mille lacs 2020 Mille Lacs Lake Fishing Reports

[rodmaker]

Have you ever tried hammered copper blade, and then chart/blue beads??? Works well

[GravelBar]

I'll have to give that a try. I normally use a hammered gold blade then 1 red bead and 3 chartrues beads.

[hhguide]

I was up fishing Mille Lacs for the first time in my life and went into Terry's and enough said he gave me the spinner and he gave me and bait and told me to go out to the mud and go around 1 to 1.3 MPH and you catch the Blank out of them. So I took my silver rig he gave me and my rainbow minnows and went out not expecting to catch much. But I was proved wrong and fished all day with two people we mush have had close to 30 fish plus we caught our slots. So I would recommend going there he knows whats going on. Tell him the guy in the Red Suburban sent you and he will give you the Right rig! Good luck have fun.

[rodmaker]

Glad to hear you had a great first trip to ML.

[Fish Taco]

How's fishers rock pile doing in the evening? Or other rock piles. Heading up on Friday.

[Mike J]

When using spinners do you need to feed them line when you feel them hit, or do they usually hook up on the strike like when trolling cranks?

Also, how many beads should I be putting on to start with? I am sure like any other way you need to let the fish tell you what they want. I am just looking to see what has been working lately for starters.

Thanks.

Mike J

[rodmaker]

Mike,

When using spinnners, usually feel the strike and give them the rod tip, then set the hook. If you are missing them, then it's time to feed a little line.

The amount of beads depends on the blade size. You want the bottom of the blade to just touch the eye of the hook.

Hope this helps.

[Jayber]

I was up fishing Mille Lacs for the first time in my life and went into Terry's.........

Are you referring to Terry's up at Garrison?

[Mike J]

Thanks rodmaker. That's what I was looking for.

Mike J

[rodmaker]

Sure,

When are you going up there??

[eyewarrior]

rodmaker is dead on if fishing with a slip sinker/slip bottom bouncer. If fishing a bottom bouncer with snell tied direct just give them a little rod tip(keep a little tension on the line) as rodmaker suggested. A little trick I use when fishing with inexperienced fishermen is to put the rod in a rod holder and dont take it out until the rod has a good bend in it. When holding on to the rod I have found that novices want to set the hook as soon as they feel the strike. I fished the red door tourney this past weekend and had my rod in the rod holder most of the time and didn't miss any more fish than my experienced fishing partner holding the rod.

[rodmaker]

Good suggestion. I've done this some when trolling spinners, but not drifting with them.

When drifting spinners, I usually give them a little line, then set the hook. It always works for me.

[Mike J]

I'm going to try and make it up saturday and then possibly take a day off next week and head back up. Have to wait and see what this weather does.

I have a feeling we are going to be seeing more boat traffic up there with all of the good reports floating around.

[rodmaker]

I'm going up this Fri. I'll post results when I get back. Hard to tell about the boat traffic.;

[Where's Walter?]

Was out Sunday. Fished the deep gravel between 4&5 mile reefs in about 30 FOW. Even though it was dead calm, we caught about a dozen fish all under 18". Some were 9"-10" which is promising for next year! Both crawlers and leeches worked, going fast did not work. We ran down to Sloppy Joes and anchored up to fish with corks (can't go much slower than that!). We caught 2 25" fish and then left for the day when the wind came up and got the lake rolling.

Heard minnows were working, had none so I can't confirm that but they're worth a try.

Good luck!

[aroep]

Maybe someone already posted this, but what speed generally works the best when using spinners? Just slow enough to keep them spinning, or do you usually speed it up a little? Thanks.

[EyeGuide]

I usually run .9 - 1.1 mph.

[city slicker]

I was slowly drifting with the wind this morning off indian point pulling a spinner combo at 1.4 and hooked up with 3 over and 2 eaters with a single hook and a crawler

[Mike J]

Hey rodmaker, did you make it up to the pond yesterday? How'd you do?

[rodmaker]

Sorry this post is late. I did get up there Fri. Windy and a little rain. Winds around 20 NW.

We put in at Terry's boat harbor and fished the flats out there. We caught 11 Eyes . 5 slots, 3 over the slot, and the rest small guys. We also caught 3 big jumbos around 12".

Caught the fish on top of the flats, We caught most of the fish on crawlers on a hammered copper blade size 3, with blue/chart beads 8 ft snell.

We did catch some on leeches, plain red hook. My biggest was 20 1/2" on leech/spinner.

It was nice to fish with Cousin Bob and my two Brothers.

[LindyRigger]

Fished this morning...descent wind, picked up 2-25", 22", 19"...then the wind died down. Fished the flats, leech, plain hook and small bead...nice day to be on the pond!

[wizbang]

ya blue is the color there,white works for me,kinda funny how the color makes such a big difference...

[Pat Burch]

Fished tues, wed, thurs, sat and sunday this week. There is a Real good spinner bite going and also a could crank bait bite going. The cloudy windy days seem to be the best. Sunday was a little slower for most of the guides I talked to including my boat, but we still got fish. It was flat calm and sunny most of the day Sunday I am sure attributing to a little slow down. It is a horse a piece between cranks and spinners right now. Some days the guys pulling the cranks are out doing the guys spinner rigging and the next day it will be the other way around. If you have never run leadcore and cranks, right now is the time to experiment with it and learn a new technique that can really put fish in the boat. The tops of the flats seem to be holding the fish and they are scattered a bit so covering ground is the best way to hook em up. Speed seems to be really key and it is day to day what they want. Spinners at .8-1.1 will trigger a bite one day then the next day 1.4 will trigger a bite. Cranks 2.0 -2.3 seems to be the best.

[eyewarrior]

Crazy as it may sound but on Sat I was able to put more walleyes in the boat trolling leadcore & cranks at 2.8-3.0 rather than the usual 2.0-2.4 mph. Go figure usually around 2.0 is best even later in the season.

[Pat Burch]

Doesn't sound crazy to me at all. You got mix it up until you figure out what will trigger bites, I have had days like that as well.

[rodmaker]

are you running tail dancers???

[DREZLER]

Rodmaker if you don't mind my asking were you pulling those spinners behind 3ways or bouncers? It seems like I don't have any luck with bouncers on the mud, maybe we're dragging them or something.

[rodmaker]

When we were there last Fri. I was pulling Spinners with a 1/2 egg sinker and a 8 ft snell. (Lindy rig style). I would feel the bite, and give them the rod tip, or feed them a little line, then set the hook.

When fishing the mud: Let out line , feel the bottom, and wind up and keep in contact with the bottom. We were drifting and using two wind socks.

I don't use 3 ways. I use bottom bouncers also. You will get people weighing in on this but you can still catch Eyes dragging the mud, but use a little lighter sinker. I think the key here is just let out enough line to feel the bottom, then maybe a few feet more. I still catch alot this way, but I think you are better off feeling the bottom then winding up around a foot ot so. Last Fri , I caught more Eyes dragging. Winds were 20. I was using a 1/2 oz egg sinker. Let out line felt the bottom, then another 5 ft or so. They still hammered the spinners this way. I caught more Eyes than the other two guys in the boat who were keeping their sinker just off the bottom.

If you are trolling with your main motor, then definatly keep your sinkers off the mud. But drifting slow, or using the trolling motor, you can get away with dragging a little.

Hope this helps. Looking to get back this Fri, or Sat.

[eyewarrior]

are you running tail dancers???

#5 jointed shad raps & #7 minnow raps were working the best

[rodmaker]

Was it windy Sat????