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2020 Mille Lacs Lake Fishing Reports


Rick

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what blade sizes are you guys using? I have always run #2's at 1.5 to 1.8 mph. My usual setups have been tough for me on spinners this year.

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The wind was brutal on Saturday. 2'-3' rollers and had several crash over the bow. The bite was pretty slow. The guys we talked to said the bite was better in the morning and then slowed down in the afternoon. We started at about 2:00 pm and fished until sunset. 2 - 10", 1 - 20 1/2" and several perch. We fished Shermans, 8 mile and then ran down to 4 and 5 mile and finished up on Indian. Most of the fish were holding off of the structure in most locations in about 32 - 35 fow.

So the forecast is calling for rain and scattered t-storms for just about everyday for the next 10 days. Is it worth a guys time to go out or should we wait for some stable weather? Seems like no matter how well I plan, the weather changes for the worse and shuts things down. I know cold fronts and high pressure can shut things down, but what else should a guy be looking at weather wise?

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We were there last Fri. winds around 20 and light rain. We caught fish, but they were on top of the flats.

Sounds like only 20% of rain. I hope to get up there Fri. or Sat. If that makes any difference to you. Temps are suppose to stay consistant. The rain is suppose to be scattered, not a wash out.

If I were you , I would go, just watch for the wind.

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eyewarrior is right on, my boat has been doing the same thing. #5 and #7 raps with around 3 - 3 1/2 colors of lead. Spinners that have produced the best for my boat is a silver blade with chart and blue beads, with orange and chart colors running a close 2nd. We generallly run 3 ways with 3 oz sinkers just above the mud. Like rodmaker said I have seen the same thing about dragging the mud sometimes it causes a little disturbance that will get a walleyes curiosity and they bite sometimes it seems to spook them. I am sure many people have different ideas on these, but go with what works. I have watched on camera when a walleye won't touch a bait, then I will drop it on the bottom and cause some silt to toss up and the walleye will turn on a dime and hit my bait.

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Spinners that have produced the best for my boat is a silver blade with chart and blue beads, with orange and chart colors running a close 2nd.

Pat,

Are you mixing up the chart. and blue beads on the same rig or do you mean a rig with chart beads is working as well as one with blue beads?

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Can't speak for Pat, but I have been mixing chart/blue beads with a hammered copper blade #3 aund and doing well.

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RM.....how many beads are you typically running on your setups. 5-6 below the blade and a couple above? Less than that?

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I put one bead above the clevis. Then put the clevis/spinner on the line. It all depends how big your beads are. What you want to do is put enough beads on until the bottom of the spinner just touchs the eye of the hook.

If I'm using two bead colors, I'll alternate colors when I put them on.

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Thanks rodmaker, that's what I was looking for. Heading up tomorrow so I'll try and post when I get home.

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Good luck. Size 3 blade. hammered copper, silver, or gold are working grin blue/chart beads

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I have been using a chartuse float with blue beads below the spinner and a couple in front. Mix in the perch colors as well the orange and green colors have been producing as well.

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Last Fri, we caught 7 on crawlers, and 4 on leeches, bring both. If there are going to be two or three in the boat have some of each out, same with blade color. Let the Eyes tell you what they want.

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hey rod

We are heading up tomorrow morning, any suggestion on what side of the lake to try?

Thanks in advance

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I just looked at the forcast for tomorrow. Wind N 6mph. I would hit the mud. Start on blue Jug, boot, big flat(fischer's), keep moving from flat to flat. Shermans is also worth checking out.

Have spinners crawlers & ledches, and cranks. Start on the top of the flats.

I know it doesn't narrow things down too much, but it's a good starting point.

How big of a boat do you have??

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Thank you for the info!

Lund Pro-V SE 17.6'

Plenty big for some 3' rollers.

We are heading up for my bachelor party, if you would rather not post on here, my email is:

[email protected]

Thanks!!

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I haven't been using floats. But Pat mentioned he was.

The snells for spinners I have been using are 7 1/2 - 8 ft.

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I haven't been using floats. But Pat mentioned he was.

The snells for spinners I have been using are 7 1/2 - 8 ft.

Thanks Rod, Sorry I didn't read far enough back on this thread. I'm heading up tomorrow for the day. The few time I've been to Mille I've never tried spinners. My luck in the past has always been a jumbo below a slip bobber or drifting a 6 foot snell with an orange or red hook with a jumbo. Are you using a trailer hook with your crawlers. I've heard some other reports that people are doing well with rainbows. I think we're going to try a little bit of everything. I'll post when I return.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

I spend yesterday on Mille Lacs with Harvey Lee and let me start of by saying what a gorgeous day it was with light winds, warm temps and filtered sun. We hit the water at about 8:30 am at the Garrison public access and motored out to one of the many flats within a 10 minute boat ride from this access.

We decided to start out pulling spinners and I chose to use a 3 oz bottom bouncer to fish vertically holding the weight 1-2 ft off bottom with a crawler harness. Harvey Lee used a ½ oz no snag with his spinner rig fishing away from the boat. Both of us started with crawlers. After about 10 minutes the first 15” eye was in the boat on the bouncer rig. We kept working the top of the flat with little success until we returned to the general area were we caught the first fish and then the bouncer rig now in the rod holder doubled over and I landed this nice fat 27” eye.

DSC00580.jpg

I decided to switch to a gulp crawler on my harness at this point and continued to put fish in the boat. The bite died and we made the decision to try another flat. On the next flat we never had a hit on the spinner rigs so we switched to leadcore and shadraps. After about 40 minutes we popped two 14 ½ to 16 ¾ inch eyes for the livewell but again the bite died and we relocated to another flat.

Pulling leadcore we had action almost right away and popped two eyes over the slot with this Harvey Lee sticking this fat 26 inch walleye on a #5 firetiger RS shad rap. DSC00581.jpg

But after that is was nothing but little cigars and perch. So we decided to hit yet another flat. There were fish all over this flat but we could not trigger these fish catching only one little cigar, losing a couple fish and missing a few hits. We decided to hit one more flat before heading home

We picked up a couple more fish on the last flat with one going in the box and other either too big or too small. We watched another fisherman who was putting on a clinic catching walleye after walleye. It appeared he might have be using minnows and we didn’t pick any up. May have been the ticket yesterday.

We got the boat loaded up before it got dark and made the trek home. Looking back at the day it was a pretty slow bite with 5 fish over, 7 eaters(plus a bonus jumbo perch) and 10 or so little guys caught. We ran spinners at .9-1.7 mph and caught fish at all these different speeds. Trolling leadcore from 1.8-2.6 mph put fish in the boat for us. We did pick up one little cigar in no man’s land fishing 20’ down over 35 feet of water. We tried leaches for a bit but didn’t have any luck with them. Seems we’d pick up 2-3 good fish off a flat and then it was over. Kind of a weird day that way.

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Yes Borch it was a weird day but a fun and beautiful day to be on Mille Lacs.

For those who say that there are not many year classes of fish in the big pond, we must have caught at a minimum of 5-6 years classes.

The future for ML looks good.

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Thanks for the report. What depths were you cranking with leadcore? Tops/edges of the flats?

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Depended on the flat but from 22-27 ft. Most came off the top sometimes near the edge but not right on the edge,

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It's been that pattern since the 4th of July. There have not been that many Eyes caught in that 30 ++ ft of water off of the flats.(or out in "know where mans land)

Kind of strange> But that's fishing Eyes on Mille lacs

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Rodmaker, are you using the whole worm with that single hook? You also said before that you just drop the rod-tip when you feel the bite and set it. I used a trailer hook and still missed way too many! Are you missing your share as well?

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When I'm getting bit short, I will open my bail and if dropping the tip isn't enough, I will feed them a little line after I get hit and then set the hook. This does help with my hooking percentage.

I use a crawler harness with a whole worm but I don't let the tail of the worm past the last hook too much.

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