What a great weekend to spend on Mille Lacs. The trip started Friday fishing with Bill, a good friend of mine. We went out of the south end and fished a 22-24 foot rock/mud transition area with rigs and leeches. By 10 we had 10 fish or so, and we headed out to see what else was going on. Arriving at the Boot we saw quite a few guys pre-fishing for the MTT. We popped 5 fish there over the slot on the same rigs, but did stretch our snells out to 8 feet for that bite. We found no preference for hook color or beads, but what seemed to trigger bites was pulling the rig forward and then slowly letting it back. The bites came while letting back. Every time we came into a pod of fish we started that pumping motion and it triggered a strike. After having some fun on the mud we headed south again to check some old favorite spots on the 4 mile and 5 mile gravel. We drove around for quite awhile marking very few fish, so decided to head in and call it a good day.
Saturday found my son and I rigging the deep gravel on the south end. The fish flies are hatching like crazy right now, and we came up on many huge blobs off the deep edges of the gravel in 25-27 feet. There were many nice perch mixed in with the flies, but strangely the walleyes were up on top in 21-22 feet. This time we were pulling blades and leeches. Blue beads and a hammered silver blade was the big producer for us.
Saturday afternoon Jeremy want to try some crankin’ so we grabbed the leadcore rods and some #5 Shad Raps and headed back out. We worked the same 24-25 foot range and it wasn’t long before the reel clickers were screaming. In an hour we had 5 eyes, all between 22-25 inches. The hot trolling bait was a bluegill pattern #5 Shad Rap.
Saturday night around 9:00 we bobbered up out near Spirit Island and I was wishing we had done so earlier because the fish were on a rampage. We got 5 bites in the first 5 minutes of getting set up. The fish ran 13.5, 17.5. 21.5, and 24.5, pretty much all across the board.
Great report Brian….congrats on the success and it really goes to show that the fish are on RAMPAGES right now if your catching them on every presentation that a person tries.
I wasnt able to fish this weekend but my dad made it out sat for most of the day. He had the same thing, fish all over. He said he got 23-25 on the day, by himself. He stuck to the west side, fishing some close mud and shermans. Rigging on th mud produced fish and pulling blades at shermans did so also. Hammered gold was his go to blade choice.
Thurs. cant come fast enough. Three day weekend on the pond.
Thanks for the report…I’m hopeful they’ll still be hungry when I get up there later this month….
x2!