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2020 Mille Lacs Lake Fishing Reports


Rick

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Fished the MTT last weekend and caught fish everywhere. Sat fished mainly the south end and caught all big ones out of the slot so Sunday went to the north mud and dragged lindys with crawlers and had 3 in the box by 8:30 and our 4th by 11. Everyone else was doing leadcore by us but only a couple of them caught their weigh fish. But Pat is correct that leadcore and cranks was your best bet. The winner was by me most the day sunday and they even got a couple out in 34'. We also picked a couple out deep with #11 dtd trying to get an over.

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Pat - I think you saw our boat with something in it on day two that has never been in our boat during a tournament before. Leadcore was the ticket.

Thanks again for everything.

By the way I think Mike put your Lindy pack in his office at the resort.

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Ya that is hard to believe to see that Triton with leadcore in. Christensen has been teased for years about never leaving that south end. But hey he is always in the top 20 and never leaves that area so its pretty tough for him to switch. I migbht be turning him into a Mud Hound, I think he is out there again tonight.

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I talked to him last night to see if he had seen any deer. Wouldn't you know it he was still on the mud trolling. I asked him if he was still getting bit and it sounded like he had just caught one a few minutes before I called. He said those perfect slots didn't bite very good last night however they caught plenty of fish.

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I was fishing several areas today, but no walleyes. did get a 20 inch smallmouth. I was using red tails, 8ft snells. Fished, 7mile with 2 other boats for a hour then started moving around the east side.

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Eric, I think Mike is hooked on it, especially since it seems to be the only thing producing consitent walleye catches, we did well again yesterday and those nice tourney slots were going again. I did about a 3 and 1/2 hour trip with Mike group from 12:30 - 4 or so and caught 7 walleye only kept 3 the rest ofmine were little with one over, Mike was in the other boat and they kept 8 or 9 good tourney fish. Evrything they caught was a good tourney fish. Then I did another trip from 5-8:30 and we kept 9 walleyes every darn one of them was a 17 -17 3/4 inch fish. Caught one over at 24 and 1 little one.

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Eric, I think Mike is hooked on it, especially since it seems to be the only thing producing consitent walleye catches, we did well again yesterday and those nice tourney slots were going again. I did about a 3 and 1/2 hour trip with Mike group from 12:30 - 4 or so and caught 7 walleye only kept 3 the rest ofmine were little with one over, Mike was in the other boat and they kept 8 or 9 good tourney fish. Evrything they caught was a good tourney fish. Then I did another trip from 5-8:30 and we kept 9 walleyes every darn one of them was a 17 -17 3/4 inch fish. Caught one over at 24 and 1 little one.

Pat

Would be willing to share what plug was working the best?

eyewarrior

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Out on a launch this morning with Eddy's. Very calm day so I'm surprised our work group caught any. 22" in 29', 21" in 23', and a little 12" shallow all with leeches. Tough walleye conditions, but excellent day nonetheless!

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Well you're the man Pat!

We fished yesterday pulling leadcore or spinners and ended up with one 22 incher, 8 under and 3 for the box. We had issues with fish coming unbuttoned. I would say that at least 1o fish came unhooked shortly after hitting the baits. Pretty slow for nearly 12 hours fishing.

Very nice day though with hardly anyone fishing the north end.

As we left we did see a big muksie laying on top amongst the baitfish breaking the surface off the flats. She had over 3 feet of her back sticking out of the water before she lazily swam down.

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Same plugs as earlier in the summer #5 and #7. A mix of fire tiger, perch color, sometime chartuse and blue and white can be going. Borch as far as fish coming un-buttoned it happens to everyone. Running leadcore with the sag in the line you will have them pop off occassionaly or hit hard and then not be on. make sure you don't slow down or stop when they hit. also try different rods and experiment with mono vs fireline for leaders and see what keeps fish on better for you. With spinners I run two hook harnesses and pinch the last inch or so off the crawler, but you will still have some that just "pop the button" as we say.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Come to think of it I did switch to flourocarbon from mono. Maybe it was just the day but if I continue to have hooking issues with flouro I may be switching back. I may switch one of them just to see if it makes a difference.

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First I must say thanks to many for all the good reports!

With respect to leadcore and loosing fish I found myself in that same situation a couple of weeks ago! I run 18lb leadcore with 50 to 60 feet of 10 fluorocarbon, which seems to work well on Mille Lacs. Two things that helped me were to change the back hooks in the SR7 due to the barbs being bent almost completely down. Likely due to my plyers! Secondly I noticed if you back off the gas a little when bringing the fish in it seems to minimize the hole size arond were the fish is hooked. For example many fish when caught on cranks are hooked in the lip with the last set of hooks and when your reeling them in and trying to maintain 2 mph the hole created by the hook will be much larger than the hook itself and or the barb. Next time you land a fish on cranks with lead core take a little look.

Hope this helps!

I am hoping to be back on the pond pulling cranks and lead core this coming Wednesday!

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With 50-60' of mono leader, how are you connecting the leader to the lead core? I use a barrel swivel and can't reel the swivel past the first eye hole of the rod, so I use about a 10' leader of fireline.

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I have used two different knots and either has worked well with zero breaks at the connection point.

One option that I currently use is tying a nail knot directly to the lead core with the lead core removed form that area. I use a needle instead of nail because one can place the tag end of the mono in the needle end and more easily pull the mono back through itself. This is a common knot used to fasten your tappered leader to fly line and works well.

The second option which I struggle with is removing about 6" of lead core and have two over hand knots losely tied in the lead core. Secondly sneak the mono back through the lead core casing where the lead core has been removed. When the mono and the lead core come close sneak the over hand knots back towards the mono and tighten. I have used this and it works but it is very difficult for myself to tie!

As you know with more mono means more line out to reach your depths!

Good Luck!

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Try using an Albright knot if the nail knot is giving you trouble (I have trouble getting them to be consistently good sometimes). It's a very easy know to learn. Just google knot tying and you'll come up with several good sites with animations showing a lot of good knots.

I was thinking of hitting up Mille Lacs for a day trip one of these weekends. Anyone know anything about the smallie bite? How deep are tehy, I was thinking of mainly using a fly rod, but if they are deep, >15ft, I might only use my spinning gear.

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I am heading up to mille lacs and staying in Isle. Heard the smallies are biting in 3-5 ft of water on rock piles. Anyone got any info on this? Also Id like to fish close to isle bay if possible. I am borrowing someones boat so I do not wanna venture to far out of the bay. Any good spots I should check out just outside the bay?

Thanks

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IF YOU ARE BORROWING SOMEONE'S BOAT, THE UNSAFEST PLACE ON THE LAKE IS THOSE AREAS AROUND THOSE 3-5 FOOT ROCK PILES. MAKE IT OUT OF THOSE AND REST OF THE ENTIRE LAKE IS DUMMY PROOF. ALMOST.

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Fished yesterday from 8am to 3pm. Got 2 box fish, no throw backs and 4 jumbo perch. We were dragging spinner/crawler and leech on a lindy. The crawler produced all the fish. Tried the sand and got one jumbo there. Then moved to 26 to 28 fow off the rocks and picked up the rest. Mostly in 26 fow. no wind to speak of so the trolling motor got a good work out. Good Luck all and have a great weekend!

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IF YOU ARE BORROWING SOMEONE'S BOAT, THE UNSAFEST PLACE ON THE LAKE IS THOSE AREAS AROUND THOSE 3-5 FOOT ROCK PILES. MAKE IT OUT OF THOSE AND REST OF THE ENTIRE LAKE IS DUMMY PROOF. ALMOST.

I relied on the GPS until I got near the rock reefs. Than I just idled in and threw the trolling motor out and navigated around. Didn't do much fishing at all. Just motored around and checked for some fish on the graph. Lakes a little low. But wow what a weekend. First time I have not seen white caps on mille lacs!

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Fished Sunday afternoon 4-10pm mid lakes flats 20-50 yards off the outside edges trolling crankbaits with leadcore

5 for 6 ranging from 17" to 24" Awesome lake conditions

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Fished Friday 4:00PM-7:30PM 2@16-17 & 1@19 & 1@10

Sat 8:30AM -1:00PM 2@15-16 missed 1

Sun 8:30AM -1:00PM never put a fish in the boat. Missed 1 that looked like a slot from 50' away.

Mostly ran cranks & leadcore. Tried bouncers & spinners and even rigged with 9' snells & plain hook. Fished/looked at many flats. Caught 1 keeper btwn 7&9 mi. All fish were caught on cranks. Didn't see alot of fish. Man did miss Mille whip my butt. Sure was nice weather to fish in though!!

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Eye Warrior your not alone sounds like the daytime bite was tough for allot the guides and regulars I talked with Saturday. On Saturday with my guide group we only caught 8, 4 box fish and 4 over 18. I heard sunday and today were similiar but I did not fish. It is tough with those clear skies at night and big full moon, I think allot of fish feed all throughout the night during these conditions. The fish I did catch were right on top of flats. I would mark them out in the basin, but they would not go on anything. Best I can figure is they went on top to feed during the those night conditions and were just sitting out in the basin chilling out.

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Was up Sat. and Sun. and put only 5 in the box with 2 unders and 3 overs. 50/50 on crawlers and spinners and leech and plain hook. However did see a boat smack 6 fish in one pass on backer using boards and plugs. After one pass thery left. Go figure.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Has fishing been so slow on Mille Lacs that there are no reports? I'll be up this weekend giving it the old college try. Any suggestions or do I start picking on the smaller lakes in the area for walleyes?

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I have been up 6 times in the last mmonth. we've been averaging about 15 walleyes per trip. Off of the flat's. Until last saturday. 0 walleyes in the boat for the day. And that was my first zero ever on Mille Lacs in the summer. I guess I was due. Worst part was I brought my father inlaw from Arizona. I felt bad but thats fishing. We'll try again this weekend.

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I was a loyal fisherman to mille lacs about 2-3 times a week up until the last month or so and the boat hasnt left the garage. Im going to wait til october i think some time to make it worth my time hopefully.

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It's been 3 weeks since I've been up there. I'll probably head back next weekend. Like everyone is saying now. Things are slow. We need things to cool down.

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OUCH!! 9/19/09

Left the riggers on the boat after salmon fishing in August and thought what the heck let's try em. Trolled around west side flats for 6 hours without a bump. Marked tons of fish but nothing biting-buddy was on southwest side and got a couple walleye and several smallies on leadcore and crankbaits.

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ahhh redemtion, Took my father inlaw back up yesterday 9-19. We did ok 14 Walleyes, 5 in the box, 23 1/2 incher was the biggest, and he said it's his personal best. grin It was great to get him on some fish. We also kept 5 decent perch. All the fish were caught off of the flat's.

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