Smallies

[eye]

I was wondering if the small mouth were still biting?? I have fished Mille Lacs a lot for walleyes, but never for smallies. I would really appriciate some advice on where to start and what presentation to start with. Thanks a lot for any and all help.

[vikes40for60]

Eye-

yes the smallies are biting. My favorite presentation is trolling on my favorite NW rocky shorelines or rock piles. Or you can target the south and east sides. look for markers and rock piles. Cast Crayfish color tubes and imitations into the shallow rocky areas. I have also heard that surface baits have done as well.

Vikes40for60

[Guest]

I was out sunday morning and did good caught 17 smallies between 14 & 19 inches.My method is simple but works great.Just find any shallow rocks and use your trolling motor and look for the bass once you see one throw a leech in that direction and hang on.There were five boats on the rock pile I was at sunday most using top water not catching a single one.You might not look like bass pro with this method but it works good.

[Guest]

I did pretty much the same as deaddrake on the SE rocks. I'd just use the trolling motor and move around until I saw fish. I tried tubes, topwaters, etc. and couldn't get a single hit. Then I figured I'd try a slip bobber w/a leech or fathead. Boom! That was the ticket!! I just would back off the shallow area, anchor, and throw the slip rig into 2-3 ft of water.
Biggest ended up being 20 1/4"!!

[EBass]

I was also out on the SE side of the big pond this past weekend. On Saturday I couldn't get a hit using cranks, tubes, spinners, jigs, or anything fake; however, the large leech did the trick. I forgot how many I caught. Biggest was close to 18". I saw some other HUGE bass, but they weren't even interested in the leech. I guess that's why they are so big.

On a side note. The majority of the bass I caught had open sores on the tops of their heads. Also, they had little critters moving on them. I flicked off the critters and let them go of course.

My friends said that the sores probably happened when they are going after the huge amount of crayfish and bumping their heads on the rocks.

I disagree since the sore(s)are on the top of the head and not around the nose. Did anyone else notice these sores too? What the heck is it from?

Thanks,
EBass

[Guest]

Ebass-
Now that you mention it... I too landed a couple that had those sore as well. One even had 2.... one below eye level, and the other on top. Didn't notice any critters crawling on them.
BTW -- my 20 incher was caught on a fathead. The smaller ones would hit either leeches or fatheads.

[EBass]

FishNChester,
Those critter things I was talking about looked like 1/8" Centipede (spelling off). They were a dark tan color and had lots of legs. They moved pretty quick on the poor smallie. Just nasty little critters on fat smallies.

What do you think the open sores are all about?

EBass