Midweek Mille Lacs Report 10.11.07

Well….. after looking at my weekends Hunting schedule and having it filled by chasing Monster Bucks, Roosters and having the wife out of town last night. That freed up Rufus’s and my night and I needed a Walleye fix to get me through the weekend. So last night I was joined by fellow IDA Staffers Mike W. and Micah in pursuit of some chunky Mille Lacs Walleyes. Our plan to get on the lake at dark and troll some sharp weed line breaks that have been producing so far this Fall and see if I could get a decent rock bite going. Firs thing I noticed when we got on the water was the water temps finally dipped well in to the 50’s as we had right around 55 pretty much the whole night. The wind was somewhat hitting this shoreline and the new moon period made it dark as we started the night with cloudy skies but ended with clear ones, that made it a very cool crisp night. BRRRRRR but boy did it feel good!

When we got started just after dark like usual, Firetiger was the appetizer of choice for 2 healthy Walleyes that quickly came to the boat. But, from that point on it was clear that the ol’ Craw Husky Jerk was what they wanted to feast on. Again this was no surprise as on dark nights with low availability of moonlight these darker profile baits seemed to produce the best. Micah happened to have the only Craw HJ on and he was greeted with the next 4 fish in a row. Greatly due to the fact of “Swing and Miss Westman” had troubles keeping fish hooked last night for some reason. The one he did have boat side got off due to the fact of the fish’s mad dash after the strike that went across both Micah’s and my line and his line found my hooks on my Husky Jerk. However in the bottom of the ninth Mike (Mr. October) came up big with a huge home run swing when he boated the 40” Muskie shown above. As the fish battled Mike nicely and we brought out the flood light so Micah and I could watch the show and to keep things safe being so dark, with a big fish and a lot of hooks.

I tried to keep the boat right around 1.5-1.7mph in 6-8 feet of water. The ticket last night seemed to favor holding the rod still and not pumping the rod as I think all fish were taken when the rod was still last night. These fish are really starting to pack on the pounds as almost every fish was very healthy and looking for more. The one thing that I have noticed for my boat is the weed fish have treated me better for both numbers and size. So far that is where I have concentrated. I have tried many usual producing rock areas and have just not found the numbers or the size yet. Hopefully this will change soon.

Overall, it was one of my slower nights this Fall, but I think if we were able to stay out there longer and make some runs to other spots we could have pulled a decent number of fish. If I had more time it would have been nice to make a run and hit some other weed fish I know have been turning on later (10:00) in the evening. With the time restraint and having to work in the morning, we were only able to target 2 close areas. The one produced early and often and then died out after 10:30. The other never got going. But….. some fishing is better then none. It was a nice cool, crisp, night to be on the water and it made it better spending it with some good fishing buddies. Believe me, the best of this Fall trolling bite is right around the corner, so get on the lake and hold onto your rod Thanks for a great night Guys! I’m really looking forward to Micah’s report on Monday as he has a great trip planned for this weekend. For me I will be chasing bucks and roosters like mentioned earlier and look forward to posting a HUNTING report on that upon my return.

PS: For those of you keeping track this year. We might have to tack on an additional 15 days , but tomorrow starts the best 30……..OK 45 days of the year. Now is the TIME to Drop da’ on the big boys and girls!

Everyone have a great weekend and I will see you all on Monday!

**CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE**