Mille Lacs Lake Minnesota Walleye Fishing Report

The open basin crankbait trolling bite is in full swing on Mille Lacs Lake. The baitfish are showing up more and more along with arcs on my sonar.

Over the weekend, I was able to spend some quality time fishing with Tina and some friends. After putting in full day of fishing on Thurs. (12 hours) and having some success, I was anxious to get back at it on Friday. My longtime friend Joe, Tina and me hit the water at noon with high anticipation. We got a late start due to the fact Tina flew home from Las Vegas on the red eye and got in at 6am. With virtually no sleep, she packed her overnight bag and we drove right up to Mille Lacs! No that’s called dedication!

When we arrived, the lake conditions were absolutely perfect. Light winds and plenty of sunshine. Little did we know that would be the end of our good weather. We started trolling right where left off the night before. In a matter of 10 minutes, we caught our first suspended walleye of the weekend – a 25 incher on a deep tail dancer (purple descent – on a leadcore set up). About 10 minutes later, we caught another walleye on the same rod – a 26 incher.

About a half hour that, a small rain cloud went over us and it also brought some wind it. I was thinking the wind would die down again after the rain stopped, but it did not. The rollers started to form and it stayed that way right through the entire weekend. 20 m.p.h. winds with gusts up to 35 made fishing less then ideal. We stuck it out and fished until we got chased off by a bigger thunderstorm around 7 pm. We ended the day with 16 walleyes in about 7 hours of fishing. Many big fish were caught in the 24-27.5 inch range. Deep Tail Dancer (purple descent) was the hot crankbait of the day. I was putting this crankbait back 120 – 140 feet on braided line with a planer board, or on a leadcore set up (40 foot mono leader, 90 feet of 18lb. leadcore).

Saturday we were back at it and Bob (a friend of Joe’s) joined us. The lake never calmed down overnight and we motored out 8 miles fighting some pretty big waves along the way. The long wet ride was worth it because about 20 minutes into our first troll run, Bob caught our first fish of the day – a 26 incher which was Bob’s personal best! The weather was really inconsistent on Saturday and it certainly affected the bite. Sun, clouds, rain, wind – you name it – we had it. When we arrived at the mud flats around midmorning, there must have been 30-40 boats out there. All we could do is troll with the waves for a mile or two, pull the lines out, motor up and do it again. Slowly, one by one all the boats left and eventually, we were the only boat out there. We battled the elements and were rewarded with some quality fish mostly in the 24-27 inch range. Deep Tail Dancers, Deep Thundersticks and Flicker Shads took most of our fish.

One of the big reasons for our success in battling the big rollers out there was using our St. Croix Wild River rods. These 10’ 6” rods have a soft tip and absorb the shocks of the planerboards thrashing in the waves. This allows the crankbait below to swim smoothly versus hesitating with a stiffer tipped rod.

Sunday morning the wind was blowing even harder from the northwest. We tried to motor out to our spot but after a couple of miles, going 8-10 m.p.h. we decided enough was enough. We stuck closer to shore and we trolled a little over by Shaws Reef. We picked up two walleyes and had one other hit, but soon left the lake only after an hour of fishing.

Overall it was great weekend. The weather didn’t cooperate, but the fish did. It was really great to get Tina back on the water. She sure is a trooper out there. She’s got a bad back and the waves certainly did not make it any better. Not many guys would even endure the elements as well as she did.

It was also great hooking up with fellow IDO Staff Member Rob Stenger and his wife Stacie on Saturday night over at Hunters for a beer. We spent the night talking about walleyes and of course – big bucks! On the way home Sunday, we stopped at fellow IDO member Brad Taylor’s (PointMan) cabin on the SE side of the lake. It was great meeting his wife and their two children for the first time. He’s got a beautiful view of the lake and soon will be putting up a web cam!

The overall bite on Mille Lacs is certainly not what it was last year at this time. Looking back at my records, the same weekend last year we boated close to 100 walleyes. However, if you are willing to put your time on the water out in the open basin, you will find small schools of walleyes that will commit to your swimming crankbaits below. Good luck out there and I hope to see ya on the water!