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They're biting!


Stick in Mud

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Good news you guys got them on Saturday....I didn't even mark a fish.  Sometimes they're there, sometimes not, I suppose.  

 

Thanks for the reports, guys. I won't be up until later this week, but I'll make sure to post any reports or updates as soon as I can.  

 

 

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Was out in Wahkon bay Saturday.  I had the family with and with the ice reports it was my only option to bring our wheelhouse.  It was about as I expected...Kids caught a bunch of tiny perch throughout the day but no eyes.  Did end up with a few fish over night, biggest being a nice 25".  

 

Nothing beats spending time in a small area like that with my kids.  Don't get the chance to unplug that much with them.  Going to head back up this weekend out of Mac's twin bay.  New to this end of the lake but we'll see what happens.  Good luck all!

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Did the lake get any snow in the last few days or just rain?

 

Only have a sled and not sure if its bare ice or enough snow to run on?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

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When we came off the lake this past Monday night, there was finally enough snow on the lake to keep the sleds cool.  It was blowing pretty hard and I'm not if it changed to rain sleet after we left the lake around 7 p.m. There was plenty of snow when we left.

 

 

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How is it looking for being able to drive out to the flats from the north end? My wheeler is down and I have no snowmobile.

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I'll be up there tomorrow on Garrison Reef with a few pounds of propane and a few IPAs. It's gonna be cold fishing from noon until 8pm. Time to relax before school begins on Monday. 

 

My New Years Day trip on the far north side was quite confusing. Pounded at least 50 holes in 4 different spots and went about 5 hours and a mile worth of dragging before marking a fish. Then 3pm rolled around and all hell broke loose. I couldn't keep up with them. Forget about keeping two lines down. It was like an army of barely-under-slot walleyes moved in for about 90 minutes. I don't know if I found them through hard work or if they found me by coincidence. 

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18 hours ago, Fisherman45 said:

How is it looking for being able to drive out to the flats from the north end? My wheeler is down and I have no snowmobile.

 

I am wondering the same thing. I am heading there the weekend of the 14th and wondering if I can just drive my Jeep out to the flats from the North end or if I have to bring my wheeler with.

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7 hours ago, BassThumb. said:

I'll be up there tomorrow on Garrison Reef with a few pounds of propane and a few IPAs. It's gonna be cold fishing from noon until 8pm. Time to relax before school begins on Monday. 

 

My New Years Day trip on the far north side was quite confusing. Pounded at least 50 holes in 4 different spots and went about 5 hours and a mile worth of dragging before marking a fish. Then 3pm rolled around and all hell broke loose. I couldn't keep up with them. Forget about keeping two lines down. It was like an army of barely-under-slot walleyes moved in for about 90 minutes. I don't know if I found them through hard work or if they found me by coincidence. 

I was out last Thursday (windy, windy and windy) and ran into the same thing starting about 4:45pm.

Caught 8 and missed two in about an hour. Smallest was 14.5' and biggest was 18".

I did catch about 50 perch from 8am-4pm though - kept 9 over 10"

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I was out today, and I drove out. The ice is thick, but be mindful of the cracks and heaves. Lots of half-ton trucks and a pretty steady train of wheelhouses coming out.

 

Fishing was poor, but that's no surprise given the 50-degree drop in temperature over the last week. 1 fish in 5 hours. Actually, only 1 mark that was likely a walleye. It was my best walleye through the ice, 27" and obese. Nailed a plus-sized shiner, pulling my bobber underwater so fast it made a sound. Totally worth the trip.

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I went out on the east side a little south of doe island.  Started the morning in 16 fow with 4 walleye and a few misses before 10 am.  Moved out to 23 fow and only 1 walleye and a small perch by 4:45 pm.  Caught them on red hook and fat head or a perch colored jigging wrap tipped with a head.  15 to 20 inches of ice.  The fish were 11, 2 (16), 2 (17.5).  Put the camera down and it looked like every rock was covered with zebra muscles but I could be mistaking.  They were definitely covered with something though.

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Tale of two nights for us.  Last night  with 2 guys we got almost 20.  Tonight, with three guys fishing, we got only 6. Same exact spot.  Biggest at 26''.  No keepers. 

 

 

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So I started my Saturday out on Sherman's on the edge of one of the fingers in 27ft. Was not fast and furious by any means but I was marking fish and end up catching 4. Left for the south end on sled and hit the deep gravel around 2:30ish.

Had a couple friends who were out on the gravel, and when I got there they were in the mosh pit of houses on top of a hump so I set up about 50 yards away from anyone in 30-32 ft, I needless to say had a great afternoon while the others struggled to catch any fish.........IMO pays to keep away from the crowds.

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Fished the east side between Big Point and Shaw's Reef Friday afternoon through Saturday night. We base camped and then moved around in the portable. Caught 1 waldo on Friday afternoon. Nothing else until a flurry of 4 on Saturday starting at sunset on the side of a reef in 13'. Missed 3 more within the same 60 minutes. All fish were 12-19.5".  My buddy that was actively jigging a shiner with a rainbow macho minnow had more action than the other three of us combined.  We had 15-17" of ice but there were a few cracks going (big point & towards two mile).  Had a visit from the local CO. They are knocking on the door before the sled is off. No issues. He had the same 'slow' report as the bait shop and resort. 

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Fished Friday afternoon and evening on the first break in the northwest corner. 2 of us caught 10 walleye. 1-27in, 2-25in, and others between 15 and 21. Overall a good night. Saturday on the other hand was not so good. Moved around a bit, caught 1 during day just off Garrison Reef. Spent the Saturday night on the ice. Slow evening, small flurry about midnight, 3 15-17in walleye and a pout just to make things interesting. Sunday morning at sunup caught a  couple including another 27in. Headed to south end gravel late Sunday morning and afternoon. Slow with 2 fish. Overall slow with some action and nice fish to break it up. Still better than sitting at home.

 

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Great reports, guys.

 

Our night on Saturday was pretty slow, too.  We did have steady-ish action after dark, with about a fish per hour on average through about 1:00 a.m., when it shut down until a rattle reel woke us up at about 7:30.   We had our best luck on big shiners last weekend. 

 

I'll be back up tomorrow.  Wish me luck. :)

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Got up to the house a little late yesterday...the roads on the way up were pretty bad, with multiple cars in the ditch.  We didn't get fishing until almost 4:00, and ended up getting seven before going to bed.  Big shiners seemed to be the ticket on the rattle reels.

 

Overnight, a miracle happened....we caught a rock bass!  I cannot remember catching one through the ice on this lake, so I think it's a first for me.  One walleye and two eel pout were the other rattles we heard. 

 

Sunrise was skunk city.  Nary a bite or even a mark on the Vex. 

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Hello guys.  What time have the fish started become active / biting in the morning, from what guys have seen so far this winter? 

 

Just wondering how much of a difference it makes if a guy is out there and set up before first light.  

 

Probably heading out on Saturday.  Sounds like shiners have produced the best from most of the reports.  

 

 

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My son and I were up Wednesday afternoon and fished the deep gravel on the south in about 28ft and caught 3 (finally 1 slot fish) missed a couple but did not mark many fish, it was slow.

 

Was back up yesterday and started out on the mud, tried a few spots along the edges and only marked 6 or so fish with not bites. My fingers are sore from changing lures and minnows(rainbows).

 

Moved back to the deep gravel around 1:30 and sat till 6:00 with 7 fish caught but I marked tons of fish and again getting bit was a chore, they did not like one thing over another or jigging vs dead sticking, It was frustrating because they would come up hard off the bottom and just would not finish.

 

Either way it was an absolutely beautiful day on the ice regardless of catching fish or not.

 

Good luck fishing!

 

 

 

Edited by STMA_I_HUNTER
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On ‎1‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 11:23 AM, Beaver15 said:

Hello guys.  What time have the fish started become active / biting in the morning, from what guys have seen so far this winter? 

 

Just wondering how much of a difference it makes if a guy is out there and set up before first light.  

 

Probably heading out on Saturday.  Sounds like shiners have produced the best from most of the reports.  

 

 

Tough to say, as it'll change from day to day, but generally speaking I usually start fishing about an hour before sunrise until an hour or so afterwards. 

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Dad and I fished this past Saturday and Sunday with portables and saying the fishing was slow would be an understatement. Between the 2 days we hit the mud flats pretty hard and stayed very mobile. Didn't even set up a house during the day because it was so nice out. We fished the mudflats from East Flat down to Blue Jug, over to 8 Mile and back up to Matton Flat. The day bite was very tough, we would mark fish but they wouldn't want much to do with it. We picked up 3 eyes Saturday morning with the biggest being 17" then picked up only 3 more during the day. They only seemed to hit our dead sticks with a shiner on it. We used mainly VMC gold perch tingler spoons and flutter spoons without much luck jigging. On Saturday night we had a sleeper rented from Twin Pines Resort and our house was in 20'. We had 6 bites throughout the night with a bigger fish breaking off and a couple smaller ones being caught. We really had to give them a lot of time to inhale the shiner. On Sunday we went back out to the Mud Flats with little confidence and the fishing was pretty slow again. Didn't hear many good reports from this weekend, not sure if it was the warm weather along with the pressure system or what.

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Fished Mille Lacs for the first time in a few years.  Went out of the east side and set up in about 27'.  Caught about 50 walleyes Friday and Saturday in my house.  Missed a ton more.  Biggest was 24", average 16-17".  Can't believe all the houses on the lake!  We had a group of 12 in 3 houses.  I think my house did the best, but there were plenty caught in the other two.    

 

My cousin stayed and fished Sunday night.  He got away from the groups and set up in 37' and caught 16 walleyes from 6pm until this morning.    

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Similar report today. Marked tons of fish but only caught a half-dozen between two of us. The fish would just stare at our baits and then move on. 

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1 minute ago, BassThumb. said:

Similar report today. Marked tons of fish but only caught a half-dozen between two of us. The fish would just stare at our baits and then move on. 

Friday night until about 9:00 they were aggressive as heck, and jigging worked very well.  It seemed like after that they didn't want much to do with jigging, and the set lines were key.    

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1 hour ago, Lip_Ripper Guy said:

Friday night until about 9:00 they were aggressive as heck, and jigging worked very well.  It seemed like after that they didn't want much to do with jigging, and the set lines were key.    

 

Most of our fish came on minnows under bobbers. I spooked countless fish with even subtle jigging. 

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Things have become pretty hit or miss for my house out there.  I fished last week from Tuesday through Sunday; alas, school started yesterday so it's back to the real world for now.  During afternoon primetime, I caught between zero fish (yes, I got skunked one night) and 12.  Daybite was very tough (mainly because I quit fishing and either went hiking over at Kathio, tip-up fishing in the bays, or went down and looked at guns at Boone's), but the reports I heard from those fishing hard during the day made that decision fairly easy.  

 

The overnight bite was pretty steady, with multiple fish each night coming on the rattle reels.  I pulled the lines twice because I got sick of catching 15-17'' walleyes. 

 

Sunrise was also hit or miss. 

 

All in all, it's not early ice anymore, that's for sure.  I'm still fishing fairly shallow, and it might be time to move the house.  Biggest fish all weekend was just under 28''.  I still have only one keeper in my current location despite catching well over 100 walleyes there in the last few weeks.  The last week or so was pretty strange...at least two nights either me or my friend caught more than 10 fish while the other guy, fishing less than 15 yards away, caught very few.  Why the fish can be loaded in one spot and non-existent a few feet away, and then switch the next night so the "hot" house goes cold, is a mystery to this fisherman. Maybe they swim counter-clockwise around the lake one night and then turn around and swim clockwise the next? :)  

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Stick in mud, any sightings of perch in your area at all this winter?  Just curious, if there are any year classes making it to adulthood.

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Had a wheelhouse rented out of Isle Saturday through Monday AM.  Went several places in search of shiners, they were hard to come by, so had a mix of suckers, rainbows and fatheads.

 

Was set up in 28' of water. 3 eye's total (2 in the 16" range and a 21.5").  Two came on rattle reel with a rainbow and plain hook, the other came on a bobber - same set-up.  Caught a few perch jigging.  

 

Everything came on a whole minnow.  Nothing on heads, maggots, waxies etc.

 

Popped a bunch of holes in shallower water and got nothing on tip-ups or hole hopping.  Planned to go east of The Graveyard, but I thought I should get home before the ice storm hit. 

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On 1/17/2017 at 1:11 PM, ANYFISH2 said:

Stick in mud, any sightings of perch in your area at all this winter?  Just curious, if there are any year classes making it to adulthood.

Sadly, no.  I've only heard of one being caught, too.  I suspect the lack of perch is part of the reason why the fish are biting so well.  I have seen TONS of perch in the southern bays, though, while tip-up fishing for pike and 'eyes, so there are some around.  Just haven't seen any up by Garrison. 

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Head to Isle Bay and you will find more perch than you could ever hope for. Granted about 95% of them are all about 4-6 inches.

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