Mille Lacs Jan. 16th - 20th

[iowaboy]

Burrrrrrrr what a cold weekend!!!

Well made my first ever trip to Mille Lacs with eight buddies this past week and weekend. Stayed with Hunters Point very nice place to stay highly reccomend it!!

The fishing was poor at best. We fished 3 Mile on Weds night with no keeper fish caught in 4 hrs fishing time. Thursday he had some of the group fish 3 Mile again the caught one 18 inch eye in six hrs. The remainder of us went out to the Boot Flat and turned it into swiss cheese with no keepers caught in 6+ hrs.

Friday and Sat. we were in a sleeper out on Banana only managed 1/2 dozen keeper perch from 9-11 inches. We had 12 rattle reels out each night with no hits.

The camera's really told the story of why the bite is off. Their are 1000's and 1000's of 3-4 inch perch everywhere so the eyes must be to full to eat what we had to offer.

It was a fun trip just to bad the fish were to busy to cooperate.

[talltines]

Iowaboy, I hope that this trip doesn,t put a bad taste in your mouth. Milacs this year has been unusually slow, due to the excessive amount of forage available. I hate to say it but, should have come up last year. This is just a goofy cycle, give milly a shot next year, and I'm sure you will be impressed with the results. How many fat eyes did the camera show you? We were due for slow ice season considering the exceptional bite the past few years has given us on the frozen pond.

[Kyle Sandberg]

I keep hearing about how many small perch there are swimming aroung in the lake. If they all survive the winter, are we looking at a big year class for jumbos in 3-5 years? From the sounds of things its looking promising but how many or percentage will survive?

[AceintheHole]

Just have to take the good with bad.

[iowaboy]

We only saw one eye when we were in the sleeper but saw a few out on the Boot Flat.

Don't get me wrong we had a good time even though the fish didn't bite. We knew going up that the bite was off but decided to go anyway.

This was the forth winter in a row a group of us have taken a trip somewhere. The first yr. we went to Devils for 4 days and ran into 65 below wind chill so only got to fish about a day and a half. The second yr. we went to the Waubay area of SD and did pretty well. Last yr. we went back to Waubay and ran smack into that Feb. snow storm and only fished about 12 hrs in 4 days. Now this yr. we run into the coldest weather of the season so far in Minnesota and tons of forage for the fish to eat.

I think someone upstairs has it in for us......

Oh well fun memories with a bunch of friends is better then working any day!!!

[Kyle Sandberg]

Wow, you've guys have had some pretty bad luck picking a good time of they year. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get a good year adn just nail the walleyes. Gald you still had a good time.

[Powerstroke]

"with no keepers"

I'm not sure if this means you caught nothing or you only caught fish that were too small or in the slot.

Hopefully you were still catching fish. Its hard when you can't have something to bring home. With the every-other day cold fronts and the large forage base the fish are sitting fat and sassy without a reason to go after the lures.

[MuleShack]

 Originally Posted By: K Dawg

I keep hearing about how many small perch there are swimming aroung in the lake. If they all survive the winter, are we looking at a big year class for jumbos in 3-5 years? From the sounds of things its looking promising but how many or percentage will survive?

I'm wondering how this will affect the opener and beyond. How long does it take for these perch to grow outside of the walleyes tastes? so will they still be lip locked come opener?

[AceintheHole]

They must be hitting the perfect eating size for the walleyes because this summer was some of the best fishing I've had up there in a while lots of 22-30" fish. Sounds like it may be a tough spring. Lets hope not.

[iowaboy]

Powerstroke.....

We only caught the one walleye.....18 1/2 incher no short fish or no large eyes were caught. We did catch a bunch of the 3-4 inch perch and a few spot taled shinners were also caught. We had 2 seven inch perch we had two keep cause there swim bladder was in there throat. The other 4-5 perch that we kept were between 9-11 inches.

Yea it will be interesting to see how the open water bite goes for you all this spring.

[delta hunter]

I always heard with perch fishing is that you will have that with the swim bladder in the throat. I was also told that all you have to do is pop it and they will be fine. I pretty sure I read that in an article in a mag now that I think about it!

[late night]

I hate bad fishing as much as anybody but it might be in the best intrest of the lake in the long run. Mille Lacs has been pressured pretty hard with some really good catches coming out of her, expecially last summer. If that lasted much longer the fishing might really suck.

At least the fish are there and eating well. Maybe lots of people will loose intrest in fishing Mille Lacs and move onto other lakes and when the bite comes back the lake wont be so overwhelmed with fisherman. Not the best news for local buisness but every lake runs in cycles of good and bad.

I, for one, am pretty excited about this perch report. In several years Mille Lacs might be home to the best perch bite in a long time.

[walleyecaber]

I agree with LN on this one the perch out there are small and keeping the eye's well fed.This may make the next year of fishing tuff up there but hey in the long run down the road all of us that fish this great fishery will happy. Just my 2 cents I, for one, am pretty excited about this perch report. In several years Mille Lacs might be home to the best perch bite in a long time. I will second that LN

[MuleShack]

 Originally Posted By: walleyechaser

In several years Mille Lacs might be home to the best perch bite in a long time.

That and there will be rather large Muskies and FAT walleyes. When you pull up a 27"er it will be 8 lbs instead of the 5 lb 27'ers that were seen this last spring. (wish full thinking )