Does anyone remember the fishing commercial about the guy saying “Hey, that looks like a good place to fish over there”. Well….. that is about the way the fishing went today on Mille Lacs Lake. My dad and I decided to take advantage of the nice day to try our luck for the elusive Mille Lacs jumbo perch. With the abundant amount of food in the lake right now makes for a difficult job of pinpointing these fish. These fish are cruising, moving, and eating right now. The challenge is to stay on these active fish.
We fished basically no mans land. No structure within a few hundred yards in any direction. Therefore the run and gun approach is a must right now looking for these fish, giving each hole a maximum of 3 minutes. If no quality fish are seen on the flasher…..time to move on to the next hole. You will see fish in every hole you fish, however many of these fish are what the perch and walleye are feeding themselves with right now. Which are tiny 2”-3” perch that will scatter when the jig is either lifted aggressively, or lowered into the hole. The bigger fish tend to be in schools of about 5-7 fish right now. Its game on when you find this school, because as fast as you can get your line within 6 feet of the bottom you typically have a few perch screaming off the bottom to be the first fish to your smash your jig.
This type of fishing style is either feast or famine. These roaming fish are not interested in hanging around for any reason; their main goal is to eat as many short meals in a very short window while moving onward. We were aggressively jigging smaller spoons in bright yellow colors tipped with either a waxworm or eurolarve. We tried a minnow head but often found the fish feeding just as aggressively no matter what the bait was on the hook.
A person can sit and wait for these fish to move to them but will most likely result in less quality fish being caught. I truly think a person has to be on the move at all times. Top the auger tank off; grab your flasher, grab a bucket, and bait. Head off in any direction to look for these fish, once a good fish is caught don’t waste any time getting back down to them because before you know it they are gone as quick as they showed up.
See ya on the water!!!
Awesome report Calvin and nice perch
Oh Calvin….And I had to get some work done today!!! If only I would have taken you up on your offer I would now know where to catch some dandy perch!!! Nice job guy….I even zoomed in on acouple of your photos looking for any fish houses that might look familiar to me!!!
You sure had acouple of dandy jumbos!! any weight on the two in the photo? My guess would be 1.3 -1.6 give or take!!!
No weight…..
I think I’m pretty close plus or minius a split shot or two!!!
Nice fish!
You could feed a barn full of cats with them babies !!!
big g
Nice perch Calvin.I would guess 1.5 +
Awesome perch to both Svihel’s…
Thanks for the report Calvin- I am gonna head up that way soon, hopefully
Tell your father hello for me!
I love that story!
Those fish are so fat they look like they could explode. Well done guys!
John
Great report on some fat fish Cal!
Nice report and fish!!!
Nice perch and a great report, Calvin.
Great job Cal!
It looks like you had a great day on the ice with your dad! 
That is what its all about….sharing days on the water with my dad/friends…We had another great outing tonight as well. Some good fish, memories that will last a lifetime for me…
Those are some dandy perch. You could have played football with those.
Amen to that
Amen to Amen!
Those are some sumo’s. Great Report!!!
Those are some dandy jumbos
Cal, nice perch, We’ll chat more at the store sometime.