I headed to my “home” water, Mille Lacs Lake, to chase its world-class smallmouth bass for the first time this year. As I looked ahead on my schedule I thought this might be my only trip to the “pond” in the month of June. Joining me on this trip was a great friend, Bret, who is an avid walleye fisherman. While Bret does not fish specifically for bass often, he does enjoy catching anything that swims
Bret and I started the day throwing 3 to 4 inch tubes rigged on 1/8 ounce jigs. I thought that the smallies would not want to chase a lure with the water temps in the low 60’s. Boy was I wrong. Early in the day the fish seemed to want the lures moving, slow yet steady. We swam the tubes over shallow rocks, ranging in size from pebbles to softballs, sometimes bigger. Bret caught the first four bass, which were between 16-19 inches. As the boat drifted over a slightly deeper depression, Bret once again set the hook, this time a muskie rocketed to the surface and decided to show its size and strength by tail-walking across the top of the water. A brief battle and Bret gets her boatside. After three feeble attempts by me to land her, the line finally broke I estimate that this fish was in low 40’s and around 20 pounds. I am really thinking that I need to start carrying a bigger net; this is the third ski to make it to my boat this year — two muskies while chasing smallies and one while chasing walleyes.
We traveled up and down one side of the lake in search of a nice school of bass but never found it, so we decided to load the boat and trailer to the other side of the lake. After a short truck ride, we started in an area that has held early June smallmouth for me in the past. Almost immediately we I started a seeing smallies, not bedding fish, but ones that were holding to a certain object whether it was a rock, stick, or weed clump. These fish would spook as the boat drifted by, but would come right back to “their “ area which would cover an 2-3 foot diameter circle next to “their” structure. If you sent your lure to this area you got bite; if your lure was outside of this area you did not. It was that simple.
Shallow water sight fishing is a blast. Watching how fish react to you, the boat, and your presentation can teach you a lot if you pay attention to the little details. These small details can mean the difference between fishing and catching. We cover a ton of water looking for these fish but that is part of the game this time of year. The smallmouth spawn is in full swing so please leave the bedding fish alone as there are areas to fish without taking these incredible fish off of their beds. The future of this world class fishery depends on it.
Good Luck,
Ron
A few more pictures
Those are some awesome smallies
Awesome Ron, nice trip.
Jack
Nice report Slider! Brings back some memories when I used to fish smallies on Mille Lacs – then I finally moved up to the big leagues and started fishing walleyes!
Slider….do you try wacky rigs at all? Any fish on cranks?
Nice fish and report.
I was wondering when I would see that ugly mug reporting on Mille Lacs. Congrats on a great day and some great fish. Nice read as I’m headed up there this weekend and might just have to fish for some smallies if it is nice out. It looks like you had a great day of weather also.
Good job putting the smack down on some awesome Bronze backs Ron
Just ignor Brad, he is just upset because he is about to loose half his boat
Great job Ron. I’m sure lookin forward to fishin for those things with you again sometime. I’ll let you know when I’ll be up.
Those are still bedding fish you are catching. Thats why they come back to the same spot you spook them off. Not ripping on you for catching them but you just seemed concerned about cathing bedding fish. I have experienced them doing the exact same thing up there this year. Just becaseu there isnt an obvous bed there doesnt mean there isnt one. some have large dark doghnut looking beds and others are just smaller pebbles near a rock, or other object like you describe.
They seemed to want a shaky head technique
No not yet
Even tried topwater
Thanks, I think
Sorry to hear about your half of the boat
Anytime
I love watching a walleye guy fight a real fish
Not necessarily, they will do that all summer and into the early fall when they are up shallow. And yes, I am always concerned about the fishery.