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2020 Mille Lacs Lake Fishing Reports


Rick

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Wow that cooled down fast! Hopefully it stays in the upper 40's until the weekend. That temp could definitely shut down the smallie bite.

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We fished it Saturday hard. Started on rock reef. Long lindy minnows. Started popping smallies. Big ones. Then got a couple eyes in with them. We had shiners and rainbows. We used our big minnows fast. They want big minnows. Finding big shiners is a problem at the bait store. Then we went out to the mud and graphed. Found 1 flat that held a few fish. Lost 1 there and couldn't stay on em. Then worked the east side trolling cranks after dark. 1 eye. By far would be finding fish on the rocks with big baits if ya can get em. And sit on an area where you find fish. Long lindy or bobber. That's the only area we felt it was productive. Plus we saw clouds of bait in this region.

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Just a note. The smallies were footballs full of bait. And the walleyes were thick. Eating well. These fish were hanging around clouds of bait fish.

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I was up there Thursday - Sunday. Temps on Thursday were 54 on the north end. On Sunday I had 49 on the north end when my boat off shore. When you got really shallow close to the bank, like 0-3 ft, it dropped to 45-50.

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I'm glad I didn't read these posts before I fished last weekend, although I admit I didn't have high expectations.

Friday we only had 2 fish by 11:30pm when I was about to give up. Then I decided to try real shallow and did fairly well. We ended up with 16 walleyes ... 3 unders, 3 in the slot and the rest were over. Biggest was 27" & 28.25". (3 guys).

Saturday I thought we would do well again since we found fish the night before and conditions seemed to be a little better. We limited, but had to work hard ... only caught 5 total, including 4 in the slot and another 26". (2 guys) 2 of the slot fish had orange tags.

All the fish were well fed and fat, even the smaller throwbacks were noticeably plump. I was especially surprised to find all but one of the filleted fish to be full of eggs or milt tubes. I have never seen that this time of year ... perhaps these fish never spawned this past Spring?

Overall the best depth was 2-6 feet (hardly caught anything deeper), best time was 11:30pm-2:00am; shallow weed lines/mud were better than rocks, although we did pick up some on the rocks. Shads were better than minnow baits. Fished the west side near Garrison.

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bassfshin24, did you have any luck last weekend on the smallies? I was going to get the boat out one last time before the ice fishing gear comes out. 2 hour trip to the pond for me so I would like to have a little confidence that there may still be a smallie bite.

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Made it out about a week ago. Water temp was about 48. We were on the wind swept side and on a couple spots where I have done well in the past and we didn't catch a fish! My friend had one get off and that was it. I was really surprised.

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I caught 3 in 4 hours. I think you could still get them to bite. I think if I would have had all weekend I could have found them schooled up.

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Buddy and I were planning on heading up for some night fishing tonight but I'm seeing SSE winds of 20-30mph. We typically pull cranks in shallow in/around Garrison and do fairly well (last couple years), however haven't been up this year yet.

With SSE winds over the last day or two, I'm guessing the rollers will be rockin' Garrison. Did anyone venture out in the last night or two in similar conditions? Think the south side would be more manageable and still productive? We've never night fished the S/SE side..

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I have never had a great night bite on Mille Lacs pulling cranks on the calm side of the lake. Yes,you can catch fish on the s/se side of the lake.

workin'

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  • 2 weeks later...

went out saturday to fish a smallie spot, but they wouldn't bite in the 36 water temps. caught 2 walleyes on a break 17' lindy rigging. both in the slot.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I fished out of Hunter's Point Saturday. It was tough going with the ATV and chains, the snow is deep. A snowmobile would be great. There was 7-8" of ice with some slush closer to shore. I went out near Liberty 2 mile. Fishing was very slow. Marked a lot of fish but they were not in the mood to bite.

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Same here marked lots of fish the other day but no takers except for one nice eater pike. At least the -19 temperature in the morning made me feel alive crazy

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We just got back and had the same report as everyone else. Fished 3 mile out of hunters, marked alot of fish but didnt catch a thing. As for lake travel, i would say sleds only. I probably took 3 years of life off my wheeler getting out there and its a pretty big machine, it was just way too rough. We found from 8-10 inches of ice, but only drilled in a fairly small area.

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I haven't yet been on the Pond yet this year, but my dad's been out there and a few friends have been, too.

Their reports sound like everyone else's: Lots of lookers and few biters. The ones they are catching are just like the ones last fall...super fat and healthy. They're also seeing lots of small perch on the cameras and the flasher, which might go a long way towards explaining why 1) the fish are fat, and 2) they're not biting as much as they have in years past.

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Ice in Isle Bay is good - fishing has been a little tough but seems some are catching perch in deeper water. Roads are out 2 miles and 1/2 vehicles or less are allowed. You can also hoof it from the city park. We just heard from some that snowmobiled from the access and you will find yourself in a lot of slush so we don't recommend that. One sled was stuck today for quite some time - same story for ATVs.

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  • 2 weeks later...

yep. would have to agree. lots of small perch all the camera. any eyes on the screen were not interested. has anyone been able to find and/or use shiners?

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Went out of Barnacles with the wheelhouse yesterday afternoon. We could only go about 1/2 mile out and had to set in 18 fow. Got one pout in the middle of the night....that's it. Tried taking the sled out to a flat a couple miles away this morning and about half way there, we hit slush. This stuff is bad. We almost got stuck but made it to a frozen spot. The water under the snow is almost knee deep and a complete nightmare. At that point we made the executive decision to turn around and wave the white flag.

I've been fishing ML for 30 years and can't recall any time things being this bad. I also can't recall ever going up and being skunked. I can't even imagine what we would've done had we got stuck.

There are very few folks fishing. I'm afraid this season may be in jeopardy. I wish all the resorts the best but it just isn't worth going up there for now IMO.

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Have not fished the pond this year but drove by the west side today. Don't think I saw a house out more then a quarter mile, what a mess

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Haven't been up this year sounds like lakes a mess? I wanted to try rent a house for col days and take my daughter should I make other plans, any place on the lake I should try? Any other lakes that rent houses other than driving all way up to LOW.

Thanks

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Brandts on the south side of the lake is pulling out their rentals and customer houses, they are also allowing any vehicle traffic pulling wheelhouses, Appledorns is pulling rentals out, Lybacks, and a couple other places on the south east side have roads going out, conditions are improving with this cold snap and the resorts are working their butts off right now trying to get houses out and roads plowed, Brandts maybe out as far as sloppy Joe's this next weekend. All is not lost yet, this is about the same time last year that things started going on Mille Lacs!

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Great info! Any recommendations on a place I have had pretty poor luck ice fishing on out there. (I know result not as good if your not moving but be nice get a few deep my daughter happy).

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  • 2 weeks later...

The family and I had our first full weekend on the ice. We caught 1 walleye 12", 1 26" and 8 misses. Plain hook with a fathead was best. All the bites were at night with half coming on tip ups. We are on the east side, solid rock in 19-20 fow. Bottom is clearly visible during the day, even when it's cloudy.

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Bottom is clearly visible during the day, even when it's cloudy.

Yeah, it's amazing how clear the water is out there this year. We were also in 19', and we were sight fishing. I bet you could sightfish on the flats this year.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

Anything or any body making it out by Sprit Isle yet?

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  • The title was changed to 2020 Mille Lacs Lake Fishing Reports

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