mille lacs 2020 Mille Lacs Lake Fishing Reports

[eelpout1]

2 boats--- no fish. went out to hennepin got to rough( big rollers)moved in to big point saw a few fish boated most went back in. going up to the gravel later, will try to get a report out later. stay dry and safe everybody.

[eelpout1]

oh ya Thanks Paul!!! those 2 youngsters are doing a great job launching boats, I think they are having way too much fun!!!!!!!! thanks for the great accomidations, ya hooo!!!!

[northender]

Knox Point is about 1/4 mile to the west of The Red Door.

[brdhunter]

slow, slow, slow on the SE side. Cpl slots, cpl to small (Last night).... Never saw a fish caught from 10 am to 3 pm today.

[snapjigger]

N.E sand 7 fish boated 4 slots 3,4lb or bigger, lost 5 more. 6 A.M - noon. Saw lots of fish caught, really slowed down about 10:30, 11:00. 16'-19'.

[Gordon]

We hit the N.E. end of the lake from 6:30am to about 3:00 in the afternoon. Caught 12 fish - 6 were keepers. Drifted minnows in the morning and stated out very hot. 3 on first pass 4 on second pass, then nothing until the rain came at noon and turned back on. Caught the last five with leeches - all keepers in 13 to 14 F.O.W.

[rodmaker]

Paul,

We did not go out for the night bite. I must be getting softer in my old age 48.

We launched at 6:00 am at Agate. Nothing there. Went in front of Fishcher's nothing. Went to malmo 2 small ones . (released) Moved to Carlsona . Caught 7 fish 10:00 - 1:00. (1) 28 " (released). (My Son's best friend-Jason) (1) 26". (myself) (1) 24 1/2". (myself) (1) 20".(my Son- Andy) (2) 17-17 1 2/. (Andy & Jason) (1) 15".(Jason) With rain showers around 1:45 and few to bring home , we bailed. (The other two in the boat were cold,*my Son Andy and Jason 22 AND 23 YRS OLD ) time to invest in good rain wear, foot wear). It was a good time to spend with Andy & Jason , who has never been on Mille Lacs. Guess what. His first fish 28" , his PB. for an Eye. He's hooked on Mille Lacs.

We caught all our fish on leeches. 7-9 ft snells. chart bead. Hooks colors were, purple, orange,chart,pink, one fish on red.

Hoping for better weather next weekend.

If someone can help. We have nice photos we would like to share.

Good luck tomorrow everyone.

Happy Mother's Day to all the gals out there.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

email it to me rodmaker I'll get it up for ya!!! [email protected]

[deerwoody]

I fished the north end from midnight-6a.m. and from 6p.m.-midnight last night.44 fish total ranging from 14-28".12-15 feet seemed to be the best.

[BigWadeS]

Had a very good opening day for fishing. We found fish in the 17-21ft range and riggin with a leech seemed to work well for us. We were between Agate reef/bay and Malmo Bay, 1 keeper nice thick 17", the rest were over 20 and the biggest being 25". What a great problem to have, fish too big to keep and they were almost all males....they made sure to leave their mark all over the boat...lol..

couldn't stay and fish the afternoon/evening bite as my partner's boat was acting up and the motor wouldn't stay running, it was quite interesting at a couple points, but we managed to get back okay.

I hope everyone involved in the lund to lund boat crash yesterday is doing well. Be careful out there everyone!

[walleyeJoe]

fished the sand for a few hours. did real well, fished a gravel to sand transition and did better.. then to the rocks at night went slow so we left..

[Basseyes]

Got out in the afternoon and didn't see a lot of fish caught on the north end. But that's all relative on this lake that can spoil you right quick.

Water Temp was about 48.

No real big fish for us this year but the size structure seems much better and I hope that's a sign of good things to come for the lake as a whole. Keepers seem easier to come by this year.

The lake truly is amazing with the pressure it gets yet still puts out numbers of quality fish.

Didn't seem to be as many people out as the last few years.

Is so much better getting on and off the lake than even 5-6 years ago. Not sure if the equipment has just gotten that much better or if guys have gotten smarter and quicker at getting boats on and off the trailers. Don't really care sure is nice though. Seemed like everyone's manners were in good shape and that was nice to see. Guys even turning off their lights at the access so you can back the trailer up without being blinded or pulling far enough ahead so the guy behind you can get his rig straight really speed up the loading and unloading process.

Little things like that are a real courtesy and greatly appreciated. They go a long way towards making the whole experience more enjoyable for everyone.

Seemed like the fish had yet to spawn or are right in it where we were. The males last year seemed to have some milk left but this year they seemed full.

The bit is only going to get better in the next few weeks I'd bet as they finish up and the water temp warms up.

[elusivecrappiecatcher]

We went out yesterday, hit the Malmo boat launch at 6am and waited maybe 2 minutes to get the boat in the water.

We tried the sand for awhile in 8-10ft with lindy rigs and didn't get a bite.

We then tried went down to 2 mile and noticed everyone was anchored with bobbers, so we thought we would give it a try, couldn't get the anchor to hold because of the waves though.

Then we went down and fished Banana reed what a slow and rough ride down there! There was one other boat a little ways away from us. We got the anchor deal figured out and right away my buddy caught a nice fat 24 incher (released after a quick photo. A short while later i got a nice small mouth (released after photo) on a bobber that was 18" man what a fight! I was happy after that, I caught the one nice fish for my day and that is all I ever ask for is one fish lol.

Then the rain came so we went to Fishermans Wharf for lunch then headed back out to Banana again and nothing. We headed back up to two mile where the boats kind of all left for awhile we didn't get anything.

Fun part of the day was testing my buddys Warrior in big waves. Full bore 48mph made for a wild ride but we learned that going fast on them waves is fun but you tend to break things, like the depth finder busted off and just about flew out of the boat. The livewell overflow tube busted off, my tacklebox flipped over and hit the floor and smashed the top up. As the day went on though the waves got a bit smaller and we were able to go wide open from Banana reef and to the boat launch in malmo to drop off a friend and then back down there.

No fish for the rest of the day and we left the lake at about 6:30pm.

[rodmaker]

Thanks. I'll send them tomorrow.

[Sandmannd]

Was a good opener with Wade. Here are the pics.

Wade with a 21"

My 21"

My phat 22"

[rodmaker]

Nice job. I'll get my photos here tomorrow. Heading back up there Sat.

[eyebjim]

We went to the NE sand sunday for a few hours. They were playing hit and spit with hard hits but nothing there but a mangled leach. We missed about 20 or so and caught a 20,15,14,26,14,19. It was a good time for a short trip.

[rodmaker]

How deep were you fishing. Everything for us was around 19ft

[Pat Burch]

Opening weekend was a good one for me this year. I started the early morning in the sand with a few fish being caught. Lot's of milking males and most fish were two big to keep. After a couple of hours on the sand and all the boats crowding in I figured it was time to go. So, around 10:30 with the wind blowing pretty nice I decided to cork on some shallow rocks on the east side in about 9-11 feet. We picked up 5 fish corking but it was a little slower than the rigging. However 2 of the five were slot fish to go in the box. We eat some lunch and went back out for the afternoon. The bite for us in the afternoon was really good. We caught around 25 fish in the afternoon and two of them were 27 inchers. It was a nice mix of eaters and big fish in these areas . The best bite in the afternoon was out on some Transition areas on the North east side of the lake in 17-22 feet of water. Try to Find some good rock reefs and follow them out until the rocks taper off into a hard bottom of sand/gravel and start there and work out to the softer silt bottom. You can find these transitions by watching your electronics. If you do not have good electronics use a heavy weight like 3/4 to 1 ounce sinker and you can feel the difference of the bottom much better and you will now when you are in those transition areas. Sunday was much the same, all in all a good bite. You will have allot of options right now to put fish in the box. Nightime Corking is working, rigging is working and I know a bunch of guys that ran cranks shallow around 8 feet of water and did well. Things are starting out on the rght foot for this year, so come on up and wet a line.

[mrfish1991]

drifted rigs in 17-22 fow on the south end with three guys on sat. only got 2 fish, a 24 and a 27. Too slow for me

[mrfish1991]

water temp was 48 degrees btw

[Jlineandsinker]

My sons and I fished Sat and Sun until 8:00 pm managed two keeper of 17 and 15 " the rest were all slot fish. All were under bobbers in 8 feet of water. We had one tagged female 25" which left some of her eggs in my boat. What a mess. Total of nine fish, a little slow.

[eyebjim]

Rodmaker,

Mostly 18-21fow. A couple in 10 fow at dusk with bobbers.

Kinda slow but far better than last year.

[kidfish]

Rodmaker, give me a call tomorrow.

[Red Miller]

From the sounds of things, opener was right in the middle of the spawn. Wow is been a few years since thats happened. We are heading up Thursday. We may have to rethink where we are going to fish. The usual "week after opener" spots might not be turned on.

[rodmaker]

Kidfish.I'll call late in the am after 10:00.

How did you guys do???

[machohorn]

We fishied sat 8-11:30 am. Caught 4 15-17.5, Sat night from 5-8 and got 1 more, I would have fished more but my uncle needed help. Went out Sun 6-10am and got 3 all keepers. Had a fish fry with the ladies, Went back out about noon and got 3- 24, 20 19. Fished mon morning until 11 and got 2 more keepers. We started in 14-17 ft nothing on 5 pass's on sat then I moved way away from everyone, my partner said what do you think you'll find out here? 23 ft less then 5 min we got our 1st 2 keepers of the season, We continued to drift this depth 23-19 all weekend and did pretty good for the amount of time on the water. Red hook lime green bead. We also missed a few.

[311Hemi]

We had a decent weekend on the NE end. Saturday was the best for us with boating a total of 12 eye's between 7:00am and 11pm. We got 4 drifting with leaches on the northern sand (18') mid day and ended up with 8 Saturday night pulling shads in 14' FOW around gravel just south of Malmo. Kept 4 of the 12.

Sunday we headed down to Hunters Point and ended up boating 4 and kept 0, and had a few get away from us also. All 4 fish were caught in 25' FOW away from any other boats and I ended up catching a 27" eye, which was a PB for me. Tried pulling cranks again over the gravel Sunday night and it was not as productive for us as Saturday night...we only boated 1 which we kept. We were marking a lot of fish though.

Monday the lake was dead calm and we did not boat one fish. We started out slowly trolling leeches up by Red Door and east of there in 18-20'FOW. We then tried Carlsona for an hour or two and didn't hit anything there either. We were off the lake around 2:00 to pack up and head home. Can't wait to get up there again.

My 27":

Lindy Rig's 25":

[rodmaker]

Way to go!!!!!! Are you using your rod you built HSR 9000???

[311Hemi]

Way to go!!!!!! Are you using your rod you built HSR 9000???

Yep, I sure am (got the 27" on it!). Man that thing is nice for drifting leeches with bottom bouncers.