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2020 Mille Lacs Lake Fishing Reports


Rick

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Fished the big pond for the first time in a while on Friday. Tried the flats for a couple hours and picked up 4- 2 overs and 2 keepers. Didn't see a lot of action but steady. Then moved to some weedy areas and tried tossing swimbaits. Did real well there catching 20 or so in 3 hours. It's really fun way to fish with the walleyes hammering the baits and all were between 20" and 26".

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Hey Guru57 how deep were you when you casting the swim bates in the weeds? I'm coming to the big lake next week with my son and I'm not sure where or how deep the weed lines are on Mille Lacs.

Thanks

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We were in 11-13 feet of water and the weeds came up to about 6 or 7 feet. If you use superline you can give the rod a good rip when ever you hit weeds and they usually rip right off. There are some nice weed beds for this along the north half of the west shoreline.

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Fished Monday evening and Tuesday till mid day. Two of us caught 14 that ranged between 21"-25", with most around 24"

Green crawlers on perch colored spinner worm harnesses worked the best. Had the best luck on the gravel between 25-30 feet deep. Used bottom bouncers and trolled about 1.2 mph. Good luck and stay cool!

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I've been out trying to figure out how to use my new leadcore rods....went out yesterday and today for about two hours each day, and only managed three walleyes total. Yesterday I forgot the bait on shore, so the spinner rods in the boat were more or less useless. Today, after hauling lots of water and not many fish, I switched to spinners for a bit and caught two. All in all, it was pretty slow for me. Hmmm...I'll blame the hot weather. smile

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Went out on a 8 a.m. until 12 noon launch yesterday with a few buddies and bobber fished with leeches around the SE corner of the lake. Only caught two walleyes (25.5 and 26.25), one (really nice) smallmouth and one perch. Had a nice chop on the water, but I guess that didn't help us too much. I'll blame the heat too as the couple other boats we talked to who were trolling around us weren't having much luck either. Figures the bite has been red hot but by the time I get there it has slowed down! Nice morning on the lake though!

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went out tuesday 7/3 evening for northern/musky for a few hours then at dark went to mud flats to bobber up on walleyes...skunked!!! nice night to be out on the lake though!!

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Whew....good to know (for the first time ever on these boards) that I'm not the only one who didn't catch many fish. smile

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Was out today from noon till 3:00 on 7 mile, 8 mile, and south tip. Nothing. Pulled spinners and crawlers. Was not marking many fish on top at all. Did mark some right on the bottom edge of flats. Will try again Saturday. Good luck all. I dont think the storms last night helped.

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MNfishguy, your student must not own a Ranger.

Actually he does. He runs a 211 Reatta and pulls tubers/bass fishes local lakes more than running contour lines.

It was actually a very good lesson for him in the value of "value" electronics. He was so frustraded I thought he was going to have a stroke! He's a good friend of mine so I thought it was funny.

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Went out yesterday to the mud, picked off about 20 between three of us. Leeches where the hot ticket again. We tried spinners/crawlers for awhile around noon and picked off two right away on a sexy shad colored blade but that died off.

Went back to leeches and tried a different flat. The fishing was definitly better in the morning hours, but that is to be expected.

Picked up 4 under 17"(one under 12"), all released. Biggest was 27".

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pretty much as the same above. 2 guys 13 fish all over the slot. fished the mud from 6-1.. crawlers did well in the morning with a spinner but eventually ened up pulling leeches. leeches I would say had 3:1 bites vs crawlers...

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Well I didn't crush em' like you two, but from Saturday and Sunday, between 2 boats and 4 people we caught 5(biggest 27"), 4 smallies, and a small pike. We only fished one evening and morning, otherwise it was midday. All were caught on the eastside between the hole near July Bar(39') and off Big Point from 29-14', except the smallies were caught near the Myr Mar marina. Most were caught on bobbers and leeches/crawlers, and 2 were drifting with a lindy and crawler.

Appledoorns hotel rooms are super nice!

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pretty much as the same above. 2 guys 13 fish all over the slot. fished the mud from 6-1.. crawlers did well in the morning with a spinner but eventually ened up pulling leeches. leeches I would say had 3:1 bites vs crawlers...

Are you using spinners with leeches, or Lindy rigging?

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anyone having any luck on the south side. going to get up there late tommorrow night around 7, and just wanta fish for a few hours.

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We had decent luck in 18-24 FOW around the graveyard and banana reef. Caught a handful of fish from 7-10pm using a slip and leach. I know everyone else is saying shallow, but we were on the outside of the crowd and seemed to catch the most fish. I should mention that was last week and everything was over 20"....mostly 22-25". Different thread, same Mille Lacs story it seems. Oh well...still a lot of fun. If I want to eat fish that bad, I'll go order some or buy it. So sick of hearing the complaints of "too many big fish....where are the keepers".

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So sick of hearing the complaints of "too many big fish....where are the keepers".

Don't worry about those small walleyes, we don't need them. Those big ones will live forever.

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Don't worry about those small walleyes, we don't need them. Those big ones will live forever.

Exactly. So many cant see the forest for the trees.
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Not this argument again. smile

I think both sides of this debate should easily be able to find a different thread to share their points of view....

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I was fishing the SE humps Monday night with my son and a friend of his. Used slip bobbers and all we caught were 12 and 13 inch fish all released because they were too small. Must have been on the wrong lake...

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Well I braved the waves on the north side today to see if I could improve my leadcore skills. Only got one walleye, but did get a nice northern (maybe 8 lbs or so) and a sumo smallie (the ruler in the pic is 26'' long), both of which were in over 30 ft of water in the middle of nowhere. Also got a few fish on lindys and spinners.

full-18483-22160-sumobass.jpg

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Pontoonfishing! Sweet screen name! Who doesnt like pontoon fishing by the way? I hate to meet that guy...

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Crappie Sniffer (Chad Peterson), Travis Sorokie, and I leadcored the big pond yesterday and did "okay". It was slow (and HOT) but we did manage to pull 17 walleyes into the boat. Chad was filming us and will have a short video up sometime soon here. full-130-22230-205333_285828148192016_59

full-130-22231-img_1218.jpg

full-130-22232-img_1221.jpg

full-130-22233-img_1222.jpg

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Was out Saturday afternoon in the heat. Saw a lot of floaters. Everyone was at least 20" with one that was trying hard to swim that we picked up and tried to help being 26". Saw at least 20 floating as we boated around. What a waste of some beautiful fish.

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3 of us did pretty well on Saturday morning. We made it out to the edge of one of the flats fairly early but didn't start catching fish til about seven. Caught 23 fish using a slip bobber and leech from about 7:00 to about 9:30 and than it slowed. We took a break and went back out and the afternoon and boated another 15 toward sunset. Saw a lot of boats pulling lindys but didn't see them boating a lot of fish.

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Was out Saturday afternoon in the heat. Saw a lot of floaters. Everyone was at least 20" with one that was trying hard to swim that we picked up and tried to help being 26". Saw at least 20 floating as we boated around. What a waste of some beautiful fish.

This is where the DNR should step in and close it for the summer

Theres no way with this heat and water temps are those fish going to survive coming out of that deep water

and any body can catch them then they try to take a picture drop the fish on the bottom of a hot boat 10 times and throw it back

you think that fish is going to live

daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

that poor lake is destined for tradgey

Dont fool with MOTHER NATURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I have been seeing all of the floaters too, very sad to see.. We all know there is no way the dnr will close fishing. I have been leaving the fish inside the net and removing the hook as quick as i can with the fish mostly still in the water to prevent any further stress to the fish for this exact reason, if it helps alot or not, i at least feel i am doing all i can to prevent the fish from dieing.

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