Mille Lacs Update

[MuskieFever]

Who has a smallie update for me?

[bassfshin24]

A lot of fish on beds right now. A lot of the bigger girls have already spawn but you can still find a few up on beds and still some big ones cruising around shallow. The number of 3-4.5lbs is unreal right now. Topwater has also been producing some nice fish. Went out for a few hours yesterday to chase some bed fish on my big 5 were 4lbs 0oz, 4lbs 4oz, 4lbs 4oz, 4lbs 4oz, and 4lbs 12oz. Water temp is anywhere from 63.5-66. The topwater bite should really start to get good as those fish that have already spawned should start moving shallow again to feed. There were a ton of people out on the lake fishing smallies yesterday and it looked like everyone was catching fish. Good luck

[MuskieFever]

Thanks for the update! Just got back from a Canada walleye trip. I was a little bummed because I figure last week would probably be the last prespawn push. I can't complain tho. Hopefully headed up in the next few days.

[Trout26]

I'm hoping to head to milacs for  the first time on friday. Wondering if anyone can give me some advise where to look for smallies probably heading to the north end but could go south if anyone thinks it's better. Thanks in advance 

[bassfshin24]

All sides are good on that lake right now. I guess I shouldn't say the actual North Side. I think most people fish the NW or NE side. Never fish the north bank before. Topwater bite has been really good I hear. A lot of fish should be getting active after the spawn. 

[Trout26]

What depth you guys fishing I'm out here now only caught 1 was in 8 feet wondering if I should be deeper 

[Juan Grande]

Everyone was smoking them on beds. Fish are probably post spawn now.  Trying fishing some of the rocky points adjacent to spawning flats.

[Trout26]

I ended up trying deeper and didn't get anything so went and fished docks and found fish still on bed or hanging around protecting fry lots of little black fish all over. Talked to some guys that were fishing reefs and sounded like they about the same. I went out of cove bay I think it was called over all had fun with the kids

[Hoyt4]

Was up Saturday and the Smallies were on Fire. A couple eyes mixed in but almost all smallies. Fish from 3ft to 8 on rocks and you could of stayed in the one place all day but we moved around just to try other spots both produced well. Cove Bay took a little longer to find but we did they crushed the tube baits.

[thatoneguy]

I caught as many walleyes as I did smallies just about when I was down there last Wednesday, including a 30 incher - out of 18 inches of water on a swimbait. In my three trips smallie hunting on Mille Lacs this year I've totalled 20+ walleyes. I think maybe the people complaining about the walleye fishing the past few years maybe just need to learn how to fish?

[NELS-BELLS]

Strange about the walleyes.  We were on the south end of Mille Lacs on Friday and caught 21 bass, no walleyes.  We even targeted walleyes for about an hour on Sloppy Joes.  Didn't see any boats fishing walleyes on the traditional spots the entire time we were there and never saw any of the other bass fisherman catch a walleye.

For the bass, we had the best luck on tubes, but also caught some on hair jigs and drop shot.  Nothing on jerkbaits or topwater baits.

Nels

[Craigums]

Anyone been out lately?

 

[rascal23]

I would expect there to be some Bassmaster Elite sightings.  All but the "elite" 8 have a pretty big break between Cayuga and Potomac. I would think most would want to get a lay of the lake since few have probably fished it.   It would be interesting to know how much behind the scenes research, phone calls, etc...., has been going on.  Hopefully Seth can make the cut so he can fish his home water.  I plan on going up for a few days to check it out. Anybody else going?

[bassfshin24]

Ill be heading up Wed night and staying until the final weigh-in Sunday :-) Gonna do some fishing on some local lakes and watch the pros for awhile too

 

[Craigums]

14 hours ago, rascal23 said:

  I plan on going up for a few days to check it out. Anybody else going?

I'm signed up to be a marshall.

25 minutes ago, bassfshin24 said:

Ill be heading up Wed night and staying until the final weigh-in Sunday :-) Gonna do some fishing on some local lakes and watch the pros for awhile too

 

We'll have to get together. If I'm not mistaken they don't fish on Saturday, something about the Bass University. Anybody have info on exactly what's going on Saturday?

[BartmanMN]

19 hours ago, rascal23 said:

I would expect there to be some Bassmaster Elite sightings.  All but the "elite" 8 have a pretty big break between Cayuga and Potomac. I would think most would want to get a lay of the lake since few have probably fished it.   It would be interesting to know how much behind the scenes research, phone calls, etc...., has been going on.  Hopefully Seth can make the cut so he can fish his home water.  I plan on going up for a few days to check it out. Anybody else going?

If my schedule allows it, I will try to run up with my son on Sunday for the weigh in festivities.

[rascal23]

Craigums,    Way cool!!  I always thought that would be a pretty neat deal,  I got as far as looking up all the sign-up info, but that's as far as I got.  Would love to talk to you when you got some free time up there.  B24, I'ld be nice to meet up with you too. Put some faces to the nick-names. 

  Oh,BTW, sorry to hi-jack the thread.  How's the bite?     Won't be able to get up there till Aug. at the earliest.

[MuskieFever]

Weather permitting, I'm headed to Mille Lacs this weekend. Anybody been out lately?

[rascal23]

  Spent the day on tuesday fishing Mille Lacs.  We didn't get on the water til 10:30 or so and started in the bay north of Doe island. Started out slow trying to figure things out. Got a few on a 1/8 oz black maribou jig, including one of the biggest of the day - a fat 19 1/2, fishing rock/sand transistions.   Got a few on a 3 1/2" swimbait on a 1/4 oz jighead including a nice eater walleye.   Trolling the maribou got some more big ones (little jig gets hard to throw over and over).  Went back to the swimbait and stuck with that for most of the rest of the day.  

  Most fish were  6-8 fow, with a few coming a little shallower.  I wanted to try some deeper water, but its hard to leave biting fish, so we stayed around Doe island and later, Hawkbill.   Tried tubes early with no results.   The bigger fish came on the maribou.   When we were pulling out, I saw an orange colored craw in the shallows, maybe pre molt.

  We did see a bassboat fishing nearby with a Tarter boat wrap.  Keith Poche?

Hope to get up there one more time before BM AOY  tournament.

[bassfshin24]

Man I need to get up there soon. I haven't fished on Mille Lacs since Memorial day :-( Hopefully we will be headed up there in a couple weeks and then I'll be up there for 4 days for the AOY tourney. Probably not going to fish Mille Lacs while the tourney is going on but they have a break from competition Saturday so maybe we can sneak out during then. Not sure what the etiquette of that is though...do I really want to go out and fish some spots that might be money spots for pros. Not sure what to do but would hate to not fish the lake when I am up there for 4 days. 

[MuskieFever]

Didn't get up this weekend! Starting to get frustrated! I found out the MN state tournament was going on so I decided to not go... Maybe this weekend?!

[Juan Grande]

I'll be up there on Sunday/Monday, I'll post a report.

[rascal23]

bassfshin24,      I guess I wouldn't worry about steppin on the pro's on Mille Lacs. With just 50 boats, they can really spread out. I don't think it'll be a situation where you have tight grouped fish in a few dozen or even 50 dozen spots. The fish we caught were fairly spread out, though we didn't pound spots that we caught fish, just kept moving. And we stayed shallow. I think there's a big population that stay deep and that opens up a whole lot of water.

  I would say just give them distance weather spectating or fishing. If I did see them set up on a tight spot for an hour or more, I would respect that spot and leave it alone.  My plan is to spectate a bit, fish a bit - away from the pro's, try to learn some new water, like the SW side and basically putz around. I may even fish walleyes. After all, it always has been, and always should be a walleye lake .   All this subject to the wind, of course.

  It'll be real interesting to see how they play the lake, see if anybody plays their comfort zone and goes for the seldom fished big green bass. 

[Lals]

R23, I wonder about the greenies as well. I could see Hackney pitching the rice beds, cabbage etc.. maybe some good lessons/ techniques to learn! It would be great if one of the leaders had a nice pile of green bass!

[rascal23]

Lals,   Thats some water I would leave alone.  I would like to poke around and see if anybodys fishing it, but alot less water than smallie country, and if any of them wanted to use it, I would just watch. I'm sure weather will decide who and how many fish it.