mille lacs 2020 Mille Lacs Lake Fishing Reports

[Redlineracer12]

Is everyone catching and keeping their 10 pike?

I even tried to catch some of those slimers, trolled around cove bay for a few hours with stickbaits and couldn't buy a bite. Did see one nice one while casting in shallow but it wasn't interested.

I've been mostly targeting Smallmouth for C&R, it's been just as fun as walleye fishing and they battle very hard! Trying to lay off the walleye a bit myself, but even when I have fished for them they've been pretty tight lipped.

[Stick in Mud]

I pulled a big fat goose egg for the walleyes last night. The lake was glass, which didn't help. After marking a ton of fish and not catching one of them, I gave up and threw topwaters for smallies. At least they'll bite.

I did run into one minor glitch. Took the new dog (a lab) out into the boat for his first fishing trip. All was good until he jumped out of the boat and tried to retrieve my topwater.

[Sheephead Slayer]

I have some good nights and some not so good trips so far this season as a launch captain. But what I wanted to tell you all is that the 11 1/2 to 12 1/4 inch walleys are abundant this year. About 50 percent of all fish this year are in that size range for me anyway, I fish the SE area. So let's hope it's a sign of a Lake Mille Lacs comeback!

Kevin

[Stick in Mud]

Last night we caught eight or nine fish, with only two over 20''. This afternoon we got seven with three over 20'' and the rest under 18''. It's nice to see some small fish in the lake.

Everything was caught on leeches.

[willyfahey]

We caught fish all over the lake this weekend. From Friday night through Sunday evening, my boat netted about 35 walleyes, 5 keepers. We fished the flats and gravel in the mornings and late afternoon, rocks at night. The bugs are starting to pop up and the fish were aggressive.

[MahtowaDave]

Spent 3 days on the big lake with real decent, but not spectacular results. Overall I was very pleased with the fishing. We caught several 18 and 1/2 to 18 3/4 inch fish, which surprised the heck out of us! I even caught an 18 3/4 inch that was tagged. I turned that baby loose since we had some others to eat. All walleyes were caught sight fishing in 6-8 feet of water with a leech and a bobber on rocks while running the electric motor. We also caught several 5 lb. smallies doing the same thing. My son and I had a blast. Lake was mostly like glass all three days. We caught fish of all sizes, from 11-24.5 inches. Plenty, and I mean plenty of 10.5-15 inch walleyes out there, so we can all calm down a little about the smaller walleyes, myself included! Guy in a boat near us pulled in a 30" walleye last night, just before 9:30pm. It died during the handling of it, so he kept it. I don't think he wanted to let it go, so good for him! I've been stuck at 29 1/2 as my Mille personal best, so it was nice to finally see a 30" in person. Keep fishing weekends guys, I'll take the weekdays!

[fish_hunt_guy]

Wow awesome report Dave thanks! The fish didnt spook when you were sight fishing them in 6-8 ft of water? I know you had the electric motor but I would just think the boat would spook them being the water is so clear and as you said the water was calm like glass. We were trying to sight fish smallies in shallow water a couple weeks ago and we were scaring them off.

[MahtowaDave]

Fish_hunt_guy,

It was weird. Sometimes we would drop it right on their heads and they would bite. Other times, they would move along the rock edge quickly, then we'd back off into deeper water and cast in and down went the bobber, but only a few times did they spook off completely. It was like fishing in an aquarium, until the dreaded ripples returned. The smallies were the same story, although, several of them spooked on the 3rd day and would not give us a sniff. The first two days, it was spot them, drop it on their head and they took it. Not the way I want to fish smallmouth or walleyes to tell you the truth, but it was working, so I went with it!

[MuskieFever]

How have smallies been recently? Did todays cold front tighten them up at all?

[MuskieFever]

Just got off the water. Very slow day. Water was 58-63, yesterday's cold front must've really dropped the temp. Caught 5 on two opposite areas, 22' and 3'. Stumped after today. Smoked em two weeks ago and today was a struggle.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Fished Sherman's flat yesterday morning in the fog and did great. We caught a 18, 19, 21, 22 & a 26". We lost about 8 besides. Action died once the fog burned off.

We used Lindy rigs and fished the top and bottom edges using leeches as bait.

We tried for smallmouth after that, but had no luck. Didn't know where to go.

[MattL]

4 of us went out yesterday and spent all of our time on a couple different mud flats. My boat managed 13 all over 20" with the 4 biggest over 26". I don't know exactly what the other boat had but I think 6 or 7 also all over 20". All of the fish were caught rigging leeches along the edges of the flats in 28-34'. Things slowed when the fog burned off so we re-grouped, grabbed lunch, and found an area with less pressure. Here is my biggest fish of the day just over 27".

[fish_hunt_guy]

Great Reports guys! Looks like I gotta get out on the water.

[zanzibarro]

Tale of two halves Saturday. Went out at 9:30 am Saturday into the fog. Started out with the intention of graphing hard and rigging when we spotted fish. Looking back, based on the success we had in the afternoon, I think the mistake I made was graphing too long. Tunnel vision a little. Too much time out of the water. Just were not seeing more than a few fish here and there. Never any large pods very scattered. Caught 1 24 inch Walleye and regrouped over a cheeseburger at hunters point. From 1:30 - 7:30 caught 8 fish. Some of the fattest fish I have seen anywhere let alone Mille lacs. 28 1/4 was biggest. 21's, 23, 24's, 25, Just a ton of fun. The switch was covering ground. Spinners and crawlers moving .08 - 1.0 around the mud flats where we could find less boats/pressure. Great day overall it was pretty funny to see guys jumping off bow of boats all afternoon in the middle of the mud flats to cool down.

-Side note I still am not thrilled with DI. Trying to switch from 2D to DI whenever I see potential fish on 2D to confirm fish. The detail is weak. Sometimes I see a huge arch on 2D off bottom, switch to DI and can't even see it. When I do it's often a tiny signal. Have to squint about an inch from the screen to see anything. Even with sensitivity adjustments. Certainly could be user error or just need more time, but I don't like it. If I had to pick and could only use two settings lakemaster/gps and 2D all day.

[southender]

Tale of two halves Saturday. Went out at 9:30 am Saturday into the fog. Started out with the intention of graphing hard and rigging when we spotted fish. Looking back, based on the success we had in the afternoon, I think the mistake I made was graphing too long. Tunnel vision a little. Too much time out of the water. Just were not seeing more than a few fish here and there. Never any large pods very scattered. Caught 1 24 inch Walleye and regrouped over a cheeseburger at hunters point. From 1:30 - 7:30 caught 8 fish. Some of the fattest fish I have seen anywhere let alone Mille lacs. 28 1/4 was biggest. 21's, 23, 24's, 25, Just a ton of fun. The switch was covering ground. Spinners and crawlers moving .08 - 1.0 around the mud flats where we could find less boats/pressure. Great day overall it was pretty funny to see guys jumping off bow of boats all afternoon in the middle of the mud flats to cool down.

-Side note I still am not thrilled with DI. Trying to switch from 2D to DI whenever I see potential fish on 2D to confirm fish. The detail is weak. Sometimes I see a huge arch on 2D off bottom, switch to DI and can't even see it. When I do it's often a tiny signal. Have to squint about an inch from the screen to see anything. Even with sensitivity adjustments. Certainly could be user error or just need more time, but I don't like it. If I had to pick and could only use two settings lakemaster/gps and 2D all day.

the DI, shows structure better. Rock to gravel to mud. Not really for finding fish. The bigger ones will show up. Use it in conjunction the 2D to get the best of both. The more you use it, the more you will understand what you are looking at.

[MattL]

Down imaging takes some time to get used to and get the correct settings. It also has a much narrower cone so you are scanning a smaller area. I am always running 2d and DI simultaneously to help interpret what I am seeing on one or the other.

We did mark a ton of fish as well as schools of baitfish and clouds of bugs. Getting those fish to bite was the tough part.

[Redlineracer12]

It was crazy out there in the fog, you would see a couple boats every once in a while while working the flats, but otherwise couldn't see anything the entire time. Then the fog cleared off and you realized there were more like 20 boats out there you were sharing the flat with

[MahtowaDave]

Back from 4 more days on the big pond. Shared the fog experience on saturday as well. Fish- Smallies and Walleyes bit very well during the fog but hardly a bite after it when it cleared up. Evening bite was fair/good but not great each night. Some fish after 7pm, most after 9:15pm. Caught keepers, smaller walleyes and larger walleyes. Bigger walleyes on the flats during certain random windows of time, other times u couldnt buy a bite out there. Long lining beat spinners for us, but both took fish. The smallmouth fishing was very good if you were willing to fish like a two year old and put down all of the baits that you wanted to try out. Caught several of our largest smallmouth bass on topwater poppers and topwater prop. baits during a very humid period when the fish were surfacing between fronts. My son and I had a ball with that! Saturday was the first busy day that I have seen on the lake this year. The lake was a ghost town by Sunday. Monday was even quieter! We had plenty of action once we figured things out, but that took some time each day.

[guyonacouch]

Went out on the pond yesterday from 4:00-9:30 out of Terry's. Been really windy and rainy the last couple of days and then yesterday was much colder than a typical July 1st so the inconsistent weather made me skeptical on if we'd actually get fish. Pulled spinners and crawlers for a couple hours with only a few bites and one fish to the boat. Terry's made it sound like fishing has been decent pulling spinners lately though. Wind and rain was beating us up some out on the flats so we put the top up, dropped the anchor and bobber fished. We started in 15 feet but didn't get fish to bite until we set up in 23 feet. From 7:30-9:15, we boated 8 and missed 3-4 as well - green/chartreuse jigs and leeches seemed to be the go to color last night. 6 fish were 15-16" and 2 were 11-12".

[Stick in Mud]

Had a slow-ish night on the northwest end of the lake tonight. I was hoping that the south wind would lead to a good bite, but it was a bit too rough to move around much, and the night ban meant we had to get off the lake earlier than we'd like.

Caught three walleyes, one keeper and two small ones. All are still swimming. The bass were biting, too. All were released. Leeches under bobbers were the ticket.

[fish_hunt_guy]

Got out Thursday night and Saturday night corking in the evenings. Both nights only boated one fish both unders around 14". Also missed a few light bites. Good to see some smaller guys back in the system though! Ive also marked alot of fish both nights just not to hungry. Plenty of food in the system too im guessing which is also good to see.

[Redlineracer12]

We were lindy rigging Thursday afternoon on the flats for about 3 hours and managed one nice "keeper" fish just under 20" that we released. Went out bobber fishing at around 8:45 and caught two tiny walleyes at about 6" long. Only managed one smallmouth in about an hour of fishing for them too. Overall pretty slow for us, but at least we caught a few fish. I'll probably lay off the pond for a while now as this seems like the time of year I have a tougher time putting fish in the boat.

[guyonacouch]

Spent two more days on the water on the northwest side and had one really good day and one slow day. Bobber fished one evening in about 23 feet of water and two of us boated 20+ walleyes - about half of them were 15-17", the other half 12-14"...no bigger fish bobber fishing this time, but we were getting constant action where we were so we never considered moving... Spent the following day on the water starting at about 11:00 and caught a few on slow death rigs with crawlers running the outside edges of flats in 28-30' - a couple 15" and one 22". Didn't mark any fish on top of the flats at all, but found many right on the edges or off of the flats a couple hundred yards. High sun and light breeze made for a beautiful day on the water - my fishing partner could only fish until 4:00 so I had to get off lake early and miss what had been really good evening fishing the previous couple days.

[fish_hunt_guy]

Pulled lead yesterday and caught an eater pike, a perch, and a smallmouth. Bobber fished in the evening and caught another smallie and two walleyes 16" and 17". My partner also missed two more bites on his bobber and missed one trolling. Not a great day but not terrible.

[fish_hunt_guy]

Pulled spinners, lead, lone lined, and bobber fished friday night and saturday morning. A fat 24" walleye, two smaller walleyes, and a smallmouth and pike for the effort.

[jay83196]

2 days fishing hard we hit all our reliable flats plus areas resort suggested...only 3 12-14" walleye, 1 small smally, and a nice 10" perch. The lake sure has went to hell over last few years, this is my 3rd trip up this summer with similar or worse results. I won't be back it's waste of time and m9ney! It's too bad for the resorts I only saw 6 boats the entire time, I feel bad for the businesses up there. I fear between the Indians and the DNR the lake is doomed!

[eyeman1]

Hit up a couple of mud flats from 6-11 Saturday morning plain lindy with a leech. Ended up with 16 eyes for two of us, one fat, 26", one at 19.5", and the rest were unders. Most unders were 6-12"ers. Wasn't spectacular but it was the best action I've had this year on the pond.

[iFishStu]

Same thing for us. Out all day on Saturday; one nice 24", three 16's and a bunch of 6-12"-ers. Plain hooks, either leeches or 1/2 crawlers on a death roll hook. All were on the lower edges of the flats 28-32 FOW. I hope that the number of dinks that we saw indicates hope for the future of the lake.

[ksmercik]

Went out yesterday (8/16) with some buddies on the west end. Fishing was very slow... Fished the flats and their breaks and caught two 10" eye's, and shallower water on points and rocks with no results. We tired a variety of presentations from bobber's, Lindy's, drifting, and trolling but just couldn't get them to go. I was marking a lot fish but turns out they weren't interested.. Tired for Muskie's for awhile, but no luck with that either. Talked with the DNR at the landing and she told me it's been slow over that last month especially and that many people are getting same or similar results as we did yesterday. Last year was very explosive out there, for me at least, and I'm trying to figure out what I've been doing wrong this year?! Or what's going on?

[workin4bait]

ksmercik,

What is wrong? There is lots of food in the lake and fewer walleyes. You are now competing with all the natural forage and the walleyes are eating well and not so interested in your bait.

workin'