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2020 Mille Lacs Lake Fishing Reports


Rick

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Hey Paul looking to head out or your place tomorrow...

Where would you suggest starting in the morning and then where should a guy move in the afternoon looking for the evening bite? Staying on your plowed roads... Bringing the ATV and otter.

ALL-IN

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The Perch bite remains very consistent during the day. 14-18 feet of water, fatheads and a plain hook suspended below a bobber or on a rattle wheel have been taking many of them.

Walleye bite is still sporadic, the best results are coming from those that are fishing water deeper than 28 feet.

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Paul, my brother and I will be up for the weekend and plan to come visit. We'll be hitting the ice early on Thursday morning. What time do you open for road passes?

Thanks!

Chris

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Went out of Appledorns Yesterday Wed 12/30. Started at 4 mile in 30 FOW. Nothing. Did not c a fish with the camera. Stayed there jigging for an hour and a half and left. Went over to Shaws and set up in 18 Fow. Son caught a 10 1/2" perch on first "cast". We thought "jackpot" . It would turn out to be our biggest. Caught about 40 perch total. Missed plenty ! Euros on small jigging spoons. Kind of limited to where we could go with a dodge caravan.Kid got a 24" pike just after dark. Yes it was released. Road conditions are great. 14-16 " beautiful hard clear ice! Never saw anything but perch on cam. U can see lure on bottom in 18 fow without cam! Great day even tho we only kept 4 perch. B back soon ! For those coming up the East side Pats bait and the cafe r closed. BP has bait but were out. Dar Vi cafe across the street opens at 6:30 during week. Sorry about the book. Good Luck!

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Hope the bite contines,

Leaving for Appeldoorns in alittle bit.

Looking to keep the wife and daughter on some action.

Have a safe and Happy New Year everyone!

Mark

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The cold front has really pushed the fish out into deeper water. The shallow water Perch bite that we had going has really died out. Best bite is now in 27-31 feet of water off of Doe Island Reef out in the sand.

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We were out in 29 FOW today and caught 11 jumbos that were over 11"+. Bite was very slow and also very picky.

Traveled to Hennepin for walleyes in 17 FOW and marked nothing

Thanks for all your help Paul!

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My small group is heading up friday am and staying on the ice through the weekend. We are going through Lybacks. Is there a night bite at all? For anything? Wouldnt mind catching a few fish while playing Gin Rummie.

Any other advice would be great. Just looking for action and enough of perch or walleye for a fish fry.

Thanks Scott

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My brother and I did well this morning out of Appeldoorn's, nearly a 2 person limit of walleyes. We fished in 28-30 FOW and found the best bite from 8-8:30am. Narrow window, but they are agressive in this time. Red glow was the ticket for us. If you want to get out and catch some fish, come see Paul @ Appeldoorns, he'll be sure you have a good trip!

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fished the mud flats earlier this week (tuesday) from 8am-7pm and only caught one 16" walleye at about 4:30pm. right away in the morning i had a 25" walleye to the hole but she got off than a couple minutes later had a 17" walleye to the hole and lost that too! it was the first day of the cold snap so the fish were very inactive. marked a ton of fish but couldn't get them to bite. tried everything and no one around us was having much luck either. I'll be up there again soon though!

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I'll give my report from Tuesday as well. Was on the flats from 11-5 ended up with a limit of 14-17 inchers. Caught a total of 15 fish. All released were little guys. No big ones which I wasnt expecting. One word of advice I found from that day. Drop your spoon right on the bottom when you see them down there and slowly bring it up. Im talking right on the bottom. I had several lookers throughout the day that wouldnt take it a foot of the bottom but once it was on the bottom and I would start to bring it up they would nail it. Took me half the day to figure it out but once I did it wasnt any trouble iceing them. Also had at least 6 get off right under the hole from a bobber and plain hook, just didnt want to run real good with it.. Looking forward to the middle of the week to get up there again.

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My son and 2 buddies took my portable up tonight. He called for directions to Appledorns. I don't know how long they will last in portable with -20 forecast. Will post report in A.M.

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My son and 2 buddies took my portable up tonight. He called for directions to Appledorns. I don't know how long they will last in portable with -20 forecast. Will post report in A.M.

Not sure how the fish will be biting with -20 degrees... Usually shuts em down pretty good. Maybe a nice prayer will rain some luck on them.

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Thats funny how every claims the cold weather shuts them down. I usually have some of my best days of the winter on the extreme cold days. You just have to be a bit more patient and fish slower, dead stick it.

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I never catch fish when its this cold. Part of my problem has been that during the night whil i am sleeping the holes allways froze up in my permanent and a whale could not have pulled the bobber thru the frozen ice.

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They got nothing. Moved once. Talked to somebody in a perm that had just gotten a 12" eye. I tried to talk them into going during the day today but they would have none of it. They listened to me as well as I listened to my Dad. Lol. At least they would have been able to see fish with camera during the day. Oh well, at least they gave it a shot. Sure is hard to tell if they are biting when I am sitting home on the computer !

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Fished w of Doe island yesterday from 10am till 3pm. kept 7 very nice perch (up to 12.5"). Marked lots of fish but most were just looking. Moved in to 16'on the rocks a fished till 6pm. Didn't mark a fish there. Figured out why why the portable felt so cold, the truck thermometer was reading -12°. About 7" of hard packed snow on the ice on top of 15" of good ice. A great way to spend a few hours solving the world's problems. Thanks Paul from Appledorns for pointing us in the right direction.

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-22 this morning....I'm sure the fish are still biting, but since we didn't plug the truck in this morning it wouldn't start in time for us to hit the bite. Until next time I guess. Good luck to those out the rest of this weekend.

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Went out of Paul's on Wednesday and he did a great job of putting us on fish. Came out with 8 very nice perch and a lot of throw backs. Fished 28 fow. As far as the cold and the bite...the fish dont feel the cold. What I think effects them is the rising barometer and the high pressure. I have seen them shut down in those conditions all too many times.

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i went to bed bout 1 last nite it said 28 below on my deck

i was right where i should be lol

you hafta be on the ball when you are out in the kinda cold

if you are going to have trouble that when its going to happen

been there done that....lol

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went out of hunters today, fished the edge of three mile 25 feet for four hours to no avail, moved in shallower, 13 feet, poped one right away, thought the bite was on, no! that was it, moved a bunch more, moved out to the mud, then decided it was just to cold to keep moving, so we cut our losses and headed home. this was the worst fishing day iv'e ever had on mille lacs, i'll be back, and the fishing will be better, and maybe it will be warmer than -25 to start with a high of -5, cccooolllddd.

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The cold and high pressure have really made the bite tough over the last two days. A few diehards are still scratching out a few fish here and there but for most it has been a very tough bite.

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Just got back from an overnighter at Appeldoorns. Great thanks to Paul for putting us on fish. We came home with 5 jumbos (which is a good day for us). Also he helped us out with our flat tires. Awesome guy. Glad we decided to give Appeldoorns a try this year.

Fish hit on orange and green spoons as well as gold gens bugs. If they wouldn't take the spoon we dropped a small jig with euros. Minnow heads worked well too. One thing that worked well was to drop a depth finder weight down and pound the bottom for a minute to try and call them in.

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Broman I think it was you that jumped my buddies truck...If so we both thankyou!

Yep, that was me. Just paying it forward.

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Was out of Castaways in 18 feet of water overnight last night, no luck at all. If it was the weather or the depth, they were not there.

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Yesterday saw some nice "keeper Perch" coming off the tops of Rock piles in 17-19 fow. We also had a fairly decent run of Walleye's last night out of those houses.

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Well I hope the bite picks up. It dont sound to promising. Perch are a bonus for us. We hope to get into a few walleyes. We are going out of the Southeast side of the lake this coming Friday and Saturday night and staying on the ice. I see that the temperature is suppose to pick up a bit starting Thursday and through the weekend. Maybe this will trigger a better bite. Do you guys prefer crappie minnows for those perch? Ive never fished Mille Lacs through the ice before. Do you prefer fatheads over shiners? Im thinking of bringing just crappie minnows and fatheads.

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We went out of one of Appledorn's houses for 12 hours last night on the rocks and caught a perch right away and also a Buzz Stick we managed to fish out with the camera. Didn't mark anything all night otherwise in 9 feet of water.

Had a good time and that is all that matters.

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Do you prefer fatheads over shiners? Im thinking of bringing just crappie minnows and fatheads.

We were using crappie minnows.

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