MILLE LACS...........................................

[MUSKY18]

SUCKS!!!! That [PoorWordUsage] lake is just the ruin of musky fishermen!! Today was the first time I just couldn't wait to get off the lake. Got on around 0500 and it was calm and a little fog on the water.........DIDN'T SEE NOTHING!!! So with the wind being relative calm, we decided to head to the south end! Wrong move.....had my 7 year old with me in the boat and he got a big taste of the waves on the pond. Bout 4 miles into the run, we stopped and dawned the raingear. Got to the south end and it became obvious that it wasn't going to be easy fishing down there. Not to mention the tournament was going on and the boats were stacked up. Just decided to tkae the easy route out and call it a day.

The bloom was pretty bad up on the north end. Some spots were thicker than others, but needless to say my boat won't be seeing the waters of the pond again this year.

[DHanson]

It's the dead sea. Sorry to hear your trip was lousy. I hope the DNR increases the amount of fish they annually stock. They are not putting enough fish in for the size of the lake, and the natural reproduction may not be working as much as they were thinking it would. Just my opinion.

[JRedig]

Maybe it's all the fish being harvested...

[RuKiddingMe]

Or maybe Mille Lacs has turned into a "Metro" lake, and the fish are tired of seeing the same thing in their faces constantly... not to mention the congo line that forms up there on most of the weeds beds. I don't know that's for sure, I haven't been up there yet this year and with all my readings I'm not planning on it.

Or maybe the fish are on a cycle up there and this is just plain and simply an off year, lord knows I have seen that on other bodies of water and with different species of fish.

RU

[CaptainMusky]

When you have guides pounding the waters every day and many of them are from out of state the fish are getting more pressure than anywhere else.

The silver lining is most of these guides are now up on Vermillion because the bite is off on Mille Lacs, the bad part is Vermillion will be next.

[2000AlaskanDC]

When you have guides pounding the waters every day and many of them are from out of state the fish are getting more pressure than anywhere else.

The silver lining is most of these guides are now up on Vermillion because the bite is off on Mille Lacs, the bad part is Vermillion will be next.

bingo

[JRedig]

Or maybe it's the insane number of perch...

[RuKiddingMe]

sounds to me like JRedig has been reading over on m1st... ha ha

I thought that was crazy 3 fish caught for the MMT... That's just insane...

[JRedig]

sounds to me like JRedig has been reading over on m1st... ha ha

I thought that was crazy 3 fish caught for the MMT... That's just insane...

I caught some walleye's up there earlier this year that were burping up perch too, just like has been posted elsewhere on the 'net. Not to mention that earlier in the year I saw HUGE school's of them up shallow. And all the follow's i've had and pike that i've caught have come on perch colored baits of one sort or another.

[RuKiddingMe]

It's tough to compete using artificial when the top predator has an abundance of natural food readily available.

RU

[Rebel9921]

Just fish for perch using muskie arsenal and hang on when you reel one in LOL

[BowTech03]

I very much disagree with what all of you are saying. I dont think the natural reproduction is bad and the lake is turning into a metro lake. This time of the year on most lakes in the state are shuting down til the water turns over. The water is so warm that is turning off the bite. If you want to catch fish now you are going to have to downsize you baits and slow down pase. And if that does not do it for you wait tell later in the fall when big baits and big fish are bitting up on the rocks brakes. Also it might help the lake if there was not so many fish being taking out each spring be the "natives".

[JRedig]

This time of the year on most lakes in the state are shuting down til the water turns over. The water is so warm that is turning off the bite. If you want to catch fish now you are going to have to downsize you baits and slow down pase.

Have you been out fishing lately? Lakes that are normally between 80 and 90 degree's on the surface are in the mid to low 70's right now, i've even seen high 60's early in the morning on a few and they don't get to 75 by 2pm.

I'm curious, what makes you think that natural reproduction is successful at all in a lot of the lakes around here?

Even if it does slow down on the catching side of things, it's not like the fish quit eating. They're metabolism is at an all time high, seems fisherman just aren't dialed in for these conditions. I don't know how many people have told me this is their toughest time of year. Adaptation is key.

[MUSKY18]

The warmest water that I found on Sunday was 72.6 degrees! Yes the lakes normally slow down at this point of the season, but Mille Lacs has been off for the ENTIRE season and there is a reason for this, nmore than just the pressure. I have been up there before and casted off the back of some boat that cut us off and caught a 48" right after their lures went through. So even with pressure you can usually find SOME fish.

[50inchpig]

Sounds like the bandwagon is heading toward duluth at a pretty good clip and losing quite a few passengers along the way.

Maybe some wish they'd have made some meetings or made the extra phone call to support more stocking. Things aren't quite as pretty in MN when you're not looking through Mille Lacs colored glasses.

I'm not buying into the gloom and doom quite yet - like my friend says "it's a refrigerator thing!"

[MuskieJunkie]

On the perch idea...

I spent a lot of time ice fishing (fishing not catching) up there last winter, we would run from reef to reef one guy drilling holes from the edge to the top and one guy checking with a camera. The perch were everywhere, you would see huge clouds of them, minnow size up to maybe a few inches.

I think that's a big part of the problem.

[frogtosser]

or that clown in the pontoon trolling who kills alot of muskies cause he wont stop to unhook them cause he dosnt want to tangle his lines

[MUSKYMAN1011]

Frogtosser, are you talking about Gene Miller (clown on Pontoon)?

[CaptainMusky]

Frogtosser, are you talking about Gene Miller (clown on Pontoon)?

The postman, if that is his name, then that is the same person. He has quite the reputation up there.

Too bad something isnt done about it.

[Muskiefool]

The Muskies ate all the Muskies

[frogtosser]

I have heard him called miller the killer so it must be, I have just heard stories that are not good

[spankster]

Hey Frogtosser,

Have you actually been out with Gene? Before you lambast a guy, maybe you should take a trip with him. I boated my 44-inch first Muskie with Gene. Had a picture with it in 55 seconds and Gene released it back into the water for it to swim away with grace on August 7th and wrote about it in a blog on April 9th. Steve MacDonald, owner of Castaways, was on board as a witness if you want to see a picture of the release. [img:right]http://http://makeitmillelacsguidereports.blogspot.com/

[Tippman]

But he also admits to not pulling in his planers so he doesn't have to stop and re-setup after hooking a fish. He's also admitted to the number of fish he's killed years back. I think there's a general negative feeling towards him out there, I've sure noticed it from a number of guys up that way.

[CaptainMusky]

He is well-known out there. Sure, he helps people catch fish, but he is hardly being a sportsman by how he acts while doing it.