Report from the Big Windy(Mille Lacs Lake) 5.31.09

I finally made it back up to my favorite lake as I have not fished Mille Lac’s since opener on Saturday night. I was greeted this past Saturday morning with some cooler temps and some wind that only grew through out the day. I was making this trip solo and even left Rufus at home due to the forecasted winds, knowing that there would be some good wave action all weekend. Not knowing the condition of the lake and knowing the fish were probably in transition, I started the day out looking to see if many fish had made there way out to the mud flats yet. My favorite technique of fishing walleyes is rigging them with a leech and thus why Mille Lacs is my favorite lake to fish, as this method stands the test of time on this massive body of water. After searching a few flats and not seeing very much on my Lowrance, I made my way to the North sand breaks to check things out and perhaps get out of that stiff bitter NNW wind. Again with not seeing very much action on my Sonar, I started to put things together in my head. The water temps in the mid 50’s and if they are not on the flats and not on the sand breaks, my experience has told me that these fish are on the deeper rock/sand/gravel transitions on the East side. So I made my way all the back to right out front of my place. After about 18 miles on the water in some rollers, I was finally wetting a line and fishing a well known deep gravel/rock spot on the east side known as 2 mile. I found some life there, but it wasn’t until about 30 minutes of fishing before I had my first bite and landed a nice 15” fish in 27’ of water just off the Southern 2 mile hump. Now that sounds easy, but trust me by this time the wind was a whipping and the waves were growing by the minute. I had both of my Magnum Drift Control drift socks out and using my pro kicker to navigate around and stay slow enough to coaxing these fish into biting. Anyone that has been there knows how tough fishing in that type of wind and waves can be much less doing it solo. I was maintaining a .5-.7 mph controlled drift and this was key as I started to boat fish. I was using a chartreuse hook with a red bead, 10’ snell, and a ¾ oz egg slip sinker to help me maintain a vertical presentation that enabled me to keep my sinker out of the rocks and allowing me to stay snag free, which saved the hassle of trying to re-tie in the wind and waves. The good news was, I found a pattern that was producing. The bad news was, I had other chores up at the family’s property I needed to attend to. After boating 4 fish ranging from 12-26”, I had to leave and head North.

Saturday night, I found my self back on the lake just after 7:30 and anchored up right on the edge of an East side rock reef in 13.5 fow. With chores done, it was time to sit back and relax as the lake had died down some from earlier in the day. Slip bobbering the evening bite on Mille Lacs is my therapy and time to sit back, let this fast paced world slow down and just enjoy things like the sunset, this massive body of water, and watching your bobber bob and then slowly plummet as it glows below the waters surface. It is hard to explain but it is just peaceful and relaxing for me and if you haven’t experienced this, you are missing out. Since I was solo, I rigged up both bobber rods with different jigs. My plan was to work this area with 2 different rods and see if there was a better producer then the other. I would cast a line out and let it drift by in the waves and then recast it out on the other side and let it do the same. Then I would switch rods and repeat the process with the other jig. Action was pretty slow until the sun got low and then it was game on as my bobber with the blue and white glow jig went under directly behind the boat. I set the hook and was not ready for the battle I was about to endure. After setting the hook and fighting this fish for awhile, I seen my bobber stop at my rod tip and for some reason thought the fish was close. Well she was close to the boat, but it finally dawned on me that I still had 14’ of line out as this bruiser was sitting on the bottom yet. This fish now finally realized that she was hooked and started to peel drag as my Shimano started to sing. Any line that I gained on her, she ran back off and would sit back on the bottom. I now switched my reel over in fear of losing this fish and would back reel on her when necessary. After playing the gain some line, lose it all routine for quite some time, I felt the soreness in my wrist and hand begun to set in. I had two choices; I could bear down on this fish but risk losing her, or I could continue fighting her and hope she would give up before I would. I chose the latter and finally I caught a glimpse of her, as she must of not liked my ugly mug and fought her way all the back to the bottom again. A few runs and minutes later she finally found the bottom of my Beckman after a great battle. With the net in the water and the sun starting to set, I quickly reached for and casted my other line out as I dealt with this big girl. She with out a doubt, gave me the biggest battle I have ever had slip bobbering. After measuring her at 27 ¾ inches and noticing how healthy (thick) she appeared for this early in the year I snapped a quick pic by myself and released her to fight another day. I looked back over my shoulder with the sun just disappearing from the horizon and noticed the soft glow of my other rod’s bobber under the water as I reached and set the hook into another fish. This would be the theme for the next hour until it was time to get off the lake by the 10 pm curfew. I ended the night with 6 walleyes, 2 rock bass, and one missed opportunity.

After only 3 hours of sleep Friday night and getting off the lake @ 10 pm on Saturday my 5:30 alarm went of way to soon on Sunday morning. I’ll admit it I reset my alarm for 6:30, but ended up meeting Buckshot from IDO at the landing @ 7 am as he was headed to Hunters for the MTT tourney. With the information I gathered from the day previous, my search time was cut down and I immediately went back out to 2 mile and watched the tournament boats take off out of Hunters @ 7:30. I saw many boats on and headed to Lakeside reef and for some strange reason, I had my spot all to myself??? The day started out with a perfect breeze out of the SSE. That was perfect to drift @ .5 mph with no Drift Control socks. It took me awhile to locate some fish, but I found them on the edge on a steep break and a rock to mud transition as I quickly boated a 20”er and a 18 1/8” . I shortened up my drift and concentrated just on the break and used my kicker to work up and down the break. Finally a 16 ¾” slot found the boat and then a 17 1/4” also hit my live well. The wind was definitely starting to blow harder and the waves were growing again. A few more passes over that break finally produced another 20”er and then just like that this spot went quiet. So thinking back to other spots that produced in the past when this one did and not wanting to play bumper boats on Lake Side. I looked on my Lake Master Chip and I went and worked another rock to mud transition in about the same depth where I caught some nice slots last year at this time. This spot was also holding fish, but you had to really coax them into biting by keeping your bait in front of them for quite awhile. I went through quite a few smaller fish (10-12”ers) and a two overs before finally connecting with my last slot at just before noon as the 15 ½” filled my bag.

I made my way in, quickly cleaned the fish and packed things up and headed for home. As I had to get my food plot planted before the rain was to come. What Rain?????? Exactly! Oh well that is for a different site (www.idohunting.com). Well the bite for me was better this year then last year at this time. The fish were willing to cooperate, but you really had to work for them. I really enjoyed my time on the water as it was great to be out rigging on Mille Lacs again and I even enjoyed the tough conditions as it made it more rewarding in the end. The corking bite in the evening is it’s usual self and really hot once the sun gets close to the horizon. I would focus those efforts in 10-16 feet on the rocks. Another thing is make sure you try different color jigs under those bobbers as some nights it really seems they prefer a certain color. The rigging bite is decent and they seemed to be around the deeper water transitions. Focus your attention to the 22-28 foot depths especially anywhere where the bottom type changes in those depths. Remember, sometimes you can never go too slow and I always like to stay around .5mph or slower. To achieve this on Mille Lacs or any water for that matter, it is must in any serious riggers arsenal to have at least one if not two Drift Control drift socks in your boat. The fish should be starting to show up in numbers out on the mud anytime now and open basin trolling should be here soon after that after those temps come up about 10-15 degrees from now. Not sure what is in store for me this coming weekend as it is Muskie opener and Stacie is still seeking her first Muskie. So we may be headed up North for a weekend of Muskie chasing, but I’ll be sure to report back on our outing if we make it on the water. Until next time be safe and keep making memories.