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Smallie Bite

gopher19

By gopher19
in Mille Lacs Lake Fishing Reports

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rcguy Explorer

rcguy

Posted
Posted

gopher,

Fished yesterday from 8am - 2pm and caught about 12 - 15 small mouth. The biggest went almost 19 inches. Had no idea where to go so just went out on the southeast side and fished the shoreline up to Doe Island area in anywhere from 10 -20 feet of water. Used medium suckers on short 18 inch lindy type rigs (so they didn't burrow into the rocks) moving pretty slowly. Had a bunch of breakoffs from the zebra mussels if we let the line get down into the rocks. Switched over to bobbers with a crawler and caught some small ones that way too.

Overall a great day on the lake fishing for small mouth bass.

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Redlineracer12 Enthusiast

Redlineracer12

Posted
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Yesterday evening my wife and I went out for about a half hour before the storm rolled in (thinking it was about 6PM we were out). Anchored up on a typical 6' rock pile and it was non stop action until we got scared off by lightning. We were using jumbo leeches 3-4' under a slip bobber. Sometimes the bobber never even stood up before going under. Almost all of them were 15-16", there were a couple smaller ones mixed in though. Depth finder was lit up, the bottom 2 feet under the boat was solid fish. Never been on a smallmouth bite like that before! I was also getting bit while jigging plastics, but was losing a lot of jigs to the rocks, so I gave in as the bobber was producing just as well.

I think most of my luck was purely timing as we were fishing earlier that day and it was only a fish here and there every half hour or so (bulk of the fish on a jig/plastic or jig/crawler). I didn't even try fishing them today but I'm guessing the cold front would have slowed them down substantially.

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gopher19 Contributor

gopher19

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Decided to try a launch trip this weekend, captain said walleye fishing was so slow we're going for smallies. Anchored on a midlake rockpile on the south end in about 7-8ft. of water and killed them. We bobber fished with crawlers on a plain hook, crawler hooked in the middle. Nonstop action, must have caught 40 plus for the entire launch, biggest was 19". A lot in the 15-16" range and some smaller as well. So i guess it safe to say that the smallie bite is going strong.

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stealth3350 Rising Star

stealth3350

Posted
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is smallies closed for the season?? never fished for them.. i was just curious if they are still open.. someone told me they thought it closed this wknd?

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bturck Grand Master

bturck

Posted
Posted

checking the reg it states that smallie is C/R Statewide 9/9/2013 to 2/23/2014. I would expect that you are correct its closed to anything other than C/R on Mille Lacs

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  • 2 weeks later...
Juan Grande Experienced

Juan Grande

Posted
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Yeah, you can fish for them, you just can't keep them. They get vulnerable to over harvest when the water temps drop because they school up tight.

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Supercrew Collaborator

Supercrew

Posted
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Give me some more wind.... and a south end rock reef..... Smallmouth are my target fish. Small crank baits, soft body jigs, and maybe toss a spinner bait at them big girls, some fish walleye.... I drive 2 hours and fish smallies....... for fun.

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bassfshin24 Rising Star

bassfshin24

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Anyone know how the bite has been lately? With the cool down coming this week I would expect them to start schooling up a little bit. I can't wait until the water temps get into the low 50's and high 40's.

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fjd Explorer

fjd

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Hey Bassfshin:

I made a trip this summer - early July and had my hat handed to me on the smallmouth bite. Would make the 12 hour trip in the next couple of weeks if you could give me the confidence that the Mid October bite was a good one for the smallmouth on Mille Lacs.

Thanks

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bassfshin24 Rising Star

bassfshin24

Posted
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The fall bite on the pond can be unbelievable. If you can find them it can be a 50-60 fish day with a lot of 4lbs+ fish. I'll report back on Sunday about how this next weekend goes.

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Craigums Experienced

Craigums

Posted
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Do they hold to some of the same typical areas?

I just checked my schedule, Im free this weekend I'm half tempted to make a run up there :-/

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bassfshin24 Rising Star

bassfshin24

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Last fall I found them in the same areas as I found them this spring. A good rock to sand transition. Looks like the weather is not going to be too pleasant this weekend. Hopefully I can get out a couple of times at least.

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SCONASOTAN Community Regular

SCONASOTAN

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We did great on them last October, shoreline breaks with rock/sand/weed mix. Big Minnows/small suckers on jigs/floats. some on cranks. I am hoping to find them in 2 weeks. Last year we would catch about a 50/50 mix of walleye/smallies in the same areas.

hoping to hear some positive reports before then.

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bassfshin24 Rising Star

bassfshin24

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It was pretty tough weekend for me out there. I pretty much just hit my normal fall spots and they were no where to be found. Wind kept me pretty shallow so I didn't really get an opportunity to try some of the deeper areas. I was on the lake twice for a total of about 5 hours and caught 2 fish and missed 3 others. One of them was very nice but definitely hadn't started the fall feeding yet. It was just shy of 21" but only went 4lbs 9oz. In two weeks that thing will weigh 5.5lbs. Both fish were caught on lipless crank. I really thing the cold front turned them off. I think they are kind of in the transition phase. I think the next week or two could be really good!

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hydrashack Enthusiast

hydrashack

Posted
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Thanks for the update. I am vicariously living through you on those hogs you are catching up there. I am hitting the river the next three weekends and still hoping to be able to get up the ML before the lock up.

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