Weekend Fishing Report

[moby1]

We went up and hit the pond for 12 hours yesterday with nothing but a couple of perch to show. We were marking TONS of big fish (maianly in a couple of spots) but could not get anything to bite. I figured the graph was screwy but they were also showing up on the fl-18. 90% of the fish were suspended over 20-37ft during the day and all over the place from 10-30ft in the evening but no matter what we tried we couldnt catch any. We were seeing clouds of something resembling some kind of hatch and there were always fish suspending nearby but no takers. I have done terrible on the lake since the crazy bite a couple of years ago. My bud talked to a dnr guy at the landing last week and he said that the frenzy was due to lack of perch (which I had heard before). He said the dnr put a bunch of perch in and now there are tons of 3-6" perch in the lake. Anyways, its frustrating when I can fish metro lakes five minutes from home and catch more and bigger fish in 3-4 hours than I can catch in 12 hours on the big pond. We tried every technique we could think of and about everything in our tackle boxes and bait buckets to no avail. Oh well, it was still better than sitting at home doing chores :+)
How did anyone else do? I guess mabey we shouldve stayed later than 8:30PM.

[The Grebe]

I'm sure some of the boys were getting down to cases, but we were'nt among them!

Just like Moby1, we marked alot of fish, got a lot of Perch and only a couple of Wally's, small ones, we also had a couple of heavier fish on, that we were sure were wally's, but we did'nt get them and that was that!

We were marking those clouds also? There was some kind of pesky bug hatch last night, little suckers, I must have gotten 10 of em in my eyes!

We tried minnows, leeches, crawlers, crank baits, deep water, shallow water, rocks, drifting (the wind made that challenging at times!), trolling, bobber fishing, jigs, spinners, everything we could think of, in the time we were there....we put in about 8 hours, we pulled the plug at about 8:30 p.m.

We did'nt get much for fish, but we sure had a good time! Biggest catch of the day, towing a guy and his Jet Ski back to port!

[black max]

So I guess the fall bite hasn't started to kick in yet huh? I sure hope the fishing picks up this fall and carrys over into the ice season but I am not expecting much with that many little perch in the lake.

[Schnauzer]

We had a flat tire on the way up to Mille Lacs on Saturday evening. We were already running late and the added time for the flat tire made us decide to just stay in town. It looks like we were lucky to have that flat tire :-)

One note: I don't believe the DNR has ever stocked perch or any other bait fish in Mille Lacs. As I understand it, the perch explosion took place on its own.

[Borch]

Schaunzer you are correct. DNR hasn't stocked anyhting in Mille Lacs for years. Last stocking was probably the muskies years ago.

Borch

[wheelierida]

if it is windy try slip bobbers in 6', keep moving! it's slow but you'll get them.

[Whiskeywalleyes]

Back in my earlier posts. 7/23 7/24.. i made a post very similar. I though about it for a little while.. read my post 7/22---7/23

My latest assumptions..
The fish you are marking are perch, or if it is on the bottom eel pout.

Sounds like that weird hatch has assisted food for the perch, which results in food for walleyes. If i was to go back there again i would anchor, and jig the **** out of the spots i marked all my fish to truely find out the type of fish and bait they want...

[moby1]

Tried jigging the@$$% out of them. I guess that brings up another question. When showing fish on graph, how accurate are the size distinctions? We marked the biggest it shows and the smallest. I would hope a decent locator would not show perch as large fish. Mabey it was. The fish we marked were from around 15' to the bottom at 35'. I have marked and caught fish (eyes) on minnetonka behaving in the same fashion (between bottom and suspended around 15' up from bottom as well.