smallmouth report

[Guest]

I am going to Mille Lacs this saturday and was woundering how the smallies are biting and where on the lake do people catch them, what depth, and what lures they are catching them on.

[Guest]

Hey "Lerch" (huntfish2244) I going with you and your dad on Sat. Is Cody coming with. I'm going to get some stuff in St. Cloud after work before this weekend. Mybe we'll catch a muskie. Hope we catch a bunch of smallies and some largemouth would be good to. Talk to you before the weekend. You should get some GOOD detailed maps of the lake. You stink Lerch

[Roosterslayer05]

I forgot to say that if its windy cast mepps or rat L traps instead of topwaters. I also forgot to say that about 30 of the 50 smallies I caught last weekend where caught accidently sunfish fishing useing worms on flu-flus and leaches. I caught about 15 on a ratlin chug bug and 5 on a mepps so dont rule out live bait, exspecially a jig and leach, it works

[Roosterslayer05]

the smallmouth are biteing. I boated about 50 last weekend. I catch them in rocks between 2 and 6 feet of water on points and rocky shorlines, breakwalls, and weady shallows, there are also a few in reeds if there are rocks in the reeds. I like to use topwaters and mepps. Dont be afraid to go big on the topwaters. I have caught about 15 smallmouth on a poe's jackpot this year and thats a northern bait. Good topwaters are skitter pops, ratlin chug bugs, hula poppers, and luhr jensins popp'er. I like to use brighter colers. I have only caught 1 bass on a black. try white chartrues, orange, firetiger, clown, any bright colors. Also remember to pause for 10 seconds every once in a while between pops because they hit it 70% of the time on the pause. I fish mostly the west side and north side, but have fished the east side and have done well. Try the break wall at breakers resort it really produces. If you fish in some weady area dont be suprised to catch a largemouth, I got 5 last weekend and there are some large ones in Mille Lacs.

[Fishfanatic]

I was out last weekend and boated a few. They were several pounds each. I was fishing out of Cove bay. They have rocks (and bouys) that guard the entrance. I wish I would have tried the east side though.

I used a white unweighted'Zoom super fluke' plastic. used it like a jerk bait. it Usually works great. Its my bait of choice.

good luck. post your results when you get back.

[Guest]

The front did slow them down this past weekend. They were scattered.

------------------
Mille Lacs Guide Service
651-271-5459
www.millelacsguideservice.com

[Guest]

Went out and caught only one smallie 17". It was rough out and it seemed like a cold front came in their. Would try it again when it is calm out and the conditions are better.

[catchin'whopper]

I just got the Explore Minnesota fishing report and for Smallies it stated "hit the shallows for continuous action."

I don't necessarily trust these concise reports that may be a week late in the reporting but does anyone got a report out there and how the smallmouth fishing has been going? Any info is appreciated!

-Catchin'

[Guest]

We tried in the shallows and didn't get any I caught the only by a big boulder in between Indian point and that island.

[catchin'whopper]

Fishing was tough on saturday, lots of smallies (30+) seen over rock piles, no kidding, all were over 4 pounds. Did not see one dink.

However, threw virtually everything at them, aroudn the flat, edges of flats to no avail. went home skunked and that sucked. those big ones should start being a little more active soon.

[Guest]

where were you fishing I didn't see any

[catchin'whopper]

i posted more detail on the Bass Forum, this one seemed to have limited responses earlier. But areas were in the SW part of the lake, rock piles around there that were 4-5 deep and bouyed off.

Any success lately?

[catchin'whopper]

Any reports on Smallmouth action?

[catchin'whopper]

Anyone got any reports on smallmouth up there with this hot weather? Has the fishing been hot too? Thanks, just wondering.

-catchin'

[Roosterslayer05]

Its not real hard to catch smallies on the lake. You probly are working the right areas but not throwing the right bait. You have to change untill you find the hot bait that they are hiting. Catching whopper-YOu probly dident catch any of the smallies you saw because once they see the boat they dont bite, Mark where you saw the fish and come back a half hour later and work the area you saw the smallies at. If you can see them but they havent seen the boat and they wont bite try throwing a half inch crappie tube in front of there face and they hit it everytime

[catchin'whopper]

Anybody go out smallmouth fishign this weekend? just wondering how the action was, thanks.

-catchin'

[Mykal]

Catchin' the smallies were still stacked on the SW reefs. I was in small tourney out there on Saturday. The problem was the bass boat I was riding in couldn't hold the zone as the wind was blowing pretty hard, so we couldn't fish there. We saw lots of fish roll and marked on the graph, but had to pull out. We had to fish the Wahkon and Pope point area. One smallie over there, but the suprising thing is several guys got into some nice 2-3 pound largemouth in the bay I the reeds. The largemouth won the tourney. By the way, this was a paper tourney on smallies of course.

[eats]

Who's gonna be out there this weekend?

Any thoughts on how to work 'em after this cold front passes?

Brandon

[GEO]

The smallies are putting on the feedbag right now. Try tubes and cranks (or everything in your tacklebox I guess) on the off shore and mid lake reefs. Any reef marked with hazaed bouys could hold smallies. Keep moving until you find a school. If there is wind/wave action, they should be right on top of the reefs in 2 to 4 ft of water. If no wind, try on top, then the edge where it breaks into slightly deeper (6 to 8 feet) water.

We got into 'em hot n heavy Thurs, especially right before the wind changed from SW to NW. They're fat and sassy this time of year--lots of fun.

[catchin'whopper]

My brother "Alphid" and i went out yesterday, launched from indian point's public access and covered about 4 major rock bars on teh southwest and south central side. Action was not as it was reported earlier, not getting fish that were very active on various cranks or topwater. My bro got a couple on spinner bait earlier though. But while the action wasn't constant all day, we managed into some decent smallies mostly utilizing 3 inch flipping tubes on lightwire tube jig hooks later on. Colors ranged from black/red sparkle, grey/red sparkle and pumpkin seed. We noticed a lot of rubs on heads of the smallies we caught earlier and figured that the fish were nosing into rocks looking for craws. we have seen numerous crawfish on mille lacs and have noted that they mostly had a brownish red coloration to them this year and being about 3 inches. We fish the tubes by just letting them get lodged in some of the bigger boulders we saw and popped them free. bites came almost immediately when casting near big boulders or after the initial pop. Some dandies were caught as well. A few 4 pounders and a 21"+ fish straightened my light wire hook out right boat side, i think probably my biggest smallie ever, dang it! HAve fun out there, will be trying to get out there again soon!
-Catchin'

[This message has been edited by catchin'whopper (edited 09-01-2003).]

[Mykal]

Catchn' and Alphid glad to see you guys made it up to Mille again. I was out Saturday morning same area. I fished craw pattern cranks and caught a 17" smallie with another right behind it. Must have been looking for scraps. I should have tossed my red brown craws but I am new to the smallie game and not real good at it yet. I was actually marking bouys in my gps for the Walleye night bite. One nice suprise, I caught a 25" walleye casting cranks to the reff tops. Seems she was sitting in a clump of weeds. Another plus is that I caught over a dozen perch on cranks as well. They were thick. I am guessing that this winter will mark the return of a great perch bite.

[This message has been edited by Mykal (edited 09-02-2003).]

[GEO]

The key is to keep moving until you get one, then SLOW DOWN and work the area thoroughly. You might be surprised. You can catch a small one, then another small one, then another..then all of the sudden catch a 3lber, then a 4lber..

Another key--work wind-blown reefs. You can get out of the wind and fish comfortably, but you probably won't get bit much. Wave action stirs things (crustations) up and wind induced current brings in perch fry-find the food, find the fish, especially this time of year. It's feed bag time, believe me. Keep fishing those shallow reefs-try tubes in smoke/red flake, plain black or brown/red flake. If it's rocky lift and drop. If it's sand/gravel, drag you tube along the bottom. When I'm seaching, I work the lure about 1/3 back to the boat (yes, I consider tubes a search bait as well). When I find fish, work it all the way in.
If you find a shallow reef (2-3 feet) that drops staight into 6-8 feet of water, you may have found a great spot. Also, keep in mind that on any given day, there could be a bunch of big smallies on one reef, then the next day they can be bunched up on a different reef that looks identical-so don't fish memories and spend all day on a reef that you had success with in the past--unless of couse the fish are still there.

[GEO]

We caught about 75 smallies yesterday up to 5lbs. Lost 2 that looked like 6lbs each. Again, shallow reefs and docks. Best lures were #2 mepps w yellow hair/copper blade and jig n pig(plastic)-pumpkin.

Also, we saw 4 muskies and a number of big walleyes right up on top of the rocks--in calm, clear sky conditions. If I could, I'd get out and fish the shallow rocks after dark.

And..we caught a dog fish!