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I can only hear crickets chirping

lindy rig

By lindy rig
in Mille Lacs Lake Fishing Reports

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MahtowaDave Enthusiast

MahtowaDave

Posted
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Yes. Perfect night out there weatherwise. The fishing was OK. Had 3 walleyes and a smallmouth in about 2 1/2 hours in front of the cabin on the east side. Missed 3 others, but I think I was getting picked on by rock bass too. Just used bobbers and leeches.

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lindy rig Proficient

lindy rig

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Thanks for the reply. What a quiet forum lately. I was out this past weekend. Me and a buddy found a number of small walleyes 12" and less on leeches and lighted bobbers. Hopefully a good sign for the future.

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MahtowaDave Enthusiast

MahtowaDave

Posted
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Yeah, Quiet lake lately! I was out again twice. Same story. Mostly small walleyes on lighted bobbers. Found out that they were not rock bass, just smallish walleyes. It is encouraging. I have a feeling the lake will be back to decent a bit sooner than I originally thought.

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Stick in Mud Grand Master

Stick in Mud

Posted
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I haven't fished the lake much, but I've found the same thing as you guys: lots and lots of small walleyes. They're especially thick up around the rocks, but I'm even getting them on leadcore on the flats. It *is* nice to see some small fish, though.

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gp13581 Enthusiast

gp13581

Posted
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Super quiet on the water. Fished some rocks off Pike Point and picked up a small smallie. Went deeper to 27' and bobber fished with a leach and got nothing. Cruised over to Garrison reef and caught 1 slot walleye and two decent smallmouth on top of the rocks in 6' of water. Musky guys were chucking bucktails over the rocks. It's really tough justifying driving that far and not catching much. We left in the early evening. Probably should have stayed to fish later into the evening. Several boats going out as we were heading in. Saw a launch drifiting in what was about 14' of water. Any idea what they would have been catching? I went over to check it out and there didn't appear to be anything special about the area. Are they just drifting leaches over the sand? This was about 5:00 in the evening.

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Kyhl Proficient

Kyhl

Posted
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Made my first trip of the year thanks to the removal of the night ban. Fished Saturday afternoon and evening then again Sunday morning.

No keepers and I was fine with that. Boated 14 between 8" and 16" and one 23".

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Stick in Mud Grand Master

Stick in Mud

Posted
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Yeah, we've been finding a LOT of small fish, too. They're vastly outnumbering the big fish we catch, which I suppose is a good thing...but I thought there weren't any small fish in the lake. smile

Nota bene: We've mostly been fishing close-ish to shore on transition lines, not out on the mud or in the basin (where I assume most of the big fish are). Still, in the past few years, these transitions have been loaded with big fish, but this year they're fewer and a bit farther between.

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northender Community Regular

northender

Posted
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Yeah, we've been finding a LOT of small fish, too. They're vastly outnumbering the big fish we catch, which I suppose is a good thing...but I thought there weren't any small fish in the lake. smile

Nota bene: We've mostly been fishing close-ish to shore on transition lines, not out on the mud or in the basin (where I assume most of the big fish are). Still, in the past few years, these transitions have been loaded with big fish, but this year they're fewer and a bit farther between.

Maybe "big fish" do not live forever? No year classes to speak of in the past 5-6 years (until this year) survived past age 1? Anyone figure out why the "big fish" don't bite this year in numbers comparable to the past few years?

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Kyhl Proficient

Kyhl

Posted
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We were out a ways on gravel bars on the south side. With the bug hatch going on, we had no interest in sitting over mud.

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Redlineracer12 Enthusiast

Redlineracer12

Posted
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Maybe "big fish" do not live forever? No year classes to speak of in the past 5-6 years (until this year) survived past age 1? Anyone figure out why the "big fish" don't bite this year in numbers comparable to the past few years?

The "big fish" were biting fine this Spring out on the mud. Now they just have an abundant amount of food and are a little trickier to tempt into biting. I have noticed a lot more smaller fish closer to shore where I caught larger fish the last couple years like Stick in Mud, but there was one 27.5" mixed in there at about 9:50pm one night.

These smaller fish are not all 1 year old, there are a lot of 12-16" fish that must be at least a couple years old at this point.

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northender Community Regular

northender

Posted
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The "big fish" were biting fine this Spring out on the mud. Now they just have an abundant amount of food and are a little trickier to tempt into biting. I have noticed a lot more smaller fish closer to shore where I caught larger fish the last couple years like Stick in Mud, but there was one 27.5" mixed in there at about 9:50pm one night.

These smaller fish are not all 1 year old, there are a lot of 12-16" fish that must be at least a couple years old at this point.

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