mille lacs 2020 Mille Lacs Lake Fishing Reports

[broman]

fished out of Garrison last night (Thursday)from 3-7pm

6-8 inches as you get away from shore towards the transition. A few ATVs out there but the they are stopping short of the transition and walking the last 100-200 ft. Open water was only a few hundred yards away and the ice was really loud in the sunlight but much less noisy after dark. Almost all the fisherman left shortly after dark. Fishing was BAD for us last night not bump and we jigged everything and used dead sticks and tip up.

Thanks for the report. Just what I was looking for.

[gregg52]

sounds like mille lacs is pretty much a wash for the winter

6-8 inches of ice and open water the 1st of jan

the bite in my experience goes to he** from here any way

[Paul Waldowski]

Quote:

sounds like mille lacs is pretty much a wash for the winter

6-8 inches of ice and open water the 1st of jan

the bite in my experience goes to he** from here any way

I would highly disagree with that. We have had a fairly good bite going over the last couple of days. Guys that are moving around in portables are doing even better. As for ice conditions, yes the north end is tough, but that is certainly not the case lake wide.

[Fishman11]

When you say Lybacks territory, do you mean they own that part of the lake?

[Paul Waldowski]

No they are referring to where he generally is the one that plows the roads in that area of the lake.

[gregg52]

kinda thought someone would!

didnt mean to defer any business from you

was just thinking out load

nobody pays any attention to what i say any way...lol

[hunt fish repeat]

Just got back, was out yesterday from 12 noon til 10am today, full 12" of ice to 2 miles out from Isle, I pulled out the sleeper (2200 lbs.) with the atv. There were dozens of 18' and 20' wheel houses out to the first pressure crack. cars and pickups were driving out from Cove Bay, Waukon and Isle, guys were walking out with portys from the state park. Perch were on fire most caught on a plain red hook with a crappie minnow on the rattle reels. Caught a few bonus eyes, lost 5 overnight, all we had were crappie minnows with us. To those that say they won't go up this year I say????????? Most perch were 10" to 12" (nothing over 12") All the resorts on the Soth end seemed to have houses out. We never hole hopped we picked a spot on the Lowrance, set up shop and caught fish. Ate fish for dinner last night and just got done cleaning two limits.

[Harmonica Bear]

I'm getting some pretty darn good reports (from several people) coming from the North end in front of Barnacles. Perch and walleyes both. They may start pulling out some smaller shacks out in front, so can't say how that will effect the fishing, but...I'm on my way!

Have a great New Years!

[wingnut38]

fished on the west side yesterday afternoon. for the most part it was slow. caught a few nice perch before dark. marked alot of fish but they were tight lipped. my son was changing jigs about every 10 minutes and it seemed every time he would send something new down, bam! he'd nab a perch. then nothing. i was sitting right next to him and couldn't get anything to hit. then between 5-5:45 the walters decided to get hungry. my other son and i threw back 4 over 23" and lost 3 other 20"+ at the hole. had fun!

[Derik_Walcheski]

I fished the south side yesterday morning. ended up with 1 limit of keepers and a few bonus perch to go along with it. our hottest baits were a lindy frostee tipped with a whole crappie minnow in 19 feet of water.

[jerry91]

2 of us were out of southeast side yesterday. We caught and kept 5 walleyes and 3 perch from 2 until 6.

[TProGuy]

Fished the southwest end today, and to say the least, it was SLOW!!! Fished from 17' out to 29', following the break on the west side of Rocky Reef itself, then up the shoreline toward Eddy's. 22' seemed to be my best depth, but that doesn't say much. Got on the lake at 9:00 AM and left at 6:00 PM. Caught 5 perch, with the big one going barely 7". Caught 2 walleyes, one 10" and one 21". Pulled the 21" through the ice around 2:30, then never had another bite after that. Fortunately, it was a nice day to be out.

[FishermanD]

How's the ice out on isle? We are headed out to Dickie's tomorrow and I am WORRIED! We got one of the 12 bunk sleepers about 1/4 mile out on the lake. Talked to a friend who was out last weekend and they were very ify on the conditions. Said their house was sinking into the ice. What do you guys have to report?

[pushbutton]

I was out in about 20 ft little north of Dickies today and it was fine. Not guns blazing 1 ton pulling a 8 x 20 fine, but a solid 12 to 13 inches and drove the car. Fishing was ok early on but then a skizilla staked her claim, and while it was fun watching her, do not think the fish I was trying to catch thought it was as cool.....

[jerry91]

Fisherman D. I have been going out on the lake since Dec 10th. The ice in isle is between 11 to 13 inches. You have nothing to worry about. Good luck and have fun.

[Dragon Fish ll]

Check out mn lake cams , yesterday i seen several vehicles go out and come from the first set of shacks but no farther. shacks are in real close where driving.

[pushbutton]

Good point DF, while i was on the ice with my car, should have noted it was not very far out and talked to the road operators and knew where the "safe" spots were. Even on the south side most resort roads are pinned in because of healing cracks and in no way is it wise to travel to unstaked areas right now.

[gregg52]

I was out in about 20 ft little north of Dickies today and it was fine. Not guns blazing 1 ton pulling a 8 x 20 fine, but a solid 12 to 13 inches and drove the car. Fishing was ok early on but then a skizilla staked her claim, and while it was fun watching her, do not think the fish I was trying to catch thought it was as cool.....

watching her???onn a cam down there or could you see her in the water??

[northender]

The lake opened up again this morning along the north shore and west side. Other sites are reporting "several 100 yards wide of open water for miles" east and south of Garrison.

[pushbutton]

Was perching with a camera and when you saw the little ones scatter inevitably she would saunter through. She would also swim up to and give the camera a brush every once in while, then I actually got to see her through the hole......had to close to 20 lbs.

[Iceboy]

What is a skizilla?

[fishingsfinest]

Sounds like one of the many Muskies in Mille Lacs.

[chris63]

A ski dude from Tokyo.c63

[Iceboy]

I'm hoping to see some eyezilla's on the camera tomorrow while catching numerous mythical 17.9" eyes - rolling into Garrison around 7 AM, walking out, and trying our luck!

[CrappieFshr651]

Will be coming up early morning tomorrow and fishing somewhere on the south end. Not sure where yet. Will post results when i return.

[gregg52]

Was perching with a camera and when you saw the little ones scatter inevitably she would saunter through. She would also swim up to and give the camera a brush every once in while, then I actually got to see her through the hole......had to close to 20 lbs.

cooooool...that sounds fun!!!!!

[jumbohog]

Was out of lybacks today fished the top of the graveyard off the steep drop and fished the top of banana to the deep spot off the east deeper was better 20.foot was where the perch and a couple HUGE eyes wanted to be in the yard and 26 feet off of banana is where the perch lingered wasnt till clouds rolled in till they got aggressive only got six enough to tease a guy and make another two hour one way trip again soon

[jholland]

Went up to Mille Lacs today and had a great day. Also went out of Lyback's, like the above poster. Got a total of 16 keepers (Some reluctantly kept - pulled em up too fast), with well over 50 fish caught throughout the day.

Started at Popes, moved around and eventually found myself on a good bed of fish somewhere in between Pope's and the Graveyard in about 16 feet of water. Eurolarvae were the ticket today, at least for the bigger perch, but all the eyes' came in off fatheads. The best bite was early morning. I only got on good fish for about an hour before it shut down, but I really would've liked to have been at that spot from about 7am till 11ish. Biggun' of the day was a ~24" walleye.

Unlike Jumbohog, the bite for us completely shut down when the clouds moved in (Although, I was back at Pope's at this point.) We did get the bigger walleye after dark, though.

[hart0670]

Mid-weekend report for a two night sleeper rental out of Hunter Winfield's. My girlfriend agreed to come as a Christmas present. We got here last night at about 8 pm, tried jigging a bit and put some rattle reels down but nothing. This morning was also slow. The house we got is out in a hole in about 23 fow. Moving shallower, to about 19 fow, produced lots of little perch, but only a few marginal keepers. Tried fishing in the bay for blue gills (8 fow) for a bit this afternoon, only caught one but my girlfriend did pick up a nice 21.5" walleye on a tip up at about 2:30. Things picked up with the perch in the last hour. Same hole in 19 fow I was catching dinks in this morning. Ended up with 8 keepers, but still ended with only the one walleye for the day. Will update again tomorrow. Hoping the perch bite keeps picking back up.

As an aside, what do you guys think about using robbers with rattle reels?

[fish]

Got a few smaller walleye on west side. Brother got a dandy. He seems to always get the biggest. I'd post a pic but cant seem to make it work. Ice was 13". Althouh walked over areas with less.