There isn’t a whole lot more that I can add to Brad Juaire’s report on the open water trolling. His advice and summation is dead on. Aside from giving out the exact coordinates of where we have been getting fish, his direction will put you on fish. Whether or not they are active is another story. Open basin trolling is a lot of fun! You have to have the frame of mind that you are only going after trophy fish. You cannot go at it with the mindset that you are going to boat a number of slots. If that is how you gauge your success of a trip, this kind of fishing isn’t for you. This is hunting. Plain and simple. The fish you are after here are large roaming nomads feeding on baitfish that show up in large schools to eat at the massive bug hatch buffets going on in June and July. Follow the food chain is the best advice I can give. Bugs hatch out of the flats and some out of the rocks. Wind blowing across these areas will give you a good starting place. You have to see the fish to catch these fish. So a good graph and knowing how to read it is important. Hiring a guide is a great way to learn this type of fishing.
This weekend was a lot of fun for me. I got to fish with my buddy Jon Jordan, which never seems like we get to do enough of. Jon possesses a wealth of knowledge of the lake, and comparing notes on fishing styles and baits is always fun! We had another mission to accomplish as well as finding big fish for an upcoming tourney. We had to break in the new to me Warrior! When I got to Farm Island on Friday evening, Art and Kevin had her out front and ready to go! She is a sweet looking ride! But with any used boat..you have that feeling in the back of your head…"What is going to go wrong???" Well the long and short of it….NOTHING! It ran great! I hooked up the X-25 and the Lowrance mapping unit when I got to the cabin and I was ready to go!!! Jon showed up bright and early Saturday morning, and we dumped her in. A turn of the key, and the 200 EFI grumbled to life! We were off to the Flats to start "Hunting!"
Every flat we encountered had a number of people on them. Some your normal Weekend Warriors and others were fishing the Hunter’s Point Tourney. Smaller fish were being caught on the flats, as were a lot of "Tweeners." Tweeners are fish between 18"-28" that have to be returned to the water. Many of the fish we get while open basin trolling are Tweeners. But there are also a lot of over 28" fish living amongst them! We would move from spot to spot around the lake and search for these fish that you see on the graph. Early in the day, these bigger fish were belly to the bottom. Remember what I said about the food chain? These bug hatches rely on the warmth of the day to get going. When that happens, the bugs will make their way to the surface to do their mating, egg laying and dying in short order. Bait fish will follow and feed on these bugs upwards to the surface. In doing so, they are opening themselves up to the jaws of hungry walleye from below.
With all the bright sun and calm water, we opted for chrome baits. Both sticks and Shad Raps produced. Jon made a comment that in that calm water, those chrome bills on some of the big sticks we were using were like a light sabre going through the water. We took fish pulling boards, lead core and long lining deep diving cranks. We would go through areas showing large numbers of fish. If they were not active, we would drop icons on our GPS and visit them later in the day when the water temp rose. During our ride around the lake, we got to check and see if all the pumps worked in the boat. We went through a mental checklist and learned what swithes were for what…and everything worked! Both motors ran well with no issues at all! So I will be spending a lot more time up on the Lake nailing down this ever changing pattern and "Hunting" the "Big Girls of Summer!" Thanks again for putting up with me this weekend! I sure enjoyed it! Lip Ripper and Stacie came trolling by as well…look below to see some extra pics..
I can’t wait for next weekend!!!
The shots of Lip and Stacie’s boat was kind of fun…they were pulling up to us to say “Hi” and compare notes and one of their boards “Crashes” and they landed their first fish of the day.
Great report Tuck, Sounds like a successful maiden voyage! That boat looks like it’s one mean-lean-trolling-machine! Good to see you and Jon got into some beauties
Notice the Skeeter hat, G3 shirt driving a Warrior boat, and Jordan wearing a Ranger hat!
More than one person commented on it.
Just confused I guess!
Way to break in the boat. Nice report
Great report Tuck
Are you planning on fishing the FTF tourney this coming weekend?
Nice fish & report Tuck!
I’ve always heard good things about Warrior boats. Some day, it would be very intersting to hear or see a couple of experts do a break down comparison on these three boats. (Ranger vs Skeeter vs Warrior)
To me anyway, it seems as those three boats are the cream of the crop in fiberglass boats.
Great report Chris and glad the new ride is working well
! As he states between Brad and Tuck’s reports all the details you need to be successful at open water trolling on Mille Lacs. A consistent theme is to hunt for fish and then work to keep your baits in front of fish all the time – in my opinion this is key as it’s really a game of numbers when you are out there as not every fish is active at the time you pull a bait by them.
Looks like a great weekend and it’s hard to read all these good fish reports while sitting in an airport overseas waiting for a connecting flight. I plan to hit the lake the week of July 4th after rigging a new motor on the back of my Ranger!
Thanks for sharing the info guys!
-ted
Great report
Congrats on the new rig
I’d say that bite is just starting to take off. The next few weeks should just keep getting better and better!
-J.
Great recap Tuck on how the bug hatches affect the open water trolling bite!
Congrats to you and JJ on a successful weekend and good luck during the FTF Tourney! 
I would agree with that..last night when I got home I looked over my notes that began back in 2002 when I started doing this…As we surmised Jon…Temp was the one thing that was consistant in the successful trips.
Great report Tuck! Stacie, I and a buddy made our first trip pulling boards this past weekend and had a OK day. We fished for about 4-5 hours and caught some fish but did not light the world on fire. However, we did locate some schools that I’m looking forward to checking out in the next few weeks. I will post some more pics of Tucks trip here. The first pics are of Tucks new ride and a great fish Tuck caught. JJ, I did not have my contacts in and could not tell it was you, even though my planer board bumped Tucks boat.
Notice the planer board in the water on the right of the last pic. 
Nice job boy’s!! Tuck lets get that pretty girl muddy
Note Holst’s comment in this post! I didn’t realze until right now that it was YOUR board in the picture!
I could not for the life of me figure out how the board got there!!! 
The ‘Sauger Seat” is red hot and ready!
Now we need to talk about a Sauger-built anchor!
Tuck, that is way too funny.
Only here at IDO, with 360 degree coverage from all angles.
Here in this pic is that exact same moment from another angle that Holst is questioning. Notice the net. I captured your good side.
Funny Lip…notice the one finger salute in your honor?
Not intended…but fitting!
I’ll be heading up Wednesday morning see you there???? or see ya friday night at the meeting
Great report Tuck, nice looking boat
Chris and Jon:
Excellent work guys; from the pics you, Brad, and Lip are posting, I’ll be giving this a try this year. It’s something I’ve done in the fall in clear lakes, but never mid-summer. With each of your reports, I’m learning something! Keep up the good work, and thanks for pointing us all in the right direction.
Joel
Keep in mind, this is not just Mille Lacs that this works for. We have had the same success on Pepin, Leech, Winnie, Cass and Bemidji!
Nice report. I’ve been getting plenty of fish pulling spinners and haven’t started trolling yet, but soon, very soon. Gotta love the feeling of getting out in a new boat, and with no suprises!
Add Kabetogama & Namakan to the list also.
Oh yeah, there is a RUMOR that some decent eyes can be caught on Lake Erie doing this also.
Scratch Pepin no fish there…..
Great Report Tuck, nice fish. Sounds like the maiden voyage went perfect, can’t ask for any better than that!