back to the waypoint where we caught our first fish. We put out our lines again and got ready with high expectations. Then…..Nothing….. Hmmm… let’s try it again and make another troll run. After our third troll run still ….Nothing Where did this school go? We were right on them… We decided to make a parallel run 200 yards to the east. Nothing…. We decided to make a parallel run to 200 yards to the west of our first troll run… During this run, finally the port side planer board went off again and we were back in action after a 2.5 hour lull. This fish also found the net – a 25 incher – purpledescent – 150 feet back. That raised our spirits and we were happy the dry spell was over.

However, over the next hour or so we did not catch another fish in this area. So we decided to make a move and troll to another spot of mine that had produced for me about 3 weeks ago. At first there was not a lot of baitfish and I was thinking this was not a good move. I was getting anxious but Brad said stick with it. Shortly after, the screen lit up and I was starting to mark some decent sign again. Then we marked a couple of suspended fish down at 24 feet. About then, Brad yelled – fish on! And sure enough the port side planerboard was slowly moving back towards the center of our troll run. Briggs was back up and he quickly caught our 5th fish of the day – a 24.5 incher on silver flash – 135 feet back.

The water was now very calm and I was able to figure eight this spot going back and forth around our waypoint. We worked this area over good, but we could not find another willing fish. It was now about 3 o’clock and quitting time was in one hour.

I asked these guys what they wanted to do – stay here or go back to where we caught our first three fish. Briggs didn’t hesitate and stated that we should go back to our original spot and give it one more try. We quickly pulled up, motored over two miles and put our lines down once again. About 10 minutes later – the port side planer board started jerking back and forth and reel started clicking. Brad’s turn and we ended up catching our last fish of the day – a 25 incher on another silver flash DTD.

It was a great day on the water with perfect conditions. We ended up catching 6 suspended walleyes in about 8 hours. Not a lot of fish, but the quality was good (24.5 to 27 inches). We also had two other hits on leadcore but the fish were gone by the time we grabbed the rod.

It was great having Brad out on the water again along with Briggs. We told many stories about catching walleyes, smallmouths, muskies, wahoos, dolphins, stripers, bluefish and billfish! The time just flew by even during our lulls and before we knew it, the day was over.

As we were motoring back into shore, I thought about this past summer and all the good days I had on the water. I thought about the people that I was able to share my boat with this year on Mille Lacs. The names kept growing and growing and then I realized it was over 30 different people. I thought to myself, how special I was to be able to share my passion with others. I thought about how special Mille Lacs is and how it’s so easy to take it for granted and all of the fish that swim in it. I am truly thankful that we have this amazing fishery in our state and I will continue do my best to share it with others.