6/8-6/9 Report w/pics

[HateHumminbird]

Fellow Pro-staffers Mark Stanley, Deitz Dittrich, and I headed out to chase some Smallmouth on Saturday. We fished walleyes for all but an hour. When you can keep a bass-hound like Deitz a few miles offshore on a lake like Mille Lacs with good wind, you know the walleye fishing has to be good!

Mark and I had a chance to come up and do some fishing Friday, and did very well, though Saturday was definitely our bumper-crop day.

After getting blown around Mille Lacs, we met up with Paul Waldowski at Appledorn's for some grilling and good times. Then, we headed back to their tournament house in Onamia to catch some Z's. I was impressed with the size of the place, having a full kitchen, deck, and ring for a bonfire! Great place to stay with a big group, cheaper than many hotels, with twice the room and comfort. Check out the Appledorn's Sunset Bay - Tournament House here.

As for the fishing, I hate to sound like a broken record, but our report sounds no-different than many others I've seen. We did have to contend with some serious wind, which at times, pushed us off our spots altogether.

Location: Mille Lacs - Mud, wind-blown rock-reefs 20-26FOW

Technique: drifting bottom bouncer rigs - w/sock

Rod: Limit Creek 6'9ML, Shimano Crucial 7'2"M

Reels: Abu Cardinal 500, Shimano Stradics

Line: Power Pro 10lb, Gama 8lb

Bait: Jumbo Leeches (Large worked well too)

Hook: Gamakatsu #4, Chartruese, Pink, Red (didn't matter!)

Fish seemed scattered until the cloud cover came over, then most of our fish came from the very top of the reef or flat. We picked them up at all ends of the drift, and in-between, deep to shallow. The larger fish seemed to bite with more authority, and your hookset simply involved dropping the rod tip, clicking over the bail, and sweeping. Some of the bites were more finicky, so we opted for a 5-count or better. Snell length didn't seem to matter. Braid helped us pick up bites when the boat was really rocking, I know many dislike it for rigging, but it simply outfished mono under these conditions.

Half of our fish were good slot fish, strong 18"ers, with a few dinks mixed in. The other half were 21"-24" with one 25"er rounding out the mix at largest fish.

Thanks Mark and Deitz for a great day on the water. Deitz, can't wait to go smallie fishing again!

Joel

[Shack]

Nice post, good pics. Sure looked fun.

[walleyes12]

We had the same amount of luck. I suppose we caught 20-25 walleyes and only 3 were in the slot. We had to release alot of beautiful eye. The fish bit real well when it was cloudy.