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Cormorants.


eelpout1

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New diversionary subject.....dumb question??? Has anyone notice and over abundance of Cormorants on Milles Lacs this year? I have seen my share,, sometimes all rafted up and not willing to fly to far, sometimes 80 -100 birds, dang, maybe they are following me. Just an observation, but like I said, I've seen plenty.

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I heard the natives have actually trained the cormorants to herd the walleyes into their nets.

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To be perfectly honest with you I would try and fish as close to those birds as possible or even iin the spot they were at as they are a great fishfinder and your electronics should back that up.

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I saw more cormorants up there this year, by far, than any year prior. Whether that's coincidence or not, I have no clue.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

They spread the word the leech lake is not safe anymore! They are looking for new a home.

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as a full time resident of the lake for the last 10 or so years, i have not noticed more cormrants this year. looks to me to be about the same as years past......way too many. they do sometimes break off into smaller groups and there are some that hang out in cove bay. but i don't think that there are increased numbers this year

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The only good Cormorant is a dead Cormorant. Just sayin'.

If they looked or sounded like a Loon they would be alot more tolorable.

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The only good Cormorant is a dead Cormorant. Just sayin'.

If they looked or sounded like a Loon they would be alot more tolorable.

Just give them a little white paint and a kazoo and they could pull it off grin

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as a full time resident of the lake for the last 10 or so years, i have not noticed more cormrants this year. looks to me to be about the same as years past......way too many. they do sometimes break off into smaller groups and there are some that hang out in cove bay. but i don't think that there are increased numbers this year

Just seems like I've seen more at mid lake than ever before, like I said I think they are following me,

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I heard the natives have actually trained the cormorants to herd the walleyes into their nets.

Really is this needed?

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I fish a bit south of Mille Lacs and this is the first year I have seen the commorants on this lake in 18 years. They raft up in a flock of 200-300 even with some pelicans mixed in too. They leap frog eachother and I'm assuming they are on bait. I have run out and fished these areas before and marked the baitfish but never made it work out to catch fish yet. They can pack away a lot of fish in a short period of time. I once observed a pelican following some boats and he ate 5 sheephead between 1.5 - 2.0 lbs. Another guy I fish with daid he has seen a pelican eat 7 in an afternoon. It seems like commorants really like the lakes that have islands. Too bad they are not good to eat as it would be nice to thin them out, legally of course. Maybe the state could open a nuisence season?

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Unfortunately they are protected under federal law, don't kill one you will land in very hot water

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Wanderer
      I haven’t been as far north as the chair yet so I have no idea what condition leech has left in in!  I think he should take it home and restore it.   Big Rice has was a b*ch to paddle.  I didn’t miss it this weekend and won’t miss it any other weekend I don’t make it there.
    • Wanderer
      IKR!   I’m hopefully gonna be in Ely in a couple weeks but I’ll be chasing ducks more than grouse.  Not the best place to go for ducks but I love it up there in October.
    • Kettle
      Still biting lindy rigs. Had to get some fish before I head out to chase birds 
    • smurfy
      roughfish!!!!!!!!!!👍🤣🤣   dandy fish sir!!!!!!!!!!!👍
    • Kettle
      Put a few on the metal meat leash today 
    • monstermoose78
      As long as the birds don’t fly I am good. I can catch fish through the ice fairly well. 
    • MarkB
      My cousin and I just returned from beautiful Lake Vermilion after 4.5 days of the most spectacular walleye fishing you could ever hope for. Usually our mutual friend joins us but his father passed away and he had to opt out. We arrived late Saturday afternoon and packed things up after our morning outing Wednesday. We stopped at Cabelas on the way up and found them to be sold out of pike suckers. While they had them, they were charging 99 cents each! We then stopped at Harris bait shop and found a help yourself situation that was also out of pike suckers. They sold them while available for 6 for $6! We eventually found them locally for the same price as last year. During our stay, we used pike suckers, rainbow mix, and crawlers. The walleyes hit them all but, I believe, the rainbow mix caught the most, the crawlers were almost as productive, and the pike suckers produced the biggest fish.  We caught them in depths ranging from 13' to 27'. They were in the rocks and in the mud depending on the time of day. We caught walleyes all day every day with 5 o'clock PM to ~7 o'clock PM being optimum for quantity. The weather was absolutely HORRIBLE with high winds and non-stop rain early in the trip. Boat control was very difficult and I struggled to keep our speed around that .4mph to .6mph. Hits were fast and furious but the hit to catch ratio was at best 5 or more hits to one catch . We stuck with the 1oz bottom bouncers, 3 red beads, and a size 2 hook for the big suckers. I found a shorter 3' leader to be most effective. We caught 153 walleyes on our trip and I would bet we had at least 5 times that many hits!. Now, with all that said, we don't feed line to walleyes to help avoid gut hooks and that certainly gives rise to a poor hook-up ratio. We ate fish twice and brought home our limits. Everything else went back. The walleyes ranged in size from ~13" to 26". We caught lots of slot fish and fair numbers of 15"-19" fish. In addition, we caught 10 smallmouth and only one jumbo. Our really big fish were never landed. My cousin had a true giant walleye laying on top of the water right beside the boat and grabbed her by the base of the tail in an attempt to scoop her into the boat. She was having none of that and with a major flop, snapped the leader. We didn't use a net because I forgot it at the dock. Getting old is a bitch. I had two different walleyes(I'm sure) hooked on Tuesday that came off directly below the boat. Both fish I thought were snags when they hit. Anyone who thinks walleyes don't fight have never caught a truly big one. Both fish ran off several yards of line while fighting to get free. Eventually they both succeeded. I would hesitate to say how big I think my cousins fish was that he had beside the boat, but, my wife and I have caught some really big walleyes in Lake Vermilion and I know what a big walleye looks like. That walleye was absolutely enormous.  We've decided to bring my cousin's two sons back up for a short trip a little later on. Hopefully, the walleyes will still be in a feeding frenzy. Lastly, I usually like to include pictures with my posts. I have a big problem this time, I got a new phone and I know nothing about transferring the pictures. That will be remedied when we come back up. In the meantime....... Good Fishing, MarkB🙂
    • leech~~
      I don't think Moose needs my help, he seems to do pretty well with the ice fishing and grouse hunting by the pictures! 👌
    • smurfy
      looks to me like your gonna need to be on the ice ALOT to get them all checked out!!!!!!!👍🙄 mayhaps Leech could help ya out!!!!   at least he wouldnt be "accidently" locking any more threads!!!!!!🤗🤣🥴
    • monstermoose78
      I got some cool jigs this year this a picture from Slab Bait Shop. The 2nd to last photo is one of my jig boxes with them in it. The last photo has some Macula jigs and if your eyes are getting old these are awesome to tie!! I won the auction for the last photo so I got all of the plastics and jigs.
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