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Smallies - Mille Lacs Lake Smallmouth Bass Fishing


Turbodog

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Good luck HellaBass. The Mille Lacs smallies can be fickle, but hopefully they're a little more predictable when you're up there. Get ready for an 18"+ average if you can get into them.

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6/11/11 was out on the west side and started with smallies and for a good hour between 2 boats 4 people we caught over 20 but the biggest was measured at 17".....good pre fishing prior to going for the walleyes. My best rig was a 1/16oz jig with a fat leech casted shallow and slowly retrieved

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Fished The Big Pond today.

Put 24 Brown and 5 green bass in the boat.

Fished the south end.

Brown were stacked on the rocks, but a little finicky. Downsizing to smaller tubes and lighter jigs was key. Caught a few on 1/16oz football heads rigged with a Keitech Swing Impact Fat 2.8 in Smoke Cinnamon that we swam through Pencil Reeds on the tops of bars.

Green were caught in Isle Bay throwing River2Sea Bully Wa 55 and 65 Frogs and Spro Dean Rojas Bronzeye 65 Frogs.

Biggest Brown 19"

Biggest Green 18"

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Fished a long day on 6-17, we wrecked them pretty good. Best 5 would have been 24-25lbs, caught over 50 fish, can't complain for a first trip. Check out Rich's Bassin' Blog for a full report

[img:left]http://images.quickblogcast.com/1886-1880/10004415_06.jpg?a=31

[img:left]http://images.quickblogcast.com/1886-1880/IMG00787_20110617_17054_5.jpg?a=95

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Nice fish Hellabass! Gotta love that lake when they're on! I went up to the pond Sunday night for me and my wife's two year anniversary! She let me bring the boat ;-) what a great woman. Only hit the lake for about 1.5 hours but caught around 5. Biggest one went 19in and around 4lbs. I had just found the fish and the wife got cold so headed in:) Oh well. Cant complain.

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Reading this post is really making me want to make the trek up to Mille Lacs to smallie fish. Currently I exclusively smallie fish the St Croix River. While it is a world class smallie fishery, I always like to try new bodies of water. River fishing is natural to me, but I'm not sure where exactly to start when targeting smallies in Mille Lacs. I've heard the southern shore is mostly rocky. Is this a good area to start? Also, is there any bays or coves where you can catch fish and escape the wind? I have a small boat for Mille Lacs standards, but would definitely monitor weather conditions before heading out. Thanks for any input!

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The South East end of Mille Lacs in Isle Bay would be your best bet. A lot of rocks in that area. A lot of rock bars marked with bouys...that would be a good place to start and if the wind picks up and is too much then head further back into Isle Bay and fish for largemouth. There are some monster largemouth in this lake as well.

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I am no expert up there, but the area in front of Cove and that area has some productive reefs, plus Cove has some smallies and largemouth in that bay

Also, there are many many ramps, so you can pick different areas based on wind, the Cedar Creek area reefs have smallies as well on the east side

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Thanks for the advice guys. I was thinking about trying Isle Bay myself. Now if this rain/wind would ever go away......

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So is this only a early season bite or does it continue into the summer?

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I will be making my first trip to Mille Lac for smallies....it will probably in mid July sometime. Our boat is on the small side for Mille Lac standards too.....I read through the previous posts and appreciate the suggestions. I will keep an eye on this post if anyone else has suggestions to add.

We will more than likely be camping....would it be best to just stick to the SE side for camping and fishing?

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Doop, camp at Father Hennepin, it's a beautiful park. Not sure if the'll close it with the state shutdown or not though.

The SE side has a ton of rock piles. They get fished pretty hard I think, but for sheer numbers of spots it's the best. Plus, Isle bay is right there and is a good option if the wind is blowing and/or the smallies aren't biting. You can fish the reeds and weed edges in Isle Bay for largies and pike.

July is a great time to fish smallies, especially if you can time it with the crayfish hatch. If you can get a few days of warm consistent weather and the crayfish are on the shallow rocks, watch out!

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Thanks Juan,

Can anyone recommend a resort that rents out boats? The two guys who were going with me who had boats have backed out...I am not cancelling! lol

My son would get such a kick out the entire experience given the fact he has yet to fish out of a boat!!!

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So is this only a early season bite or does it continue into the summer?
It only get's better as the season goes on .IMO August-early october are the best month's, the cranking bite realy heats up then.
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  • 1 month later...

Caught some nice ones today on the west side of the lake in about 14 feet of water. They sure do put up a good fight! Biggest was close to 20 inches.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Has anyone been up there in the past week chasing smallies? I think Im heading up there this weekend...just wondering how the bite has been.

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Fished smallies for the very first time on purpose this past Friday. We worked the rocks on the north end and found them between 8-15 fow. All of the smallies we caught were between 17 1/4 and 19 1/2, with the exception of one smaller fish that was about 10 inches long. We started fishing around 1:30 pm and fished all afternoon. Around 8:00 pm we switched over to target walleyes and had to really put in out time to manage 8 box fish. Came off the lake around 1:15 am. Cannot remember the last time I was in a boat for 12 hours straight. I haven't fished Mille Lacs in about 20 years, but I look forward to going back again someday. I was amazed at how many perch we caught that were beautiful as well. Only kept enought walleyes for a nice fish fry. I'm sure if we would have put in more time we could have limited out on the walleyes.

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We really did! Biggest smallies I have ever caught in my life! I never had a good fishing trip to Mille Lacs with the exception of one trip when I was in college when we went up in March and fished for Perch. I had not been there in about 20 years. I will defintely be back! Might not be until next year, but now I know why people like that lake so much.

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I almost got skunked the last time i went to mille lacs this year... it was windy and nothing was bitting.... ended up fishing in the isle bay area got lucky and hooked to small eye's and some pike action otherwise it was pretty dead when i went there probably didnt fish the right area... Need to get my hand on that lake master in order to do good on mille lacs.

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has anyone ever tried carolina rigged tubes on mille lacs? ive been hearing about a lot of nice smallies being caught in 10-15ft of water off deep rock reefs and wondering if anyone has had any success with this technique.

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Hoping to find the Brown Bass in a good mood Friday morning.

Anyone been after them lately?

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It was pretty slow for me last weekend. did get some nice ones though. Big fish came on spinnerbaits. Will be up there again this weekend!

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DT 10's and Strike King Series 5 Cranks located the fish for my dad and I.

Football jighead with a Swing Impact Fat drug on the bottom put numbers in the boat but no size, biggest was 15". Caught 4 Green Bass out on the rocks too, full of crawdads.

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Hadn't fished smallies on Mille Lacs for 3-4 years, and never on the north end of the lake, but decided to do some exploring today and ended up w/ a dozen between me and my dad. Most fish were 16-18 inches, with 2 over 20" in 3 casts (that'll be a tough one to beat, but I can't wait to try). All fish came on VMC barbarian half-moon jigs with white trigger-x grubs or pumpkin zoom grubs. Also tried fishing cranks and tubes w/ no success. The key was rolling them along as slow as possible in 8-11 feet of water (on rocks).

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Have have the smallies been doing on the south end the last few days? Still getting them in 4-12 FOW in rocky areas? What has been the best presentation recently?

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm also curious how the bass are biting on the south end. I'm heading in that direction in a week. Thanks for any input!

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   The big basin, otherwise known as Big Traverse Bay, is ice free.  Zippel Bay and Four Mile Bay are ice free as well.  Everything is shaping up nicely for the MN Fishing Opener on May 11th. With the walleye / sauger season currently closed, most anglers are targeting sturgeon and pike.  Some sturgeon anglers are fishing at the mouth of the Rainy River, but most sturgeon are targeted in Four Mile Bay or the Rainy River.  Hence, pike are the targeted species on the south shore and various bays currently.   Pike fishing this time of year is a unique opportunity, as LOW is border water with Canada, the pike season is open year round. The limit is 3 pike per day with one being able to be more than 40 inches. All fish 30 - 40 inches must be released. Back bays hold pike as they go through the various stages of the spawn.  Deadbait under a bobber, spinners, spoons and shallow diving crankbaits are all viable options.   Four Mile Bay, Bostic Bay and Zippel Bay are all small water and boats of various sizes work well. On the Rainy River...  Great news this week as we learned sturgeon will not be placed on the endangered species list by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.     The organization had to make a decision by June 30 and listing sturgeon could have ended sturgeon fishing.  Thankfully, after looking at the many success stories across the nation, including LOW and the Rainy River, sturgeon fishing and successful sturgeon management continues.   A good week sturgeon fishing on the Rainy River.  Speaking to some sturgeon aficionados, fishing will actually get even better as water temps rise.     Four Mile Bay at the mouth of the Rainy River near the Wheeler's Point Boat Ramp is still producing good numbers of fish, as are various holes along the 42 miles of navigable Rainy River from the mouth to Birchdale.   The sturgeon season continues through May 15th and resumes again July 1st.   Oct 1 - April 23, Catch and Release April 24 - May 7, Harvest Season May 8 - May 15, Catch and Release May 16 - June 30, Sturgeon Fishing Closed July 1 - Sep 30, Harvest Season If you fish during the sturgeon harvest season and you want to keep a sturgeon, you must purchase a sturgeon tag for $5 prior to fishing.    One sturgeon per calendar year (45 - 50" inclusive, or over 75"). Most sturgeon anglers are either a glob of crawlers or a combo of crawlers and frozen emerald shiners on a sturgeon rig, which is an 18" leader with a 4/0 circle hook combined with a no roll sinker.  Local bait shops have all of the gear and bait. Up at the NW Angle...  A few spots with rotten ice, but as a rule, most of the Angle is showing off open water.  In these parts, most are looking ahead to the MN Fishing Opener.  Based on late ice fishing success, it should be a good one.  
    • leech~~
      Nice fish. I moved to the Sartell area last summer and just thought it was windy like this everyday up here? 🤭
    • Rick G
      Crazy windy again today.... This is has been the norm this spring. Between the wind and the cold fronts, fishing has been more challenging for me than most years.  Panfish have been moving in and out of the shallows quite a bit. One day they are up in the slop, the next they are out relating to cabbage or the newly sprouting lilly pads.  Today eye guy and I found them in 4-5 ft of water, hanging close to any tree branches that happened to be laying in the water.  Bigger fish were liking a 1/32 head and a Bobby Garland baby shad.   Highlight of the day way this healthy 15incher
    • monstermoose78
    • monstermoose78
      As I typed that here came a hen.  IMG_7032.mov   IMG_7032.mov
    • monstermoose78
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    • monstermoose78
      Well yesterday I got a little excited and let a turkey get to close and I hit the blind!!
    • smurfy
      good......you?? living the dream..in my basement playing internet thug right now!!!!!! 🤣 working on getting the boat ready.......bought a new cheatmaster locator for the boat so working on that.   waiting for warmer weather to start my garden!!!
    • monstermoose78
      How is everyone doing? Holy moly it’s chilly this morning I stayed in bed and will hunt later today when it warms up.
    • monstermoose78
      Guys slim creek on burntside is the place to load up on smelt
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