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2020 Mille Lacs Lake Fishing Reports


Rick

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Just got back from a three day stint. First time for the family on Mille Lacs with the wheel house. We drove out of Appeldorn's and stayed close, with the storm coming in we weren't sure what would happen. We ended up with 3 perch over 11" and a 16" eye (came on a chart forage minnow at 2:00am on rattle wheel). We caught plenty of smaller perch too. The kids had the camera down most of the time watching all the fish that wouldn't bite. There was a friendly walleye that kept roaming around scaring the perch away of which there were tons!!

Hope to get back up next weekend.

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We went out of Terry's to Sherman's flat, set up Friday just after dark in 36 feet and got one jumbo about 10:00 pm. Saturday we were hitting tullies and perch pretty regular, we would have a lull for about an hour picking up 1 or 2 perch and BAM! we would hit a dozen tullies in about 10 minutes. It was a fun weekend, my dad, brother, and I caught about 50 tullies, 75 perch (kept 25, 2 biggest went 12' and were both caught well after dark), and 4 walleyes, all 14-15". Would have ended up with a lot more but we quit around 10 in the morning on Sunday to get home and beat the storm. Plain small black or red hook worked best for us on tullies and perch with waxies tipped with red euros. Hope to get back up in a few weeks and do it again!

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late yesterday/today was hands down the best fishing up on the pond for me this year. partly because my sidekick was not along and i am assuming the storm really turned the fish on. got a few slot eyes, but the perch bite was almost non stop. did not even have to leave the house while wave after wave moved in. was set up in a small 30 ft hole on a soft bottom. the jumbos were hammering crappie minnows. tried shrimp, euro, and waxies, but the ticket today was the smallest minnows in the bucket. tungsten jigs were also helpful to get the bait back down as quick as possible. actually, they often met the bait on they way down. did not get a 14 incher smile , but dozens(only kept a few) in 12 to 13 ich range.

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Was up on Mille Lacs last weekend with my Wife and some friends and fishing was pretty slow. Friday night the tullies were pretty active but only ended up with one perch in the bucket. Saturday was off and on. I iced 5 eyes two of which were released- 22" and 26". Those were a blast catching and will hopefully be posting pics soon. The other three were nice eaters 14-16.5". My group also caught a few more tullies and a couple more average perch. I was hoping to get on the jumbos like I was able to last year but it never worked out. All in all it was a fun weekend. Good luck all

MN Angler

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Which resort is people catching a lot of Tullibees at? Hole hopping or just wating for Tullibees school to come around? Ive been fishing Mille Lacs hard these past few weeks, but only get into a few Tullibees each time. Last Saturday, fished all day for Tullibees but only caught 4. Talked to many anglers, also watched many anglers fishing from outside of their portables, didnt seem like many people were catching much either. Once in a while I would see people, those hole hopping catch one, but they didnt catch too many. Perhaps it was just the resorts I was at. Last season, I couldnt keep the Tullibees off my hook though.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

Well they are feeding a bug hatchs so you may need to move around to find them but once you do bingo! For me they would not hit my jigging spoons as well so I always have jigging spoon rigged up with a drop line to a small panfish jig with a waxie in case i see the tullies chasing my jiggin spoon and will not hit it. I was on the west side of 8 mile mud flat on the southern end. Hope that helps

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We were out of Hunters, On Center Bar Flat in 32-35 ft. We were about 10 yards from 24 feet so it really dropped fast out there. Marked a ton of them, took a little coaxing to get them to bite, but we did pretty decent. Best producer was a Gold and Orange Swedish Pimple and Yellow Orange Buckshot. Both tipped with Red Larva and Waxies. We would pound the mud a few times then jig vigorously about 3-5 feet off the bottom and you would see them come in almost imediatly. Sometime we would have to make them follow 10-15 feet from the bottom before they hit it. We missed alot but the ones we did get really smacked the lure. Don't be afraid to jig 2-3 feet up and down at a time until you get their attention. A lot of the time they hit it on the way down and when you went to jig back up bam FISH ON!!!. Good luck out there.

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Also we had a few holes that produced more than others. We set up the portable on these holes and would just wait for them to come through. Usually every 10-15 minues and we would all get a bit or catch a few.

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Fished Saturday thru Monday in the Tullie Hole (38 fow) in the vicinity of the Christmas tree. Real slow all days. Ended up with 1 walleye and 5 tullies on Saturday. Sunday,1 walleye, 1 perch and 2 tullies. Monday 1 walleye no tullies landed and 1 perch. Dropped a camera down and saw tullies and perch, jumbo perch to tiny perch. Finicky fish for sure where we were at. Weather was vicious out there with the sustained winds and then the snow. Had to stay fairy close to Lybacks's with the weather. Wanted to go to 5 mile gravel but stayed conservative ....Maybe next time.

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Did a day trip yesterday (Friday) 9AM-7PM. Was not mobile - thugh I could have/prob s/have been. Fished some 34' and 32' off a mud flat. Bite was generally tough but did get better about 1PM. Managed about 30 perch, 2 tullibees, and 1 walleye. Saw probably 6 or 7 walleyes - only two came in for a sniff. Tons of tullibees - I just had no luck getting them to bite. Was using do-jigger sppons with chain dropper hook. Wax worms, red maggots, minnow heads - no real takers. Missed one on a red rattlin flyer and minnow head. Caught one on my dead stick with whole fathead - go figure smile. Anyway, I guy named Brad suggest I downsize to a liitle jig and that is how I did catch one tullibee and quite a few perch. I noticed Brad and his buddy caught about 20 tulles less than 20 yards from me. Did see one northern come in-quick sniff and no bite. All in all a good day to not be working! smile

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We were up yesterday also. Started on the east side, thinking we would try some new areas....wasn't the greatest move. It was to cold to hop around and do some scouting, holes froze instantly and with the wind, it just wasn't very comfortable fishing outside. We got some small fish and that was it.

We went to an area on the west side where we know a little about the area we would be fishing. We managed to salvage the day with a pretty good bite on perch and we managed to ice 3 walleyes, 21-21 and 13, nothing in the slot, but really fun to catch and made for some nice pictures.

It was fun to be out with my friend....we've been trying to go fishing all winter and something always came up to scuttle it. Well, we made it out and had a good day...good fishing, good comaradary, good venison brats off the barbie, it was aw-ite!

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

Today I hit 8 mile and caught nothing but a tullies in 30-35 feet of water. Went to center bar flat and my dad and uncle picked up a few 9-10 inch perch. I think they had 6 when we headed in for the drawwings. I did end up with an under water camera so no more using my brothers.

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Hey monster moose,

Did you catch a lot of tulles on 8 mile? If so, what lure and bait? They are fun to catch and will be bringing my 10 yr old daughter up for a day trip - but so far I see but no catchy for the most part. Thx

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Was up for the Extravaganza yesterday. 12 in our party. 4 portables. All caught fish. Even the youngsters. Went out of Appledorns. Fished the area west of Doe Island reef. Transition area of rock to sand. Some of our houses in the sand and some on the rocks. Nothing big and did not see anything huge. Still fun for the kids in the group. Kind of hard picking our way back to a road after the little bit of snow and the clouds. Had to turn around and backtrack once. None of our party won any door prizes. Contest winner was 1.62 pounds. HUGE !! Had a tape in my pocket, I should have gotten a length on it but my hands were froze !!

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Thanks Olden Days, appreciate it ! @ Bartman , What a beauty ! We saw nothing like that in our party. Nice !

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7 of us stayed in a house out on the edge of 3 mile in 32-34 fow from 10 am Fri till noon today and had fair luck. Caught nothing worth entering in the tourney on sat. But ended up with 5 perch 11-12.5" on Fri, 10 that were at 10-11" and 3 that were 9.5". 3 eyes the went 15", 16", and a 14" that wouldn't go back down the whole. And a hand full of tullies around 13.5" that are going to get pickled! We averaged about 2 fish an hour that would bite, saw many finiky fish on the camera as well. We wanted to get out and do some hole hopping but the weather and wind keeped us hunkered in the shack. I guess we did ok compared to others I talked to at the Raffle. 3 of us had buttons but didn't win anything. So all in all I think we will be up again next year or maybe even this summer. Good luck for the rest of the ice season!

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

Big whooper I was on the south east point of 8 mile. Small silver buckshot with red euros and a do jigger with a drop line to a diamond jig the yellow and orange one with a waxie.

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We had a sloooow weekend...between two guys, we got five walleyes from Friday night through Sunday morning. A few perch, one tullibee, and that's it.

We were fishing the rocks and mud on the northwest side....hope y'all did better than we did!

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nope....got a eye and 4 perch on sat. was marking and seeing fish on the camera, but got a lot of that "oops i missed"...."yeah i could turn around and try again, but that seems like a hassle" ....."well i could eat, nah, well maybe, nah" action!!!

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Wife and I fished out of Appeldorns noon friday to 3pm sunday. We went all the way from Doe island reef to north of big point anywhere from 20-35 feet of water. Ended up with 6 walleyes and about 35 perch. Only kept 2 walleyes and 4 perch. None were very big. Really tough bite, we would drill a hole drop jig and the fish would come up 10 feet to smack it. I would catch about 5 per hole and we would set up the shack. Then nothing... Oh well get em later.

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Went out of rockman's Sat morning to Sunday afternoon with not much to say. We tried a spot that took some off roading. Tried from 23' down to 30' and the 30' was the key but man they were just laying around. We caught maybe 20 fish between four people with a mix bag of eyes, Perch and tullies. The tullabies are so aggressive compared to the rest, I'm hoping the weather warms up a little (not above freezing) so everything kicks into high gear.

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Fished out of Lyback's today. One 15 inch eye and about 8 keeper perch, biggest going 12 1/2. Lots of smaller perch. Fished in a couple different spots in 16-18 ft.

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Slow weekend and at least everybody else is agreeing. We fished 7 Mile Mud and between 4 guys caught 2 small eyes and 4 medium perch and all the Tulibees we wanted. We had the best action on a small ice jig tipped with Waxies.

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Fished outta Garrison sports today, had the father inlaw along so didn't move around much as i'd like, ended up with about a dozen tul. for the smoker and a few perch, nothing like 2 weeks ago but fair action overall, alotta lookers, was marking fish all day, but tough bite.

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Thinking about pulling my house up this weekend, how has the bite been for tul and perch. I talked to a buddy and he said that banana flat was doing pretty go but i would just like to get on some perch and tul, any suggestions?

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

Well wanted to have a good day with some eye's on the last day but did ok on some Jumbos instead. The last one in the sink was 13 1/2" my best. smile

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Went out by Sprit in a little 33' foot dip I found. Ended with one small Walleye to close the season! frown

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