Mille Lacs Tullibees,

[broman]

anyfish2,

It seem like you guys were catching them pretty good then.Can you share where were you fishing? I been out trying to find tullies (2 trips now) and gotten nothing more than a few perch on each trip. I have been trying Lybacks around the tullies hole area.

Go out of Hunters and hit some mud flats. Find the bottom edge of the flat and just start drilling about 50 to 100 feet from it. You'll find them. The mud flats are a pretty place to find them and I can almost guarantee you'll find them. I caught my limit the last time out and so did those I went with. Don't just put up your shack and stay in one spot, drill, fish, drill fish, move until you find them. When you do there will be plenty of them.

[NewtotheNorth]

Will be back out this Sunday to chase some perch and tullies again. I'll try to hop some holes a little more.

Been using anything from 1/16 oz spoon (gold/silver) to 1/64th jigs. Tried waxie/minnow/euro. with mix result. Any suggestion on presentation?

[broman]

Smallest silver swedish pimple you can get works the best. Tip with euros or crappie minnow heads. Sometimes the'll eat it without any bait. The key is to get them to chase it up. They can't resist it when the lure starts moving away from them upward. If they don't bite, drop it down to the bottom, bounce it off the bottom a little, then slowly bring it back up and watch them follow it upward. They are the most aggressive fish on Mille Lacs.

[NewtotheNorth]

I guess that could be why. I mostly jig and when the fish come, I hold still, thinking it would bite. That normally makes them run away.

Will report back and see how it goes.

[monstermoose78]

Off the mud in 30+ feet of water the best depth for me has been 32-35 feet of water.

[ANYFISH2]

New, first welcome to HSO! We have been fishing the mud flats out of Garrison. Our best luck has been in 35+/- ft of water near the break of the flat(within 50yds). we have caught the tullies on minnow heads and wax worms, wax worms be the best by far. We have basically been using panfish jigs, and switching colors as shapes often when we have fish tha are not biting, the changes seem to trigger them when they get negitive. The best jig I have used so far has been a "flipper" jig, a jig with two metal flippers on top, the flash really seems to keep them coming.

Moving until you find them is a good idea, shouldn't take long either. We have been fortunate to set up and always have tullies around though. Good luck!

[monstermoose78]

I have been using a do jigger spoon with a drop line then a white diamond jig. Make sure to take the treble hook of the do jigger spoon.

[Mnfisher]

Monster: I used a drop line but lost one so I switched to one of those jigger spoons but left the treble on. Why do you change to a single hook? I suppose it would be easier to remove. I was actually kind of surprised that the jigger spoon worked so well....thought it might have too much "flash".

[monstermoose78]

thats why they work so good mnfisher. The reason to take the treble of is because if you add a drop line with the treble on it is illegal. Today we got 5 perch and one 14 inch walleye. I ran into some of the rudest people on the lake ever. We caught are fish on 3 mile reef. in 20-28 feet.

[monstermoose78]

tullies have small mouths so i put a pannie jig on drop line so they can get in there mouth

[trappingaddiction]

Just curious what everyone thinks the best resort is for tullibees, and maybe a few perch thrown in? Thinking of going up tomorrow, and want to find the best tullie bite possible.

[DTro]

Just wanted to thank those of you contributing to this thread. I made my first Tullie trip and had a great time. We worked the edges of the mud flats in about 35FOW and caught about 40 today.

The best lure for me was a NilsMaster Hali dropper rig. Didn't seem to matter what bait was. We caught fish on waxies, maggots, and shrimp.

Aanderud had much better luck with a tiny panfish jig.

[pushbutton]

did someone say dinner.....

[trappingaddiction]

Looks like you two did good. What time of day were you fishing? Any specific area of time that the bite was better? What resort did you go out of?

[DTro]

They bit all throughout the day. When a hole slowed down we kept moving.

We went out of Terry's and he was helpful in pointing us in the right direction.

I had to prove him wrong about the shrimp being worthless though as I caught several on them

[Cheetah]

I was out yesterday as well, but only managed 3 Tullibees and lost one jumbo perch at the hole. Lots of lookers, not many takers in the spots we fished, tried a lot of presentations. I think I was mostly just ending up on schools of small finicky perch. Everyone fishing around us seemed to be doing about the same. I too went out of Terry's, and he directed me to a bunch of areas to try, but I wasn't able to get to a lot of them with my Outback. The spots I did fish were on 8mile and 7mile. I managed to get stuck trying to get back on the road at the end of the day following some truck tracks through the snow bank. Luckily a guy came by on the road and dragged me off of it.

[broman]

We fished the lower section of Greggs flat and ended up with 40 Tulibees for the 4 of us. Lots of smoking in the coming days.

[spankster80]

was that guy driving a red tahoe

[aanderud]

I would absolutely LOVE to use some feisty 13-15 inch tulibee for flathead bait in the summer. Unfortunately, I think in the warm river water they'd live about 30 seconds

They bite was light yesterday, for sure. Dtro was outfishing me about 10 to 1 (perch plus tuliees) in the early part of the day, until he let me use one of those dropper hook jigs. After I got ahold of one of those, the ratio was about 3 to 1. I really just couldn't feel confident with that spoon though, it seemed like I was missing fish due to them biting light and me not feeling it. Ended up switching to a gill pill style jig on my ultralight, and I ended up getting icing another dozen or so over the next few hours. Almost made for a respectable ratio by the end of the day.

They bit today on euro larvae, waxworms, and shrimp. No bait seemed to outfish the others too much. Caught quite a few perch, but nothing over 8-9 inches, and lots smaller. It would have been nice if some of those were bigger.

The biggest chuckle I got was when a guy complaining about tulibees. "I don't care about these stupid tulibees"....but he proceeded to say he caught about 75 of them while perch fishing (couldn't catch jumbos to save his life, they just weren't biting). He was going to keep 10 bigger tullies to go along with his perch. Now, to me that sounds like the tullies made his day of fishing MUCH better -- not only was it about 10 times the action he would have had if there were no tullies, but he also took more fish home with him. Surprising how little respect these fish get. Some hardcore walleye/perch fishermen complained about them too, and I said "well they put up a pretty good fight, much better than perch!". He tried to tell me that a good sized perch is a better fight. OK. To each his own.

[Bigtom]

I also was out there near 7 mile and we got our 30 tulibee and 3 jumbo perch. The smoker is going to be rolling tomarrow. MMM

[pushbutton]

aanderud,

i hear ya....and by the counts on this thread, looks like others are enjoying the pleasant surprise the tullies are providing the pond this winter. granted i have fishing adhd, and don't understand why people would not want consistent action versus staring down a blank hole all day and be happy to catch 2 walleyes. to each their own though and certainly no ill will. glad you guys got up here and found some fish!

[team wild]

Was out on 8 mile yesterday from 1:00 to 6:00 pm kept 10 tullibees and 1 15 inch walleye and 1 perch just under 14 inches wish I could have caught more of those!!!Waxies and minnow heads on gold lindy rattlers

[Cheetah]

was that guy driving a red tahoe

Yes sir, darker red, out on 7mile just before dark.

[spankster80]

that was me. no problem glad i could help

[ANYFISH2]

We were out yesterday and this morning. Boy our little spot alone sure changed this weekend, alot more people found it. Fishing seemed a little off compared to the past few weeks. In our house we caught 80 tullies, 25 perch, and 1 24 1/4" walleye. The tulibees never came in the large schools were seeing recently but bit slow and finicky all day. The best jig for us this weekend was a gold and glow color gill pill with a flipper jig coming in a distant second.

Tulibees may not be reveared by some but they have got me to go and fish Mille Lacs more in the last 3 weeks, than I have in the last 3 years(on the Ice).

he more fisherman in see targeting them the more I am an glad for the conservitive limit. They could be fun for years.

[nels2444]

Hey Cheetah, I think I saw you out yesterday morning. I was in a maroon suburban accross the road. We caught one perch in that location. Wishin I would have taken the info from Terrys and bought waxies...

[aanderud]

We heard from Terry that waxies was all the tullies were biting on...way more than euros he said, and shrimp were a 'waste of money'. Yet we caught plenty of fish on all 3 baits.

[broman]

test

[NewtotheNorth]

Hitted the Tullies hard on Sunday afternoon. Managed about 50 between the 7 of us. It seem that the better bite was during the morning hours. Caught them on waxie, eruo/spike and even plastics.

After sun down, the fishing slowed down as well.

[DTro]

Here's a short piece I put together about our trip. Thanks again everyone. I look forward to doing it again really soon.

http://fishingminnesota.com/top-stories/fishing-blind/