The Myth, The Legend, The Mille Lacs Crappie.

[Shack]

 Originally Posted By: HunterWinfieldsResort

I read your other post about the south end being over fished - yes, there are a lot of people out and not everyone is catching them - there are a lot of little ones being caught and released which means there is more than one year class. As long as people respect the limits, we'll be catching 'em next year out there for sure.

Here is a shot from today - 9:30 AM Friday, March 21.

Nice fish dude, I did not see that when I posted my last post. Must a snuck it in .

Cool to see them ...

[JIGGIN']

dude it was a zoo last weekend... and from what I have seen it is always a zoo every year so we all need to get used to it. The reality is, all the "pressure" you see there is pretty normal. Just put back the fish you don't need to fry up. Take 5 instead of 10 if that is all you need Fishing in the crowds on a HOTTTTTTTT (hehehehe) bite is the reality I guess..

[talltines]

was out tonight in the zoo. 6:00-10:00 caught a 13" crappie and a 10" sunfish. It was my first of both species on the pond. The first six inches or so off the bottom was covered with 1"-3" perch. Fun time but I'll go to a less busy lake for my panfish. this weekend is going to be crazy out there!

[Fisherman For a Lifetime]

I'll wait til Monday.

[fishorgolf]

Drove by this am. not nearly the amount of people out there anymore. People sitting on buckets looking very bored. I have a feeling the bite has really sloooooooowed down.

[Justin Dog]

We were out on Isle Bay yesterday and saw a TON of tiny perch. We also moved around a lot by the big group that was out there and caught one 9 1/2" sunfish and an 11 1/2" crappie. Then nothing again so we took off for home.

Lots of other people out there but they must not have been catching much as everyone was moving around constantly and some even took off after a couple of hours. I am guessing that it is slowing down for now, but my buddy and I are thinking it might pick up again in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully the ice will last that long...

[JIGGIN']

Anyone fish it here today with any sucess???

[HunterWinfield]

Should last for a bit - at least for walk outs. Last year it held out until mid-april. We heard 2 reports of large 30" northern being caught. Few crappies, but not as many - granted, there were about 50 vehicles out there yesterday. Today, I onlly count about 10 people...but, it is Easter.

[Roosterslayer05]

( Note from admin,please read forum policy before posting again,thank-you.)

[Kyle Sandberg]

I think the snow cover affected the fish. This past saturday we were out for perhc and only got a couple when a few days before when all the ice was gone we did pretty good.

[HunterWinfield]

We went out this evening and caught 12 - a few nice keepers.

[Shack]

Great to hear HWR!

I heard on a local radio show tonight, huge schools of crappie where spotted in Isle bay recently with an under water cam. It sounds like you just have to move, move and change gear to get them up the hole.

Next week or two should change that though.

Good luck…

[schr0563]

Three of us gave it a go on Friday. Drilled about 75 holes and checked a couple dozen existing ones. Similar to other posts we got one 11.75 inch crappie and a 9.5 inch sunfish. Both fish came away from the crowds. After catching these fish about 10 minutes apart we really focused in on the surrounding area but couldn't get anything more to show for it. Two fish for a combined 18 hours on the ice isn't exactly hot action but it was fun none the less. I hope to make it up one more time this year.

[ozzie]

went out on Saturday to waste some time......some being caught but majority of anglers were not catching a thing.....I hole hopped and caught 4 right at dark and released in the crowd of people...One neat thing I saw was a 40-45 inch thern nosed up to my jig and minnow...at first I thought it was small then its full head came into view and then it just slowly swam past my hole and the thing kept going and going....by far the biggest thern I have seen caught or swimming in person!!!

[fishorgolf]

Three trucks Easter morning. I guess the fish don't bite on Easter.

[DHanson]

I am a little confused as to why there are so many people going to Mille Lacs for crappie? Most of these reports I'm hearing are saying slow fishing, the fish are running small, and there is a huge crowd out there. That doesn't sound like too much fun when there are a ton of better crappie lakes with less people fishing them. I can't believe people are traveling 1-2 hours to fish crappies when they could be hitting up better lakes within the distance they are driving. I'm really starting to believe that most of the people fishing out there have been influenced to fish there because of this post, just look at the number of views. Mille Lacs has a FEW crappies, but it is a walleye lake. This just goes to show you that any lake you post on this site on a hote bite, especially crappies, people will flock there.

[Shack]

I guess it comes down to what a person wants to do. Some go to Red and get skunked, some go to L.O.W. and get skunked, but they have fun. Plus you can say “I fished Mille Lacs for crappies” no matter what bites during the trip. Just a fun and cool thing to do.

Plus, “I” think the crappies on ML are just fine and will be for years to come. They are a hard fish to find.

[ozzie]

I think people (at least I do) go to Mille Lacs to try to get a monster slab......I know I have chances on lakes around my home but the bite has been horrible and if you do get them to bite they are generally smaller...I like the idea of catching a monster slab that only has been targeted 1 or 2 months of the year.......

[danwilliams]

IMO.. this post has little or anything to do with the crowd in Isle bay. Seems like it was the same last year.....just people still havin fun..chasin the dream..

It all kinda reminds me of the time 30 some years ago I'd got my 6 nice walleye out of Mille Lacs one Saturday early morning....went out to little Elk Lake by Zimmerman and fished panfish off the north point...

Every few minutes I'd slip a walleye out on ice..Ended up drawing quite a crowd...played it straight faced all the way.....

Had people tell me about nice walleye they'd PERSONALLY seen caught on Elk ..at Buffalo House and Princeton Municipal for quite awhile after that day.....never said a word ....

Back then there were NO walleye in Elk!

Think I'll start flashing a few old pics of big crappie at Vet's Club up here......

[schr0563]

I agree with ozzie. It's all about what you're after. I'd trade limits of 14 inch fish just to get one over 16. And since I feel Mille Lacs has the potential to produce a monster, I'm willing to waste my time amongst hundreds of other people waiting for that elusive fish that may never show up.

[MOBY RICHARD*]

This thread is averaging over 700 views per day...its a good thing they are as hard to find on Mille Lacs as they are now on Red...

[Shack]

I agree with all you guys!

Big water hold big fish. Thats why I head up to ML, for that once in a life time chance at a monster. It might never happen, but I will have fun trying and thats what this site and fishing are about "fun". But it could happen!

When I went up the other week, I just wanted a change in crappie pace, even if I did not get a fish. It turned out to be a great day, even though I did not get a trophy fish.

Good post's guys and the Elk one made me laugh , I think I have heard tell tail's from your story my self.LOL

[danwilliams]

Shack...now big northerns....there were some big ones in Elk...Anderson used to own what's now Ridgewood. He had a monster on wall for years...and people used to nail the heads of big ones on walls outside garage or shed...a lot of 15 to 20# ones came out of the weeds at north end where St. Francis comes in. In dog days of August mostly in evening..

Ramblin like an old timer I am.. LOL

[talltines]

When I went to isle I went with the intention of fishing for a trophy crappie. This holds true to fishing walleye, perch, small mouth, musky, and anything I fish on milacs. Milacs has the potential to produce state records in all the species. Shackbash, I don't think you hurt the population of crappies at all, but you did fatten the wallets of a couple resorts. Milacs has many schools of crappies and definately not only in isle! I think my odds for trophy class fish on milacs surpass any lake in minnesota.

[Sandmannd]

I would agree, I don't go to ML to get a limit of fish and rarely keep anything out of it. The nice thing on that lake is that you can catch that once in a life fish. Saw the biggest eye of my life get caught up there. Can't wait to get up there more.

[Fredd]

I agree talltines. We were out the past three days and did well Saturday with the sunnies (from three to a pound to near nine inchers) Yesterday we found some nice crappies to just a little over 1 1/2 pounds. Today we were only able to find two crappies about 13 inches long, so we headed on to another lake. I would love to see what a 16 inch crappie weighs from Mille. On a side note we caught a dandy largemouth that was 19 inches long that must have weighed four pounds.....talk about a fish that filled the hole.

[mike morris]

Fished out of Isle Bay today... Not a good day. All we caught was two dinky perch. Moved around a lot, and marked quite a bit on the Vexilar, but just couldn't get anything to bite.

[schr0563]

So after giving the crappies my first real effort last weekend, there is still one question that continues to bug me. Is it better to sit and wait or search them out?

On the drive up we made our game plan to run and gun until we found fish. We assumed that we could treat the bay like any other lake where we are targeting crappies. Just keep drilling until you find them.

Our first deviation to this plan occured at the bait shop. The word there was just to fish where everyone else was. They are there for a reason.

The second change in plans came at the resort who reiterated the fact that we should just fish with everyone else. When asked about drilling until we find our own fish the response was to just use the holes that are already there. They added that there's thousands of fish down there.

Okay, so now we need to decide. Stick to our game plan and hunt them out or join the crowd. Well, we ended up starting in the group. We moved around to a couple dozen different holes and only found perch. We spent two hours doing this and didn't see a single fish caught by anybody.

With our frustration building we went back to plan A and moved away from the crowds and started drilling. After about 75 holes we finally caught a crappie, followed quickly by a nice sunfish. Thinking that we had pinpointed a productive spot we worked that surrounding area for the next hour and a half without another bite.

We had to head home around 2:30 and I took note of several houses that hadn't moved once in the entire 6 hours we were out there. This made me wonder, were these guys lucky enough to set up on fish or were they just satisfied fishing in one spot not catching a whole lot? Maybe the key is to wait the fish out?

Any thoughts?

[Shack]

Obviously the bait store and resorts know what they are doing. They want you to catch fish and come back. That’s the name of the game.

Now, I am no expert at anything at all, but I think you left right at the start of prime time. I said it earlier in this thread about a combo crappie/perch day. I also said in that post to start the day for perch and then end it with crappie. I was speaking with Paul W last weekend and he also stressed perch are an am to early afternoon fish (for the most part). Well, what do I do last weekend??? The total opposite and it back fired. My new game plan for this weekend (unless the perch bite is that good to hold me threw out the afternoon), Will be to fish for perch early am out on main lake or in eastside bays, until around 1-2pm (or until the bite slows) and then head to the southern bays for evening crappies (plus this is kind of on the way home). Just a plan, will anything happen? Who knows, but I will have fun doing it.

In some weird way of thinking in our human minds, a positive attitude is a major factor in having a good day fishing. If you feel you have a solid “game plan” down before getting to a lake, I feel it should be played out. Driving up to the big pond, getting out of the truck and having the deer in the head lights look happens to many. It can be a little intimidating, but stick to the game plan, bring in the advice of the locals and learn for your next trip what to do better.

Good luck..

[Shack]

 Originally Posted By: talltines

When I went to isle I went with the intention of fishing for a trophy crappie. This holds true to fishing walleye, perch, small mouth, musky, and anything I fish on milacs. Milacs has the potential to produce state records in all the species. Shackbash, I don't think you hurt the population of crappies at all, but you did fatten the wallets of a couple resorts. Milacs has many schools of crappies and definately not only in isle! I think my odds for trophy class fish on milacs surpass any lake in minnesota.

I Agree also. Good post