Mille Lacs Lake Minnesota Crankbait Walleye Report

Each time I decide to go fishing, I set goals and devise a plan to achieve them. The goals are designed to make me a better angler and a better friend. “Better angler goals” may consist of: the number of fish boated for the day, trying different catching techniques, scouting and finding a new area that holds fish, experimenting with new gear or trying a new crankbait. “Better friend goals” are a little different. These have nothing to do with fishing and concentrate on the relationship(s) that I have with whoever is going to be in my boat fishing with me on this particular day. These goals consist of topics (usually about them) that I would like to discuss during the course of the day. These topics come in all shapes and forms (family, work, hobbies, childhood etc…) I set these goals because I want to learn more about the person that I’m fishing with. I want to know what makes them tick and what are they passionate about. It’s amazing what you find out if you ask the right questions.

For example, I remember one day when I took my sister out fishing. We had a great day on the water in regard to catching numerous walleyes. But what made it an even greater day is we talked about our childhood growing up and shared memories with one another. I learned a lot about my sister that day that I never knew before. For the first time ever, I found out how hard our parent’s divorce was on my sister and how she was still struggling with it. That one day of fishing certainly enhanced our relationship and we talk more frequently today. I always find it amazing what how the tradition of fishing brings people closer together.

Thursday I had the privilege to fish with fellow IDO member Gary Taylor (gt). His son (Brad) and I are friends and have fished Mille Lacs together before. After I wrote my last report about Mille Lacs and expressed some of my feelings surrounding gill netting, harvest quotas and fish distribution, Gary reached out to me and sent me a PM with some of his thoughts. That meant a lot to me that he took the time to acknowledge my post and what he was doing on his end to try and make a difference on the lake (by writing letters to Governor Pawlenty and the DNR). So I reached out to him and asked him if he would like to spend some time with me fishing Mille Lacs. The plans were set and we made it happen the very next day!

This was the first time I had ever met or even spoken with Gary, but I soon realized that he had his own set of angler goals that he wanted to achieve for the day. He asked me many, many good questions about fishing which included depth curves, planer board set ups, crankbait selection, line/rod/reel choices, speed factors, G.P.S. tactics, how to read baitfish on the sonar, leadcore setups, walleye behavior, how to properly set drags and the list goes on… Gary has an engineering background and really tried to understand the scientific approach on how to catch suspended walleyes via a crankbait. I’ve had the opportunity to expose this method of fishing to numerous people over the years and I would have to say that Gary was one of the best about trying to understand what I was trying to do down there. He really listened well and caught on very quickly. He was really eager to learn and I could tell that he wanted to be able to duplicate what we were doing on his own someday. Right away I could tell that Gary was as passionate about fishing as I am! I just hope I was able to accomplish some of his angler goals yesterday and the ones he will set in the future.

Gary also came equipped with some better friend goals. He asked a lot of good questions about me and we ended up sharing a lot of information about our families, our children, his grandchildren, our careers, our childhood and our goals we were looking to achieve in the future. One goal we talked about is Gary and Brad are about to put out a new webcam on the SE side of the lake by Brad’s cabin! This will be awesome!

We had a great day on the water and the weather was fantastic (sunny, 71 degrees and light winds)! We started fishing an area where I had success on Saturday, but we only managed to boat one walleye (27 incher). We had to cover a lot of water and patience and determination finally paid off. After a slow start, we ended up catching 11 walleyes for the day (with 8 being between 24-27 inches) and we aslo caught a walleye under the slot limit – 17 3/4 inches. I thought about how many anglers would have loved to catch that fish during the Wave Wacker tournament. We also had a double and we boated matching 25 inchers! Deep Thundersticks (firetiger colors) and #11 Deep Tail Dancers (Bleeding Tiger color) took all our fish. These crankbaits were trolled around 1.9 m.p.h., 125-150 feet back on braided line (10 lb test). Planer boards were the key yesterday and leadcore was slow.

We did not mark a lot of fish out there and I would say even less than Saturday. I believe one of the reasons why is we may have pushed these fish to the side as we trolled through them. It was sunny and the lake was calm. Boat motor noise and our boat shadow may have been a factor. Whenever I have these conditions, I make sure those boards are out at least 75 feet from the boat. It also helps to have the proper rods for these types of conditions. My trolling rod choice is the Wild River Series rods from St. Croix. These 10’6” rods allow me to get my planer boards out away from the boat. They also have a soft tip that helps absorb the shocks of the waves on rougher days. Stiffer tipped rods will jerk that board back and forth and thus creating pauses in your swimming crankbait below. Thanks goes out to Dean Marshall and Evrets Resort for recommending and selling these rods to me! It has certainly contributed to my success.

One disturbing thing that we noticed yesterday were a lot of scars and unusual marks on many of the walleyes. Once again, I’m wondering if some of these were due to encountering gill nets.

On the upside, we caught our first DNR tagged fish of the year – a healthy looking 25 incher! It’s now time to send it into the DNR via the internet and they will return a letter giving us the history of that fish of when it was tagged and where. The data we supply will help them monitor the activity and growth cycle of that fish.

Thank you Gary for a very memorable day on the water. I learned a lot about your passion for fishing and more importantly about you and your goals! I look forward to doing it again with you soon – in your boat with you at the helm!

Next time you go fishing, think about your goals for the day and formulate a plan to achieve them. Be passionate about it! Your time on the water is precious along with your time with your friends and loved ones, so make the most of it!