mille lacs 2020 Mille Lacs Lake Fishing Reports

[CrappieFshr651]

Went out of Lybacks this morning and all in all a bad day of fishing. I think the cold front last night turned the bite off. Fished a sand to rock transition in 16fow. 2 jumbo perch right away this morning and nothing but dinks after that. Caught the smallest walleye ive ever caught. About 4 inches. No other walleyes. Didnt see anybody around us catching much of anything either. Finally left around 5:30. Was rather disappointed. Hopefully the rest of the lake freezes up soon normally like to fish out of myr mar.

[leech~~]

Went out of East side resort Sat. Hit two Jumbo's within the 1st two min's and then nothing for about two hours until this little 32" pike came by. Fun on 4lbs line. Seemed like that same story about a slow bite I got from at least 5-6 groups I talked to.

[MidCoast]

I went out of Lybachs this morning. The Perch bite was alright and steady in the 8 to 10 inches range.. No Jumbos. Also caught 2 Eyes 15 inches and 17 inches....

[bassfshin24]

Hows the ice looking down in the south east corner? Heading out of appledorns this coming weekend. What depths are the perch bitin in?

[leech~~]

Hows the ice looking down in the south east corner? Heading out of appledorns this coming weekend. What depths are the perch bitin in?

There was about 12-13" when I was there Sat.

[jumbohog]

Out of lybacks again this morning got two jumbos on graveyard right away like Friday then died so went off the edge in 28 feet and pulled a 24 inch bruiser of an eye never seen one so scared and my first tagged eye to then we moved between graveyard and popes and picked few more perch up key was go where there not so the big ones see it before the dinks tried the 29 foot hole only small ones and finally got sick of feeding small ones so we left with only around a dozen perch between 9 to 12 inches eye and half those perch were on a small perch jigging rap with waxies they loved it

[hart0670]

Fished out the Hunter Winfield's house again this morning. Decided to fish the same holes I was catching perch in just before dark yesterday in about 19-20 fow. Started at about 7:10 and had a nice 16" eye on the ice within minutes. Fished until about 9:45 (had to check-out of the house by 10) and ended up with 6 keeper perch and another 15.5" walleye. Threw back two more short walleye and a lot of short 5-6" perch. I fished pretty much all weekend with a small glow-red buckshot. One waxie on each of the three treble hook prongs seemed to be what they liked the best. Minnow heads and full minnows didn't catch squat. Some of the perch were puking up mayfly larva, so that may explain something. Nothing hit my jig hard all weekend, just lots of tapping and the walleye were just all of a sudden dead weight on the line.

I figure if I would have been able to stay out there it was going to be a pretty good day of fishing, so I'm glad I left before the lake could prove me wrong. It was a great 2.5 hours though!

We also had more action on the rattle reels last night, but only managed to catch one short walleye, missed 3 or 4 others, all between 12:30 and 2:30. It's hard to jump up from a dead sleep and try to set the hook! My girlfriend, who stayed in the house to sleep in this morning, says she missed a couple on the rattle reels as well. Oh well, we had a great time.

Some of the guys in houses around us had really slow fishing though, with no keepers to show for their entire weekend.

Hunter Winfield's was pretty good as a resort, the wheelhouse was nice, one of the beds was busted when we got there but that was caused by the guys who stayed there before us, so can't really blame the resort. I'd go back.

[RiverChuckNorris]

Went out Friday morning through Saturday evening on the north end out of Barnacles. It was one of the best trips in recent memory and my first time out of Barnacles and first time on North side on close to 20 years.

We caught about 30 eyes and 15 perch. Brought home our limit of eyes and about a dozen perch. Had the best fishing when we were away from people. Things slowed a little on Saturday when we suddenly had a crowd set up near us later in the morning.

Walleyes hit between sunset and sunrise for the most part. Biggest was a little over 27" and we probably caught 10 that were 12" or under. 24 fow (most people were deeper than us).

[ThndrDkl]

Wow glad to hear it way to go!

[ThndrDkl]

latest satellite image hopefully this works. it shows the large cracks in the ice out there.

[ThndrDkl]

here is the image from January 9th. You can see the open areas on the lake pretty clearly.

[Rippinlip]

Preferred bait of choice for the "overnight" hours on the rattle reels?

Crappie Minnow, Fatheads, Shiners or suckers?

[TruthWalleyes]

Preferred bait of choice for the "overnight" hours on the rattle reels?

Crappie Minnow, Fatheads, Shiners or suckers?

I think you want to put one of each on.

[broman]

Preferred bait of choice for the "overnight" hours on the rattle reels?

Crappie Minnow, Fatheads, Shiners or suckers?

Fatheads IMO.

[Stick in Mud]

We use a mix of shiners, crappie minnows, and fatties...usually let the fish tell us which they don't like.

[RiverChuckNorris]

It was fatheads all weekend for us

[guitarcher]

Fished the SW side yesterday from 8am til 7pm. Caught lots of tiny perch, 15 walleyes from 8" to 24". Lost a BIG one right at the hole. Had 4 pretty good chances to turn his head up the hole, but one big shake and the hook came loose. Was most likely over 28". They seemed to like tails or waxies over heads and whole minnows. Had a real nice flurry from 3-4pm. Were in 14-17 fow.

Fun day for me and the boys. Good fishing to you all and be careful.

[juicey_jroc1]

[Buck_Hunter04]

Fished out of Lybacks yesterday all day. Only caught a couple of keeper perch in the morning. Then they turned off. Hit and miss on the small perch. but if they were aggressive they usually hit. Walleyes seemed lathargic at prime time. Only caught 1 8incher. Fished around graveyard all day. started in 19 feet and fished all the way to 29 feet.

[Rippinlip]

Good weekend at Appeldoorn's, plenty of action for both Perch and Eyes, was able to bring home 4 in the slot and had to release several more, and the largest being around 27".

Seemed the better bite was at night over the morning.

Nothing was overly aggressive.

Seemed the biters wanted lively minnows over jigging.

Caught walleyes on Shiners, Fatheads, Crappie minnows and even 1 on Waxies on a spoon.

[limited out]

Pretty good fishing in our short time on the lake Saturday afternoon through this morning. We fished in the Rocky Reef area in 18 ft and managed handful of decent perch and 5 eyes ranging from 8 to 27 inches and missed at least 5 "pigs" overnight. Fish were active on shiners and rainbows and small gold buckshot was ticket for jigging including the 27 inch.

[Cheetah]

We did well on Saturday out of the east side, sunrise to sunset. Fish were spotty before lunch, we shifted over a couple hundred yards though and got onto a better spot of mud. All of the perch were puking up mayfly larva. Caught a couple that gave back minnows they just stole from me... I think maybe 75% of mine came in on small whole fatheads, the other 25% were on euro larva. Waxies didn't really work for me, any time I had them down I only got sniffs. I didn't really have them on though when the active bunches of fish worked through, just worked out that way. I also tried using the puked up mayfly larva but that didn't get any bites during the slow times.

The sky lit up real nice while driving to the access. Luckily I had my camera on the seat next to me and was able to snap a nice photo out the windshield.

Sutty caught a nice walleye that he released. I too had a big one on in the morning but was only lip hooked and it got off right below my hole. I remember setting the hook and it was like a snag, I was pretty excited.

My mess o perch. Biggest was a 13.5" female. The rest were a mix of males and females.

[tgruenke]

i be at Appeldoorns Sunday through Tuesday. What is working right now? Looks like our house is in about 25 feet of water.

[Lipriper84]

I did well on Friday from 4:45-5:15. Had my 4 keepers in that time using a smaller Lindy Flyer in Purple color.

Saturday morning got a 26" and 23" on a white glow jig under a bobber. Also caught a 35" northern on the glow jig. Took awhile to get it up the hole.

Saturday night. caught all our fish on tip ups. Missed just as many as we caught. 16, 17.5, 20, 24, 25.5. Couldn't get a fish jigging and I was in the same spot as Friday night.

All fish were caught in 10ft of water on the south side.

[Stick in Mud]

Great reports, guys...anyone been up to look at the lake on the northwest side? I'm hoping with the upcoming cold temperatures that it'll be walkable by next weekend. Or am I dreaming still???

[Mydog]

tgruenke- I am going to be at Appledoorns this weekend. How did you find out your house was in 25 feet of water? Do you know what reef yoiu are on also?

[pushbutton]

Made it up later yesterday and stayed till about noon today. Big difference in the ice since last Wednesday, the cold weather is starting to stiffen the ice and it is quieting down. Comfortable enough to drive out with Jr. and the Mutt. Looks like my few weeks of flying solo are over.

We are set up on the top of a rock pile in about 13 ft. While I have had decent action out there this year, especially early and late, it is starting to look like the shallow water rock bite is starting to fizzle out due to pressure, activity, and probably food source. Still getting a few slot fish on rattle reels in the middle of the night bite but mainly just low to mid teen eyeballs left.

The perch bite is still going strong though, this morning they were down right aggressive and Jr. had no problem landing them. No belly busters, but all the fish you would want in the 10 inch range

We were using a small rainbow Lindy Frostee tipped with a large crappie or small fathead, this seemed to keep the smaller fish away. The fish were so aggressive today they would meet and chase up to 5 ft off the bottom; the Marcum Showdown was literally "lit up" all morning.

[blm4fish]

How is the fishing the first week of feb,and the last week of feb.? I will be going out of the south-east side. Hoping the kids can catch something. Thanks

[pushbutton]

How is the fishing the first week of feb,and the last week of feb.? I will be going out of the south-east side. Hoping the kids can catch something. Thanks

Welcome to the site! Early Feb. can be iffy, but it can already be spotty at this time, and there have been a lot of good reports coming in lately; so who knows what this year has in store. Best advice can give to you is try to get away from all the commotion. Some of the gravel bars/flats might be safely accessible by then by heavier transportation, only time will tell. As for late February, there is usually a decent perch and smaller eye bite on the S.E. side out off the breaks in the upper 20's and lower 30's. If you are going out of a resort, they will have a good idea where they are biting. Also, just keep an eye on this forum and you will be abele to pick up some info on depth, and presentation. Good luck.....

[tgruenke]

If you go to Appledorns and click on ICe Conditions they show a a map of their ice road. Good luck to you