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2020 Mille Lacs Lake Fishing Reports


Rick

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Looking at the satellite view there is clearly no ice between garrison and isle. That is the definition of ice out on mille lacs.

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In the Malmo area there was ice as far as you could see on Monday. Yesterday the wind switched and pushed it back out. On the way to Garrison you could see ice 1 to 2 miles out from the north shore. I would think that after today not much will be left if any.

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Tullis are great eating. Wished I had a way to catch them during open water season.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm contemplating taking my son and his friend to mille lacs for walleye opener. The vast majority of my fishing-time is on Winnie. I'm just wondering if I should set up a few rods with lindy's or does jig/minnow work on mille lacs for opener? Also, in general terms, where would be good region to find fish. I know I could just head out to where the boats are, but most of the time I like to head to my own area, after doing a little research with the lake map ahead of time. I've only been on mille lacs a couple times and both have been late summer, so I'm not sure what I should have for set ups for opener. Any input is greatly appreciated.

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Leeches or crawlers will be your bait. Start in the shallows (sand or rocks) and work your way deeper until you locate the fish....

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I would tell you to start in the sand on the NW Side but who knows now with the water temps already in the mid 50s. I think I am going to start in the deeper sand 20+ to start.

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Usually Lindy rigs are the way too go on opener, but with the early ice out this year spinner rigs might be more effective.

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next week will be post spawn about 4 weeks so the fish are between the shallows and the flats

I will get off the first and pull cranks looking for fish 12-20 ft

If you know how to swim a leech you'll do well

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next week will be post spawn about 4 weeks so the fish are between the shallows and the flats

I will get off the first and pull cranks looking for fish 12-20 ft

If you know how to swim a leech you'll do well

what does it mean to swim a leech?

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You should also find walleyes on the deeper rock piles. The east and south sides of the lake are good starting spots.

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Tough Bite for us.. boated 8 all in the slot. fished the south side hard from 4:30am-4:30pm. Didn't find the fish till we moved out to deeper water 28-30ft. My buddy hauled in the hog of the day at 29inches his biggest ever. Had a ton of fun! it was great to be out on the big lake again!!

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DrillinHolz,

Where did you launch from, was it packed, and how was parking?

Thanks!

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Most everybody that I talked with that was having success were fishing 24+ feet of water.

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Launched out of Cove. about 10 trailers when we put in didn't wait at all. when we pulled out the lot was pretty full but no wait to trailer the boat. Talked to a guy that put in at 8:30 and said he had to park down the road at Bayview bar.

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OK saturday in the east rocks and gravel ~20 fow. until the wind stopped, then it got tough.

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sat. 6:00am - 5:00pm

1 boat = 10 fish 1 keeper biggest fish 25inch

2 boat = 10 fish 5 keepers biggest fish 27.5 inches

went back sun.6:00 am - 3:00 pm

1 boat = 6 fish 1 keeper biggest fish 26 inch

all fish in 12-15 feet

It was not bad fishing, could of used more wind and rain, but nice weekend.

I can't complain but someone backed into my trailer light and broke it. At least they were nice enought to leave a note.

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Did great Sat 7-10AM in the sand up northeast in my typical Memorial day spots.....along with a few hundred other boats......and then the wind stopped, so did the fish. 16 keepers for about 8 hours total for the weekend, not too bad and only 3 or 4 larger throwbacks, nothing over 22". As usual on Mille Lacs, when the wind was blowing the fish were biting.

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We launched out of Agate Bay sat. We headed south checking every reef that did not have boats on. It took me an hour to find fish on the graph. We found some fish in 16' but most of our fish were caught in 27' on the top edge of a smaller reef. We tried leeches, crawlers, and shiners. Only thing we could get bit on was leeches. Our best luck was rigging with a 10' snell, yellow bead and a red hook. We ended up boating 18 eyes, two that were small, 10 keepers and the rest were to big. Largest eye for us was 21.25" We really struggled with missing and loosing fish. Just a wierd bite I thought. We tried setting the hook right away, giving them line for 5 - 30 seconds and still missed or lost many fish. All and all it was a decent day on the water. I sure wish that 10 mph wind would have kept up all day, I think it would have made it much better. Any reports from the sand on the North end? I'm wondering how bad I messed up Not giving that a shot.

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Saturday was awesome. Went out at 5:00am and we had our 3 limits by 11:30am. Our biggest fish was 27.75". We fished 17-18 fow on rock. The fish were still biting for us even after the wind died down. The wind died so we fired up the trolling motor instead.

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