Mille Lacs Lake fishing report 1-11-08

The fishing on Mille Lacs has been quite slow as of late. Since the week after Christmas it has been a greater challenge to catch fish. I have been fishing both the mud flat areas of the lake along with some of the rock to mud transition areas. The numbers for me have sure gone down with the turning of the calendar page But after you say that…its pretty typical for the month of January.

The fish are enjoying a buffet meal on the forage base we currently have in the lake. The small perch are everywhere…….on the bottom showing up on my MarCum flasher and even swimming up your ice hole These smaller perch that seam to be so plentiful right now are around 2-3 inches long. They are the perfect size for the feeding walleye and even the bigger jumbo perch

are spitting up some of their own. The walleye that we have caught sure have had some nice fat belly’s on them.

I have not caught large numbers of fish as of late, but I am able to still put a few fish on the ice. The mud flats are putting out larger walleye with less slots than earlier in the season. While the perch bite has started to take off with some really nice jumbo perch showing up over a pound The perch are coming from off the bottom lip of the flat in 30-32 fow. A jigging spoon with a pinched minnow head has done the trick for this angler. The perch are also active in the rock to mud transition areas near the reefs closer to shore. These perch are being caught in 29-32 fow in the mud basins off the rock reefs. The past few days have put some dandy jumbo’s on the ice over a pound again with a jigging spoon minnow head combo. The colors used have been many….from gold 1/8oz to using others color’s and bigger spoons with 1/4oz getting some fish also. Yesterday dandorn from here at IDA joined me for the day! We went out and targeted perch and caught some dandy perch with three of them at a pound or just over!! along with a nice walleye that swam into Dan’s bait!!

Hunters Point Resort has been busy getting houses out on the lake. They are moving the rentals trying to stay on active fish. The ice conditions are better. We still have some flooding near weighted areas from heavy snow banks. The other problem that the resorts are having is fisherman drilling holes to close to the houses. This is bad…….please maintain a distance away from any house before drilling any holes. The lake is still flooding from the snow cover. Hunters has a good road system in place with trees and stakes marking the way Please maintain a speed of under 10 mph while operating a vehicle on the ice.

Please make sure and check in with your resort prior to making your trip out to find out the most current lake/ice conditions as they are always changing.

Good luck and catch some fish