Mille Lacs Lake Minnesota Crankbait Walleye Report

It’s early June and you know what that means – it’s time for deep diving crankbaits, line counter reels and planer boards!!! Even though we had a late spring, the walleyes are already roaming around in the open basin in search of baitfish.

Over the weekend, I hooked up with a longtime high school buddy of mine (Joe) and we finally got a chance to do some serious scouting and fishing for suspended walleyes in the open basin. I was a little apprehensive due to the fact it was such a late spring this year and water temps were still hovering in the mid 50’s, but we just had to find out if they were out there!

We arrived at the landing about 10 a.m. and started out scouting a couple of troll runs that have produced well for me in recent years in the month of June. We would motor about a half mile, shut down, look for sign (baitfish and arcs) and then repeat the process. Finally, we marked some baitfish about 7 miles out, so we decided to pull some cranks even though we did not mark any arcs. Finally about a mile into it, we graphed a small school of 6 or so arcs suspended at 20-25 feet (in 32 feet of water). The excitement soon diminished as we passed through the school without a hook up. Even though there were 1-2 foot rollers, I decided to stay on this school and figure eight them. Unfortunately I was unable to graph them again and after a few more figure eights we backed off and decided to troll with the waves once again. After 1.5 miles without a hit, it was time to pull up and do some more scouting.

About an hour later, we marked some baitfish and a couple of arcs about two miles away from where we had been. It wasn’t great sign, but enough for us to send the crankbaits out once again. About 20 minutes into our troll run, we finally had a hit on a planer board pulling a firetiger deep thunderstick. Soon after, we had our first suspended crankbait walleye of 2008 – a healthy looking 26 incher. We went about another half mile and this time the leadcore rod started screaming pulling a deep thunderstick madflash (fire tiger clown flash). Another 26 incher landed in the boat. We were now into them and due to the light winds we were able to stay on this school and work this area in both directions. Over the next 4 hours, we zig-zaged back and forth and managed to catch 9 walleyes with 7 of them being between 24-27 inches. We also had two other hits. All fish were caught on deep thundersticks. We tried pulling deep tail dancers and #9 raps (with snap weights) to no avail.

It was a great day to be on the water with perfect temps and light winds. About 5pm, we decided to pull up and head for musky country! We trolled in and around Vineland Bay until dark but had no takers.

As I watched the sunset, I started to think about all the added controversy going on this year surrounding the lake such as lower DNR creel samples, lower state angler harvest quotas, gill netting and of course the lost gill nets. I was hoping I wouldn’t find one of those nets in my boat motor or snag one with a musky lure. I thought about how careful Joe and I were when we released our fish that we caught during the day. A quick photo supported by two hands on the fish and they were back swimming again within seconds. Each time I let a walleye go, I wondered if I would ever cross paths with that fish again and maybe then it would be a trophy or…. would it end up in a gill net next spring. One of the walleyes had a scar on the side of its head; I wondered if it was lucky to have escaped a gill net.

I thought about the various comments made by Kurt Kalk (Commissioner of Natural Resources for the Mille Lacs band of Ojibwe) when he spoke about the Ojibwe tradition of “netting, hunting, fishing and gathering.” I believe if you go far enough back, didn’t everyone hunt and fish to survive? I remembered the videos that I saw on Fox 9 news watching band members pull in walleye after walleye snagged in their gill nets. My stomach actually turned as I watched in disbelief. I thought about the word “tradition” and wondered what their ancestors would say about their fiberglass boats powered with gas motors. Then the pictures showed up displaying rotten and decayed walleyes wasted in one of the lost gill nets. I don’t remember anyone taking responsibility for this disgrace or apologizing for wasting such a precious resource. I thought about what would happen to me if I started gill netting the lake? I guess the DNR would most likely end up questioning me. Maybe I would tell him “Well, our fellow American over there is doing it, so why can’t you and I?”

I remembered when Kurt Kalk stated that if the band members took their total harvest of 122,500 pounds this year and share them with every other band member, “this would only equate to 4 lbs per member”. I thought about how many band members would never even see a walleye fillet? I thought how difficult it would be to give each and every band member (approx. 30,000) there 4 lbs of frozen walleyes. How would one go about doing that and what method of distribution would one need? I guess it would be pretty hard to mail them via the postal service. I thought about the 5 million people in the state of MN and compared that to the 2008 state angler harvest quota (307,500 lbs). That averages out to be .06 lbs per person/per year or maybe if one was able to cut a walleye cheek (from a 17 inch fish) 8 ways you might get 1/8th of a cheek that weighs 6/100th of a pound. So much for a “healthy food source”.

I thought about the low walleye numbers from the DNR fall creel survey reports and the 25% reduction in the state angler quota compared to last year (down 140,000 lbs from 2007). I wondered what was the rationale of the band members who decided to increase their harvest quota this year by over 22% (up 22,500 lbs from 2007)? If the lake is so tightly managed and if the band members had the best interest in the lake, wouldn’t you think it would make more sense to decrease both harvest quotas? I guess it could have been worse – the band members could have taken one half of the total quota.

I thought about the comment “hooking mortality outweighs the band member quota harvest”. I guess when I go fishing; I’m not trying to kill the fish. I’m only trying to catch it. When I release it, at least it has a chance to survive. When using gill nets, I don’t see the same thought process. All fish caught in a gill net dies and sadly many of the ones that do manage to escape end up with scars or missing parts. I thought about if I was able to use gill nets, would I? I’m not able to, so I guess I may be a little biased and say that I wouldn’t. However, I do know that I certainly wouldn’t take from a resource without giving back to that exact same resource. And more importantly, I do know one thing for sure; I know I wouldn’t use gill nets if my fellow American neighbor next to me couldn’t do the same.

Lastly I thought about the people back in 1837 that came up with and agreed upon the treaty itself. Little did they know back then, how big of an impact they would make on so many lives. If these same individuals were alive today, what would they say? Would they still approve of this practice? Would they think that this violates our constitution of all men are created equal? Would they think that this helps bring different races together in harmony and unity? Would they consider this a form of discrimination or racism? Would they sign the treaty again? Or if they had the power to abolish the treaty today, would they do it?

Like many of you, I consider Mille Lacs a part of me. Over the years, I’ve built so many fond memories out there on the water. I can’t imagine what I would feel like if someday I wouldn’t be able to fish it anymore. Hopefully that never happens, but I guess it reminds me to never ever take the lake and all the fish in it for granted. If we are going to try and change what’s happening on the lake, then we must all do our part and let our voices, letters, emails and phone calls be heard. Then maybe one day we can finally have “one nation under god” and where every American will abide to the same set of laws.