Mille Lacs Lake, MN – Night ‘Eye Bite – 9/10/03

Well I got the wind I wanted!

I fished last night with Jim Laird and son Brent, both from Illinois. They had been up for a couple days of fishing prior to getting in the boat with me and they report a KILLER pike bite in the bays along the SE side of the lake. Lots of pike… mostly sub 10# stuff but LOTS of action. Anything Orange is what’s working they tell me!

On to the walleye info…

We focused our efforts on the NE side of the lake along a rock reef that runs about 0.5 miles east and west. The top of the reef comes up to about 4.5 feet in several spots and plunges quickly down into 12′ – 14′ feet along its edge. I’d had good action the night prior and with the wind working its way right up and onto this reef, I expected a decent night of fishing. Jim Laird is shown here with one of our first fish of the night. This fish, around 22 inches +/-, is making up our average fish right now. We’re seeing a few sub-20 inch fish but not many.

We started out trolling #12 Husky Jerks and Rogues in a variety of patterns and found the bite early on to be a bit slow going. One fish here… a lull… one fish there. Nothing too exciting and no monster sized fish in the boat for the fist 3 hours or so. Up until midnight that is! I switched out all of our clown and firetiger colored cranks and ran straight reds on all the rods. I also made a move from the edge of the reef in 8 feet of water and ran our plugs right across the top of the reef over the shallowest rock available. That was the ticket! We enjoyed faster paced action on a variety of species including some dandy smallies, Jim is shown here with a 20 inch 4#+ smallie that fell victim to a Red Craw HJ, plus we landed some nice perch and a pair of big pike to boot. This smallie in particular caused quite a stir in the boat when Jim hooked it up. He told us that he had a nice walleye on. The it was off. Nope, now it’s back again. Nope, now it’s gone!

Of course what was happening was this fish was jumping in the air giving Jim the feeling each time that the fish had thrown the hooks. It wasn’t until Brent hollered that he just saw Jim’s walleye jump 3 feet in the air in the moonlight that we all finally realized what was going on…lol The smallies up here continue on their tear!~

Our trolling speeds ranged from 1.2 – 1.7 mph. With the wind and the waves it was a bit tough to keep everything at a constant speed but any time I got rolling over 2 MPH the bite just shut down. They want that plug moving SLOWLY right now. Our best fish of the evening was caught by Brent and taped out to 28.5 inches. I had gone to scribing large turns over the top of the reef so our plugs would tick rocks as we passed over the top and then swing wide just off the edge as I made a swing to go back over the top again a bit further down the length of the reef. It was during one of our first wide turns that Brent stuck this fish and a pretty darn good tussle ensued as we were headed down wind and this particular fish just wasn’t going to let itself get within net range. Thank heavens for that long handled beckman! After a quick pic, this fish was set loose to find YOUR crank bait later this fall.

Over the last couple nights most of our fish are coming to the boat from midnight – 3 AM. Before and after the bite is a bit slow but during this 3 hour time period things really roll for us. If you’re one to hit the water at sundown and then leave the lake within a few hours, you’re likely missing the best part of the bite.

I figure everyone might get a kick out of this last photo. I’m in better spirits about it now after having some time to calm down a bit. So, here’s a heart breaker… or maybe I should call this They just don’t make ’em like they use to!

Actually, to be honest, the jointed shad raps have been a great product as they typically run right out of the package and have been fish catch’n buggers on the river and Lake Pepin this summer. This crank in particular has seen better days as you can see in this photo but went to its final demise hooked, at least at the back half, stuck firmly in the mouth of a darn big walleye.

Here’s the story…

I was fishing by myself earlier in the evening and was working well off the reef in 14′ of water. I had marked a couple nice fish and ran this plug over their heads. First pass through I stick a good fish. No, a VERY good fish. I get it up along side the boat to see the fish is hooked well with the back half of my crank inside the mouth lodged in the corner where hooks just don’t pull free easily. This fish was in the 28 – 30 inch range and I was thrilled at my good fortune as I took my eyes off this fish to reach for my net. As I did, one good thrash and the fish was gone!

[beep] [blankity-blank] Dang it!

I thought the hooks pulled free. Nope. That fish must have found a way to twist the back half of my plug clean off! Oh well. I hope that fish is able to work that plug loose and continue feeding so I can have another run in with her later this fall. She was a dandy!

I’m going smallie fishing!