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Smallies are hot


Riverratpete

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Was out Sat AM, southern shore rocks and all I can say is MAN are the smallies on fire. Their heavy on the Crawfish right now, they were all puking up crawfish and crawfish pieces..my livewell was full of them. Nice spread on the sizes also, plenty of boxers. Caught them on white tubes, crawfish type/color cranks and crawfish tubes. Find some rocks in the 5-10 ft and have at'er.

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What time of day are you finding them most active? I have tried a few different times on rockpiles on the east side. Few different colored B Fish N moxies/pulse Rs (including white), half crawlers on jig, and spinnerbaits and had very limited success. Have seen fish and had them follow spinnerbaits, but only caught one. Would love to get on a good bite, also noticed they haven't been hitting my leeches at all when walleye fishing the shallow rock reefs.

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Must have been in the right spot, I also fished sat morning and threw the same baits in pretty much the same areas and pretty much the same depth and we caught more walleyes then smallmouth, I thought it was super slow. I'm glad somebody could put the beat down on em, cause we sure didn't.

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Funny, tried for Wallys at the same time..no dice, just smallies..weird.

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fjd just posted that he's been fishing smallies all week and that's it has been slow. Must be a right place/right time thing

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Not trying to stir the pot at all, just not going to GPS coord. By southern shore I mean between Garrison and say the casino.

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Garrison to the Casino are nowhere near the "southern shore", sheesh!

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Yah but, when the road turns west then north is kinda south , and east can be north until the road straightens out ,or if it turns east then south the other way from north is west.....Well, you know what I mean...... confused

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yeah, guess your right, that is the west side of the lake...funny, I've always thought of it as the south..I'm directionally conflicted, what can I say...

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Spent 10 hours Ripping a 5" tube and 3/4oz jig in 6 to 15 feet of water.

3 of us caught 147 smallmouth, 34 largemouth, 8 pike and 2 walleyes.

The bite is on.

Isle Bay,Twin Bay, Cove Bay and Waukhon Bay held fish.

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So that's where all the bass went.Nice to hear a good small mouth report.

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Apparently Mille Lacs is not ruined eh Rum?

When you fish with a Rapala field rep/prostaffer and are using a prototype tube from Trigger X and have a TV crew from Rapala TV following you around, things just fell into place.

I was just along for the ride and enjoyed every minute of it.

Average smallie was 17" biggest for the boat was just under 20".

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Yah but, when the road turns west then north is kinda south , and east can be north until the road straightens out ,or if it turns east then south the other way from north is west.....Well, you know what I mean...... confused

What's really sad..... I actually understand this....

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I have never fished Mille Lacs for smallies and I'm thinking about giving it a shot Saturday. Which side of the lake would be a good starting point?

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Anywhere you can find rocks.

There are lots of them on the south side. And on the east side. The west side, too. smile

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Launched out of Isle a few days ago looking for smallies on Sunday. Weather was great. Bout mid 70's all day although the breeze was a bit stiff. Fished some obvious rock reefs and some not so obvious while concentrating mostly on 8 to 12 ft depths right on the sides of reefs (spider, upper twin, un-named spots, to name a few). We threw everything from crawfish imitation plastics rigged Texas style with 1/4 oz and 1/8 oz heads, worms, YUM dingers, crankbaits and bucktail jigs.

From about 10 to 5,3 guys,we landed 3 smallmouth. Yes, 3. One of which, was a nice 19" 3.54 lb landed by me, but 3 total for the day. Oh and a 20 1/2" walleye in 7 ft of water on a YUM craw papi which was a surprise. Saw a few decent fish follow only to turn around at the boat except one of the three which inhaled the bait right as my nephew was going to lift the lure out of the water... What the heck are we doing wrong? Any help is appreciated. There were crayfish everywhere at the launch, they should be wantin to feed right? My 19" was beat up at the shoulder so you know he was diggin for crayfish. Someone help me troubleshoot my smallmouth hunting woes. Just want a few nice pictures and a possible shot at a 6 lber. Bottom line is I just can't seem to find them in better numbers. Saw 1 other smallmouth caught that day on another boat and that was it. Perhaps go to the NW end instead?

1ER

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True true.. I'm just thinking, "Man, there should be more at least."

I won't give up though. Goin back some time soon.

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Do people keep and eat Smallies?

I thought they were more for the sport.

Never tried one myself, but they get mushy in the summer?

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Do people keep and eat Smallies?

I thought they were more for the sport.

Never tried one myself, but they get mushy in the summer?

I've heard they are quite tasty. But for the most part, I know a lot of people who would just rather eat other fish. I know I don't eat them for that same reason. But for a sport fish. I'd take a smallie fight over a largemouth any day!

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

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