Baitfish Galore and Dead Fish on Shore

[invadersmn]

Can I ask what you were fishing with that was not very productive. I am heading that way tonight and just would like to have a heads up for what I am getting myself into. Thanks

[invadersmn]

Can I ask what you were fishing with that was not very productive. I am heading that way tonight and just would like to have a heads up for what I am getting myself into. Thanks

[Tonka Boy]

Invadermn,

I notice the same things last weekend...tons, and tons of baitfish. It also seemed to me that the bite slowed for most. We fished Spirit Island, Sloppy's, 5 mile, and 7 mile. Once in a while you would see a fish caught, but it was noticably slower than before. The one guy I saw using minnows, rather than the basic leech/crawler rig, outfished all the surronding boats, but it could have been a number of reasons why. Good luck!

------------------
Tonka Boy

[GullGuide]

Hey all,
After putting in many hours on the pond over the last week, I have a few observations that I would like to pass along and I welcome your responses and input.

First Observation- The bite has certainly slowed. Monday we spent the day working the South end gravel. On the three gravel flats that we fished we only witnessed about 5 fish caught and this was amongst 20 boats or so per spot over the course of 4 hours. Last night was a little better, my boat alone boating 8 fish in a little under 2 hours, but once again, witnessed very little action. This was on a mud flat.

Observation number 2- GAZILLION upon GAZILLION minnows. Every spot fished this week had cloud after cloud of baitfish either on or just off the edge of the structure. This, in my opinion, is the reason the bite has apparently slowed.

Observation number 3- Many dead and floating fish. Notice I said fish, not walleye. 90-90% of all fish that I saw floating were tullibees, not walleye. Yes, there was the occasional walleye, but not vast numbers. I could see how someone driving along 169 and looking out into Wigwam Bay and seeing white bellies floating everywhere and reading all the hype about dead walleye could assume that they were all walleye, but the fact is they are not walleye at all.

So, enjoy the bite while you can, I think we are going to see a normal bite fairly soon.

------------------
>"////=<
Gull Guide Service
fishingminnesota.com/gullguide
Brainerd-Mille Lacs-Willmar
Bemidji-Ottertail

[huskminn]

Gullguide,

Thanks for the report. It is all very interesting and good news (as far as the bait fish goes).

[fishnutbob]

The crash of mille lacs walleyes I read about because Of the lack of baitfish, is interesting but the fish dont only eat minnows when the mayflies hatch the walleyes feed heavily on them, as the food chain grows during the summer the walleyes feed on the hatch, the fishing has slowed down now because the minnow hatch is the correct size for the walleyes its a nice size meal,so dont worry the lake is fine the dead fish are mostly whitefish or tullies. I fished last week on the boot flat never left when the fish quit on crawler harnesses we switched to a three way with a floating rappela, and caught three within five minutes, just change up and find out what they want. Good Luck

[Skeets]

The bite was great last night out of Eddy's Launch. Our boat landed 62 walleyes ranging from 13-27 inches. We only had one in the slot. There was lots of action with plain hooks/leeches under slip floats. We were fishing near Spirit island in 29' of water.

[NateEboy-1]

We fished wed. 7/17 from 7:30am to 3:00pm. It was dead calm, sunny and in the 90,s. We caught 25-30 walleye and every fish burped up small minnows in the boat. We saw huge schools of minnows and only 1 dead walleye, the rest were tullibes. We went back up today and only caught 12 from 8:00am to 1:00 and no keepers. The bite probably would have been better if it were not for the thunder storm that chased us off the lake for 1 hour.

[Guest]

Well, this is a report that is nice to hear. It shuts me up, but I smile non the less. You know baitfish (most) spawn multiple times per year, so I guess Mille is lot stronger than most people realize. The sheer magnitude of spawing area is testement to that.

I'll be out there this coming weekend with my bubblegum bait, so I'll let you know!

Nice to hear the report of minnow clouds again.

[Guest]

I caught 18 walleyes on Thursday night, with 2 in the slot, but also observed the mass amount of baitfish right under the surface.

A good sign indeed.

PCG

[Long Gray Line]

Was on the pond late yesterday afternoon and into the evening. The bite has slowed but it still ain't bad! One thing though, the under the slot fish looked like they're in great shape. However, the ones we boated between 22" and 25" still looked pretty light. The 25" should have been around 5lbs but was nearer to 4. Maybe the smaller ones are making it with the good fish fly hatches (saw more of those last night) but the big ones are still searching for the missing bigger forage? Anyone still seeing the same thing?

[Squid]

Couldn't agree with you more. Spent Friday fishing up the North end of the big pond and didn't even boat a fish under 20". The biggest one was 27" and should have been over 7 lbs. My digital scale weighed it in at 4-9, now that's a skinny fish. The only slot fish I've boated this year have been on the South end. Could it be there's more forage on the South end, thereby concentrating the more aggressive smaller fish in that area?

[Long Gray Line]

We were on 8 mile so I can't really say it was the south end of the lake. The fish were really scattered and like you, the majority were over 20" and on the slender side. It seemed that the bigger they were, the less healthy they looked.

[Guest]

What I have found over the weekend seems a lot more promising than previous posts. We caught plenty of fish. Of the fish a few were skinny, but did not look unhealthy by any means. A few of the walleyes we caught were even burping up minnows. There are minnows around docks and in the weeds. Minnow clusters also show up on the locators. The MTT tournament on Sunday weighed in six fish just crossing the 28" mark. They weighed from 6.6 to 8 lbs. 6.6 is light for a 28" fish, but they'll be fine...... As far as dead fish go, we saw some tullies and only 3 dead walleyes over the course of 2 long days of fishing with plenty of travel time moving from spot to spot.