Mille Lacs Lake, MN – 10/09/03

Now here’s something you won’t hear every day when talking about the October Full moon bite on Mille Lacs… "I hope the water temps to rise TOO MUCH!"

The weather continues to be unseasonably warm and the water temps have climbed from 48 – 49 degrees when I first got here over a week ago to 57 – 58 degrees depending on where you are on the lake. And these temps have been taken just as I leave the lake later each evening and not during the heat of the day so we have seen a considerable increase in water temps… but the fish don’t seem to care either way as both the walleye and the HUGE pike are on the chew.

Before I get into the fishing info I figure it wouldn’t hurt to mention status of the landings, bouys and docks. Everywhere I’ve been, the docks at the public accesses are still out for use. Do be cautious when acccessing the lake at many of the public landings as the water levels are very low and it is pretty easy to ding up a prop as you creep out to deeper water. All are usable… just be aware.

The lighted flashing access markers in front of the landings I’ve been using are still in place and I would assume that at least some of the reef bouys are out yet but I cannot vouch for that for certain as my travels over the last couple days have kept me to the north of the reefs. If anyone knows for sure, drop us a comment letting everyone know if the bouys for the reefs, particularly on the SE corner of the lake, are still in place. Thanks in advance.

Now on to the fishing…

It’s good and getting better! I had been targeting the west side of the lake and doing very well but middle of the night on Tuesday the bite around Indian Pt. slowed from what I was accustomed to so we split for the north end of the lake… and the fish were piled up waiting. We hit some steep sand breaks with weed growth along the top edge and juts SMUSHED fish until sun-up. Bob O’Conner and friend MArk are shown above in the first photo with a pair of fish caught at sunrise on Rattlin’ Rouges. Note I said Rogues and NOT husky jerks. The fish are now showing a noticeable preference for the rogues and most if not all of our better fish over the last couple days have come on Lazer Craw or Silver / Black Orange Belly Rogues, fished in 7′ – 9′ of water along the top edges of these breaks. Trolling speeds have been from 1.2 – 1.8 and a slight pump and pause of the rod has been key to triggering strikes.

I also need to mention a bit about the HUGE pike we’re catching at night on our walleye-sized plugs. Over the last 3 nights we’ve averaged a couple upper – 30 to low 40 inch class pike to the boat. Notice I said "to the boat" and not in the boat! A couple have made it to net but usually we get them boat side only to have them chew through the line and swim off before I can get a net under them. Last night we landed a 40.5 inch pike, way to go Tom Lee, and we caught several other smaller pike as well. I would be very confident that a person inclinded to target pike at night would and could do VERY well on some trophy class fish. I might try casting the deep weed edges or trolling a larger shallow running plug to get the attention of these toothy critters! Don’t worry though, even if you don’t go looking for them, fish a couple nights and I’m willing to bet one or two will find YOU!

I’m a bit pressed for time today so I’ll follow this report up with some photos from last night when I fished with Tom Lee and friend Larry Bergen. We spent all our time on the north end and put some darn nice fish in the boat, including Tom’s big pike.

It looks like we’re forecast to see some stormy and cooler weather late this week and I’m willing to bet the fishing continues to improve considerably yet. IF you haven’t made a trip up here to the lake yet, now’s the time!~