Father’s Day Weekend Mille Lacs Walleye Report!

For me, taking a child fishing is one of the most joyful things in life. Seeing their excitement and smiles when they are reeling in a fish is forever etched in my memory. It makes it even more special when it’s your own child and it happens over Father’s Day weekend!

Joining me on this very memorable trip was fellow IDO Member Pat Howard (gutone4me), my long time high school friend Joe Cavanaugh, my wife Tina and our 10 year old son – Ian. The plan was for Pat, Joe and I to head up early Thursday morning and fish the day and the following day (Friday). That way we could get the walleyes dialed in so that when Tina and Ian arrived on Saturday morning we could maximize the bite and their time on the water with catching fish versus scouting for them.

The plan was to hunt for big fish while trolling the open basin utilizing deep diving crankbaits. This is my preferred method to catch big walleyes and it’s also a fishing style that a child can easily perform since there’s no need to cast or worry about snags. Simply place your crankbaits at the desired depth, click on a planer board, place the rods in the holder and wait for the strike!

As many you already know, Thursday’s weather was very unstable and unpredictable. We fought high winds the majority of the day until a severe thunderstorm chased us off the lake around 6 pm. We managed to catch a few big walleyes even though the conditions for trolling were not ideal. Friday the wind continued to blow hard creating 3 footers for most of the day. That didn’t stop us and we motored out to over 11 miles from shore searching for big fish. My Skeeter WX2100 is continues to amaze me in how it handles big waves while keeping us dry. It’s truly my dream boat for this type of fishing.

The majority of the fish that we caught on Thurs and Fri were suspended higher in the water column. (about 20 feet down in 35 feet of water). Storm Deep Thundersticks (old series) in firetiger was the hot crankbait and caught the majority of our fish. Every single fish was caught on a planer board and the leadcore rod was completely silent even though at some times we tied on the exact same crankbait. Even though we caught some good fish, we never really figured out a pattern or found an active feeding school that produced consistently for us. We would catch one here and there but nothing really consistent. The unstable weather and high winds had certainly stirred up these suspended walleyes and the baitfish they pursue.

Since Tina and Ian were not going to arrive until 11am on Sat., that allowed Pat, Joe and I to scout a little bit more that morning. We started to mark a few nice arcs but they were much deeper than the previous two days and certainly not as high in the water column. That triggered us to move our leadcore rods deep and we trolled them within 4 feet of the bottom. It didn’t take long and finally the leadcore rod clicker went screaming and we boated a good sized walleye that fell for a DDT#11 – purpledescent. 10 minutes later the same thing happened again and just like that we had two deep walleyes on the leadcore setup. We converted another rod to a leadcore setup and 10 minutes later that one went off as well and finally we had found a consistent pattern.

Soon after, we motored back in and picked up Tina and Ian. We then headed back out with high anticipation knowing that it would be great to now be able to troll with 5 rods! We adjusted our crankbaits on our planer boards as well putting them down to 30 feet. Our first run didn’t disappoint and we got a double right away. It was great to see Ian jump off his chair and catch his first open basin walleye for 2010! From there the day just got better and better with big fish after fish coming to the boat. The winds finally calmed down and we could troll wherever we wanted and be able to control our speed which led us to consistency. We ended the day catching 31 suspended walleyes including 4 doubles! The majority of the walleyes were between 23-27 inches and they were thick! It was great to see that the fishery is in good shape. Since the water temp was 64 degrees, reviving these fish was very quick and they all survived to be caught again (except for two under the slot that Ian wanted to keep for a meal ).

There are five things that one needs to think about when trolling crankbaits in the open basin.

First – And most important is to scout! If you are not marking baitfish along with arcs, odds are you will not get bit. Spend adequate time scouting or as I like to say, try and eliminate water. I like to do this in ¼ mile increments, motoring up and down along the way and using my side imaging sonar to locate suspended fish.

Second – once you found them, you need to find out what the walleyes are feeding on and try and mimic that baitfish with your crankbaits. Every day it’s a little different and you never know what crankbait is best unless you keep on experimenting. Set time limits on each crankbait and color until you discover a pattern on what they want. I like to think of it as process of elimination!

Third – speed also varies from day to day and sometimes hour to hour. On Thursday and Friday when we caught our fish, our average speed was only 1.8 mph. On Sat., it was a totally different story, and we caught most of our walleyes trolling at 2.2mph and higher. Trolling “S” curves will help you determine the speed. If you pick up a fish on an outside board while performing an S-turn, that means you need to speed everything up since that board is trolling faster than what your GPS states. Or vice versa, if you’re inside board gets hit while performing an S-turn, that means you need to slow everything down. Experiment with speed and it can turn your day from good into great!

Fourth – depth is also critical to success. Pay attention to the arcs that you are seeing on your sonar and try to place your crankbaits 2-6 feet above them knowing that walleyes feed up. The clearer the water the higher you can go above them. If the water clarity is poor, you need to put it right above them (2 feet). Utilizing the Precision Trolling Bible book is a great tool to help you understand how deep your crankbaits will dive.

Five – try to put together a consistent pattern. When you get a fish, remember exactly what you were doing and try to mimic it again. Ask yourself, how fast were you trolling? How much line did you have out on your line counter reel? Remember what rod, what crankbait and what color is producing the best.

Saturday was truly one of my most memorable days on the water – ever. Not only was it a great fishing day, we had so much fun singing, laughing and joking around the entire day! At the end of the night, a leadcore rod went off and everyone at the top of their lungs was shouting out “LEADCORE!” “LEADCORE” , “LEADCORE” until we were blue in the face! I guess I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. My Father’s Day gift came one day early and I was so happy that my son, my wife and two of my best friends were there to celebrate it with me. It just doesn’t get much better than that.