All I can say is that’s its been too long since I have had the chance to fish Mille Lacs just for fun with good friends. Work has kept me very busy but I am thankful to have my job in times like these. Work coupled with buying a new to me boat (Ranger 620 tiller) and getting it rigged have kept me off the water (from fishing) for almost 6 weeks now…
Tuesday 7 July my brother Pat along with Tim and Dean from work headed north early to spend a day on Mille Lacs. While driving up I received a phone call that there had been a massive mayfly hatch on Monday night and when we pulled into Meleen’s BP to get bait and fuel yes the pumps were covered. Not to worry as we picked up some leeches and crawlers along with fluids to keep hydrated and we were on our way.
My plan for the day was to bobber until mid-day when we were exchanging a member of our crew and then head out for some trolling in the basin. 5 minutes after we dropped anchor on our first spot Tim’s bobber goes down and he was rewarded with a nice 24″ fish! For over 3 hours we caught fish as they moved through our area including several doubles! We moved 5 different times during that span and caught fish off four anchor positions so it pays to be aggressive.
We ended up with 17 walleyes along with a bonus jumbo perch bobbering. 5 slots, 3 under 10 inches and 4 between 25″ and Pat’s 27″ and the balance between 18-24″ so it was a fun morning with very few dull moments.
We headed in to exchange on of our members and what little chop we had in the morning had faded and I was anxious to get my new rig out to troll and see how well the 2010 Evinrude 150 coupled with hydraulic steering would perform out on the basin. We got set up with our four boards spread both horizontally and vertically in the water column and it wasn’t too long before a board started dropping back hard – of course it was the outside board so it was game on!
We only had a few hours to troll before heading back home but managed three hook-up’s with two fish in the 24-26″ class boated and third shook off just at boat side. These fish in the basin were definitely lethargic and more nudging at the baits than inhaling them so they either have been feeding well on the endless bug hatches or the small perch and minnows are just reaching bite sized.
All in all it was a great day and thanks to my partners for mid-week break.
few more images of the fun we had on Tuesday – trying to make next week work for a trip again!
Awesome report. Thanks for sharing.
Good times with good friends, thats what it all about Bro
Looks like it was a fantastic day on the water.
Great job Ted! Congrats on getting the boat wet! I love the pic of the fish in the water!
Send some up here to Bemidji!
Looks like you rigged your boat well!
Made up for the six weeks in one day!
Great report Ted
Nicely done Ted. Great to see you back on the water and thanks for the update.!
You made a great point that often most people over look. Not only do you spread the baits out across the back of the boat by boards, but you should also vary depths with baits until you can key on a producing depth! 
Are you heading up this weekend at all??
I’m might be up to pull boards on Sunday as Saturday I have a wedding to attend to. 
Thanks for the kind words guys. Been a while since I could get on a bite and catch as many fish as you wanted, swing the net around and just have some fun with friends.
The boat is coming together quite well and once I get the prop dialed in the wheel boats are going to have to look twice when they get passed by a tiller boat with only a 150 E-TEC on the back
I didn’t make it back last weekend and my plans for going this week have been derailed – BUT – I did get to take my 2 year old daughter Gracyn out for her first fishing adventure along with her mother and my two yellow labs Chesney and Zander. We all talk about seeing signs well Gracyn woke up at 6:30 AM last Tuesday when we were headed out fishing and watched me pull out of the drive and announced to her mom that ‘Gracyn go fishing’. She went and changed her clothes, grabbed her new purple Dora pole along with the purple bobbers and pink net and headed out the door to the backyard to fish in the Mississippi. Clearly she is my daughter!
We headed to a lake just north of my house and caught sunfish for almost 2 hours before it was naptime. It’s hard to say if she or the dogs had more fun but the images speak for themselves.
I will have a report up on rigging my new boat and some performance numbers…