Mille Lacs Fall Trolling September 25

Man I love this time of year……..Cool nights, light wind, full moon and crankbait slammin walleyes. Rob, MikeW and myself decided to make a quick run to Mille Lacs Lake a night prior to the full moon to see if the walleyes have turned on???????? AND ITS ON!!!!!!

We were greeted by light winds and low clouds that prevented the moon from shinning through, however with the moon high enough it still projected enough light onto the lake to make a picture perfect evening of cranking on Mille Lacs.

We decided to hit a weed, rock transition area that has been good for us in years past. Basically the plan was to check out a couple areas to see what the lake was like below. A few thing we were looking for was: how "green" the weeds were. If they have begun to lay down. Also where the weedline was in connection with the low water.

Durning the process it didn’t take long for the fish to show up. We boated 2 walleyes just above the 16" mark within the first 10 minutes of trolling. Not long after Mike W hooked into the first good fish of the night. Turns out to be a nice 36" pike. Then another pike, then a smallie, and then a rock bass. Well with the "other" species taken care Mike W finally connects on a nice healthy 25" fat walleye.

Once the pattern was fine tuned the rough fish went away and the feed bag was on! The pattern was; any dark color bait…i.e. lazer craw rattling rouges, #12 black and gold husky jerks, #7 craw bent lip shads, and salmo perch. Speeds in the 1.8-2.1 mph, and anywhere from 70-80 feet back on the line counter reels. The bait didn’t matter as much as the speed and the length behind the boat. As soon as you felt weeds ticking your line and a short rip to get them off is often what triggered the bite. What a great feeling. These fish wanted any type of bait and they were letting us know just bad they wanted to feed by almost ripping the rod out of our hands.

Here is Rob with a dandy fish.

The key to finding these fish was to continue to change baits and speeds. We started off trolling fast close to 2.5 mph we soon found out that the walleyes wanted a slower presentation this night. The northerns, smallie, and rock bass wer all caught with speeds above 2.2mph. As the night grew later we slowed down even more trying to stay at 1.8-1.9 mph.

We also changed baits often to try and find the right bait to trigger more strikes. Dark profile baits were the ticket. When the sky finally cleared at about 2 am, the trusty firetiger baits started to excel once again.

Here is a fish that feel to the old #12 husky jerk firetiger.

I hope last night trolling bite is an indication of what is yet to come this fall. Its going to be a great fall trolling around the moon phases into October.

Couple things to look out for on the lake. The DNR has some nets in place, heads up for them. The lake is still low, take caution when trolling around any rock humps and getting in and out of the access. Make sure you have fresh batteries in your camera and headlamp because its going to be a great fall on Mille Lacs lake.

The biggest fish of the night was landed hand over hand when Rob’s line some how got tangled up in the reel. I had the pleasure of reeling in a 27" fat mille by hand.

Thanks Rob.

We ended up with 19 walleyes for the night with actually 2 fish in slot. Both at 15". A variety of year classes once again showing up.

If you have a chance yet this fall you owe it to yourself to tangle with some of the walleyes.

Good luck to everyone this fall.

Thanks for a fun evening Rob and MikeW.