The Minnesota walleye opener came and went by way to fast!! It is something we all look forward to for months in advance!! Dave Koonce and I fished the eastside of Mille Lacs lake rigging leeches and also spending time bobber fishing the shallow rock reefs.
We caught fish using both methods….both producing about the same results. We rigged 6-7 ft lindy rigs while up on the NE sand breaks. I targeted the 13-16 fow areas mainly. We found a few milky males schooled up in one area just south of Fishers Resort! These males ran in size from 15-23 inches. The largest fish came in at 26 inches.
The shallow rock reefs also provided some decent action for our boat. We caught fish in the 6-11 fow mainly. We had our bobber rigs setup with small 1/8 oz BFT jigs while we had some wave action and changed over to just a single red hook when we had calm winds. The single hook allows the leech to swim around in the strike zone while the jig head holds the leech in the zone while the waves jerk the bobber around. And with some of the weather we had on Saturday and early Sunday Morning!!!! you needed to have a good anchor to hold the boat!! We had strong north winds blowing at 15-20 mph with a air temperature of 36-38 deg’s on Sunday morning……….alittle cold!!!
You can tell by the pictures of Dave Koonce that we had the hood up and wore plenty of warm cloths!!! The weather could have been better thats for sure. Friday evening started out ok…..but changed for the worse late Saturday evening when we fished in rain and wind!. By the time Sunday afternoon came around….the weather turned out nice for the drive home…go fiqure!
Overall most found the fishing pretty slow, As I expected with the colder water temperatures. Dave and I maybe boated 25+- walleye with only 8 being in the slot.
The fishing should only improve as the water temperature rises to the upper 40’s into the lower 50’s…..I can’t wait!
nice job
, what was water temps there ? temps on winnie ranged from 41 to 44 , with tons of fish too big to keep
Nice report Bobber! Can’t wait to get up there and get a line wet.
Nice report Bob! I got your goodies today.
cold water temp’s at 42-44 deg’s…it went a tad bit over that for a short time on Saturday..only to drop with the rain and wind!!
I thought I had a big one on, and I really did. Just the wrong species!!!
Funny thing is Ritter really had a nice walleye on that he put in the boat while Tuck and I were untangling our lines.
Tuck, I told you that you had too much line out
Josh Hukriede
Great Report Bobber
And I told you that you were in my spot!
Thought I had a walleye, and all I got was a SUCKER!
Nice Report Bob!
I can’t wait for a bit warmer water and temperatures!