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'Eye Ya 'Eyes...


Team Otter

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As others have said, WOW! The bite on Mille Lacs right now is as good as it gets. This past weekend the fish on the mud were just on a tear. Nothing fancy to this report; mark 'em and fish 'em. You could do no wrong I don't think. Plain red hooks and gum drop floaters ruled the roost with leeches but I also know the spinner bite is starting to "haul the mail".

Pictures coming soon...

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Was out of Cove by bird crap island on the humps.Hauled in six biggest 23.5 one in the slot all in three hours on plain red hook lindys oh yea Im gettin hooked on the pond.

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You keep going, it'll get worse. Perhaps we should start a support group. smirk.gif

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I need it bad!!After this week it will be 10 out of 14 days.

Its tough being 15 minutes from the North end. grin.gif

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Nice fish! Water looks good and calm.

Must be fun times!

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Those are some nice pics. We were out there on the flats on Sunday afternoon and I think we are the only ones who did not do that well! We only got 4 or 5 spinning with crawlers and we tried quite a few flats! The one thing we were not short of was the bugs - man those things should be a form of torture!

A question for those that did so well this weekend. Did the luck continue on Sunday afternoon on the flats? Were you rigging or spinning and did leeches or crawlers work better? It seemed like a perfect Mille Lacs flats day so we were bummed when we did not do that well. Oh well, hopefully next time!

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Are the fish flies out?

You know you are on the big pond, when you motor to a flat out in middle of the lake on a calm day and when you stop, bugs are flying up your nose and ears. It is almost enough to move, but the next spot could be just as bad. grin.gif

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Your description was perfect! The bugs were all over us. We were fishing North central and North East mud and we had them at every stop we fished. We saw one lady trying to fend them off with a fly swatter but she was losing the battle! I felt like a crazy person last night when I got home because it still felt like there were bugs crawling all over me! It would have been worth it(probably) if we were catching fish but like I said above - we were one of few that did not do so well.

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I didn't have a very good day. Was out Sunday and only managaed 4 biggest being 16"

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I made an last-minute trip over to ML on sunday late morning from Cloquet. Decided I was tired of fishing Superior/St Louis river in the cold east winds and needed a change.

Got to Fishers just after noon and headed west out to the flats. Spent my first 10 minutes tying up a few 10' lindy leaders, dont use them much in the river grin.gif

Fished from 12:30 to 6pm and boated 10, lost 3-4 on the way up and missed about the same.

This was my first time on ML in 5 years so I had a blast. Keepers were 15.5,17,18, and 19.5, Released were 4 between 22-24, a 25.5, and a 26.5. All were caught on lindy/leech in 29-32'.

Boy was it hot out, I actually dropped off the back of the boat around 3pm and took a dip for a few minutes just to cool down (yes, i did motor away from the flat first). Surface temp at that time hit 70.

Hoping to try it again on friday morning with my soon to be 5 year old son and repeat the success.

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Yes, those bugs were bad on Sunday, but did not ruine a fine day of fishing. Kept 6 between 14-19.75" and tossed back 8 over 21" with the biggest at 29"

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K Dawg, I guess I wasn't the only one to struggle! Maybe next time. It sounds like maybe I should have done a little more rigging as opposed to the spinners. Regardless, still an amazing lake and I can't wait to get back up there and try again! Even a bad day of walleye fishing on Mille Lacs is better than a good day on most lakes!

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Riggin' with leeches caught fish for us all day. In fact, some of our best fishing was from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm.

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Went out of Fishers sunday, went straight to the flats the usual spots, caught fish from 10:00 am to 2:00pm had 9 in the box for 3 guys all from 16.5- 19.5 all very nice chuby fish we also measured 7 more 3 At 27" -2 At 26" and 1 At25" and 1 AT 24.5" 2 clams (wasnt me dragin up bottom)all from 1 flat and in the same 500 foot stretch 25 to 28 FOW and as tight as you could stay to the bottom. Using 8 to 10 foot leaders with spinners (secret color) and crawlers, all the fish had no second thougts about hitting the crawlers. The bugs were pretty wild with no wind to push them around even had a few protien snacks if you talked too much. What a great day on the water with out the deadliest catch flashbacks.

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We (2 of us)searched with 2 oz bottom bouncers. After catching 1 or 2 out of the school w/BB we rigged the school until none were left. Worked all day long on 2 different flats. Fished between 8:30 AM & 5:00 PM Sat. and 7:00-1:00 Sun. Largest 27 1/2. Kept 8@16-19 Sat. 7 keepers on Sun(only kept 4) many btwn 22"-26".

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Heading out tomorrow on a Launch!!! Have been so pumped to get out there!!! I think tomorrow is the first night you can stay out past 10 pm. Does bug spray help at all with them big bugs?? Just curious how we will hold them off of us. Maybe it's a lost cause!!! I Haven't open water fished the big pond in a few years so I hope we get into them. We'll post up how we do.

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It seemed to work for about 30 minutes. They don't like it though.

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Support group? huh, that is a good idea... because I have it really bad, we brought home a limit of 16'' -19 '' fish last week. Now it's hard to sleep, with the night ban off and with all you guys posting reports, I live only 45 minutes away...hmmm, Maybe we could meet on the lake, yeah, maybe two or three times a week wink.gif

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Sy, I think it was probably the captain that day. It's tough when you get spoiled fishing with your normal captain and then go out with some young punk who thinks he's all the rage becuase he "had" a better drift sock.

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BigEyeGuy-

I don't mean to get off topic here, but lets remember what happened on opener...I mean we outfished you guys 54 - 4 that morning.

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My wife thinks I'm nuts now. I can't imagine what she'd think if I was 45 minutes away. grin.gif

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man , great to hear that you guys all did well. we were up there fishing saturday from 4pm til 9pm and caught one fish. sunday from 7am til 11am and then again from 7pm til the winds blew us off the lake , got 3 fish all weekend. fishing rock reefs just wasn't the ticket, should have been in the flats i guess. thanks to the guys who towed us back in , battery died in the boat , too much music playing. dsc00319du0.jpg

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Yah, who can argue with full sun, calm water, warm air, cold brews, and HUNGRY WALLEYES! smile.gif In what seems like beating a dead horse, we also had a banner Sunday this past weekend.

They were SMACKING the spinners w/ crawlers, felt like bigger fish - big change from 2 weeks ago. Even the cigar wallies were on the rampage, we had to unhook and throw those back quick due to the threat of having a picture taken holding one! smile.gif Numerous fish over 20" with the big fish of the day being 27"+. I've stopped being precise beyond checking to make sure it isn't 28" (personal goal), and I am not hearing the end of it for not having a picture taken with that fish. :-)

We saw lots of predatory behavior over mid-lake gravel humps, large schools of small perch being herded up onto the humps on all sides by big fish. The color ticket for us? dayglo orange with black. black dots, black diamonds, black stripes, didn't matter. 27' around gravel humps was the pattern we worked most of the AM. The hammered gold produced OK, but black on dayglo orange didn't give you a chance to eat your lunch.

We boated somewhere between 40-50 fish in 6 hours w/ 3 ppl, so, yah, we had to dock with our daily limit a little after lunchtime, and to cool off, we were roasting w/o any wind. An uncommon thermocline was even marked out in the middle, didn't realize it got that warm, surface temp was 65. Can you spell "a-d-d-i-c-t"? smile.gif

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nice report federline!

i am the same way now about measuring. if its close to critical measurements, ill measure. otherwise, i get a quick estimate...to release. saturday i caught 2-27"ers and didnt take a picture of either. i wish i understood the total picture of how many walleyes are in the lake and how many are being caught, or harvested. is there some kind of breakdown other than the dnr...as to netted, fishing tournaments, charters & sport fishermen, etc?

this saturday is looking to be a repeat of last so far on the weather forcast. i cant wait! two of my brothers and i will be fishing the sw side. it would be fantastic to duplicate last saturday...!

it was 50/50, leeches/crawler & spinner then. man, how you guys get it down to the color really impresses me. i just try to get something down there that might look like something they feed on.

see the fish, catch the fish...good luck!

regards,

minnesotatuff

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Quote:

see the fish, catch the fish...good luck!


I agree

eyewarrior

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
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    • CigarGuy
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    • Hookmaster
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