Mille Lacs, MN – The slugfest is ON…!

By James Holst 0

This is it guys… the fall walleye bite is in high gear and the weather is unbelievable!

I literally haven’t seen a cloud in 3 days and the wind has been very light, warm and seemingly always at my back these days… and the walleyes are tearing it up at night!

We’ve been concentrating our efforts along the west side of the lake and launching at Pike’s Pt and fishing south from there and finding numbers of fat and healthy fish after the sun goes down.

I spent my first night up here fishing with Mike "mudlnthru" Little and we didn’t get to the lake until 3 or 4 hours after dark. We started out hitting the north end up near Knox Pt. and found the bite to be "off" in this locale and we graphed very few fish. We did hit the 27 inch ‘eye shown in this first photo but she was our lone boated fish during our trolling runs in this area. This area had been good to me on several nights back in September and of course we might have just "missed" the bite up there but I did not mark the numbers of fish I normally see and lost confidence in this area. I will be back this week to take another look around as that little rock point up there on the north end has been very good to me in years past and deserves another visit just to make sure I didn’t overlook something during our brief stop.

We moved down the lake along the west side and stopped to work one of my favorite gravel flats that’s got some sparce veggies on top of it and it’s ALWAYS loaded with perch… and on this night the walleye were right on their heels. This second photo of Mike, again wearing his "I’m out on parole, red one-piece rain suit" shows Mike with a heavy 27 inch ‘eye that fell to a clown husky jerk trolled in 7’ of water. When the moon has been out and casting a lot of light on the water, the chromed / silver baits like clown, silver / black have worked well. When the moon dips below the horizon for the night the bite has been good most night but we’ve had to change out to firetiger or red craw / lazer craw colored plugs to stay with the fish. Trolling speeds have been "pushing" 2 MPh when the moon’s out and just over 1 MPH when things get pitch black. That little change in speed has really made all the difference in our fishing success. Most nights we’re seeing 35+ fish… 2 nights ago we likely hit well over 60 as we started at sun down and stayed out until sun-up! The numbers are good right now and the fish are averaging about 23 – 24 inches, give or take a bit depending on the night and there’s a large number of better fish coming in as well.

In this final photo we have Jim Frank, or Austin, MN, with one of nearly 40 walleye we took on Sunday night. On this night the bite DID NOT continue on past moon set which left me a bit puzzled as many of our best fish and numbers had come once everything got dark on us…. just goes to show every night is different. NO matter though, Jim and his fishing partner Terry Grunwaldt, caught plenty of fish prior to the moon setting on us and actually allowed us to get caught up on some much needed sleep as we were back at the landing and on the road several hours earlier than normal.

Monday night I again fished with Mike Little and we opted to start out the night casting instead of trolling. INSTANT sucess! Look for the photos to follow this report. We positioned ourselves so our casts would run through 7′ of water and we held our location with the electric trolling motor. Mike had several nice fish as the sun went down and we very much enjoyed the added sport of landing these piggies on the light tackle. IF trolling’s not your bag, don’t hesitate to bring the spinning gear, loaded with some light braided line and just fan-cast the areas you’ve been trolling. You’ll be amazed at how shallow these fish run below the surface… #12 husky jerks took our fish but my guess is success could be had on just about any size or shape plug imaginable. I’ll be doing more of this and will continue to report my sucess with it, or lack there of, over the next couple weeks.

Just a head’s up here… I had planned on returning from Mille Lacs on the 15th of October but the weather and bite is so darn good I might stay on a few extra days to get my fill of this lake and these huge fish. If anyone’s interested, that will give me a couple open dates and some empty boat seats. Give me a holler if you want to get in on this killer action yet this season!

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James Holst

James began his fishing career as a fulltime fishing guide, spending more than 250 days a year on the water, coaching clients how to catch walleyes on the Upper Mississippi River and Minnesota’s Lake Mille Lacs. In 2000, he launched Full Bio ›

0 Comments

  2. Mike Little’s best walleye caught casting last night. You guys should have heard the funny noises this guy made when this big girl hit right at boat-side…lol

  3. And a pair o’ piggies we doubled on our “last pass” just before midnight as we decided to head in for the night so I could get some much needed rest as I’ll be on the lake every night for the next 8 days. Not bad Mr. Little, not bad at all..!

  4. Sweeeeeeeet James. Great report…. and nice fish. I was planning on comming up Thursday… but I may have to make it Wednesday!!

  5. I can’t tell you how much fun it is. The biggest one we had last night came on a troll while I was talking to my son on the phone. The monster hit me and right in the middle of the conversation I said, “Woops, gotta go. Fish on.” Hung up the phone and started reeling. About fifty feet from the boat, she started to realize that she was going where she hadn’t planned and took off. Finally got her up and measured her. 28 1/4″ around 9 lbs. That’s the fish on the left in the last photo.

    All I can say is I’m spoiled. Size really does matter! Excellent report, James.

  6. By the way, where’s the comments about the fact that I, the sheepie king, am not shown with any of my favorite fishies? We haven’t caught any yet, which obviously means that they haven’t yet found their way to Mille Lacs. Hmmmm… Bet they’d be huge.

  10. Gator-

    Don’t forget to give me a call on my cell while you are up there. What kind of boat will you be fishing from?

  11. Jeff

    I still have my old Pro-v. I’ll be sure to get ahold of you. I’ve got your cell#. You still have mine right?

    Gator Hunter

  13. I’m heading up Oct 16 – can’t wait. Question – have the fish been going at all during the day? I am combining business w/ pleasure next week and won’t hit the water til late morning and will probably fish until early evening. My plan is to start shallow and work deep until I find some biters, focusing on shoreline breaks and weed edges. Degrees of wind and sunlight will dictate my actions. I guess I’m looking for a little more direction and anyone’s experience with fall day bite eyes at Mille Lacs. I’ll review archived posts but any help would be appreciated.

  14. That sure looks Like Mike in those pictures holding fish. I didn’t think he knew how to fish

    James, are you catching fish and letting Mike hold them for pictures??

  15. Hey, Scott,

    It is indeed Mike. Me. The man. And yes, I caught them. Well, most of them. I’m not just another pretty face, you know.

  16. Hey James,

    Great report I’m just finishing up work on my laptop at the Garrison Inn and wanted the latest and greatest! It looks like my timing could not be better. See you on the Lac!
    eye verson

  17. It’s been real hard concentrating on work this week. I keep thinking about all the big gators you guys are catching up there. Only three more days. I can’t wait.

    Gator Hunter

  18. James,

    Your report was right on. I was out alone last night with them moon shining and will be tonight before some buddies meet up with me for the weekend. The fishing was great! I could only fish until a little after midnight but managed 9 hook ups – 7 landed with an average of 25 inches. 1 – 18″(I don’t know where he came from) and a 27.5″ on the high side. Every thing else right around 25″.
    Thanks again for the report it really helped eliminate some of the trial and error.
    Jeff Iverson

  19. Can anyone recommend a good place for some shore casting tomorrow night. ANY info would be greatly appreciated!!

    Thanks

  20. The rocks along Pike’s Pt. might be well worth the effort. I had some solid fish in there shallow last night… definitely within casting distance of the rocks.

  22. Not too bad actually. To be honest, I’ll welcome a little wave action as long as it doesn’t get out of hand.

    The last two night have been awesome… report to follow inside the hour!

  23. She’s been gusting to 25 down here the last two days, I was afraid it was the same up there. 5-10 SW tomorrow night would not break my heart!!!! Hope to see you on the water!

  25. Hey James.

    Thanks for the great reports! I am heading up to the Big Pond tommorow night. Just a quick question though. Did you find a particular retrieve that was most effective when you were casting crankbaits? Was a steady slow wobble retrieve th most effective or did you vary your retreive with small twitches and pauses? Any help is much appreciated.

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