Night Bite Report

[Borch]

I'd also add that you'll want to get to your spot before it gets dark and get familiar with it. Some spots to get hazardous especially in the dark and with wind.

You'll find walleyes in depths from 2-12 ft at night in the fall. Use lighting(other than your navigation lights)as little as possible. Flashing lights around takes away your night vision and the main reason for using lights for navigation is now gone(Marker bouys). If you're out during the full moon and it's not totally cloudy you won't need the lights very often(Unhooking fish and changing lures).

Good Luck!

[gkl]

Thank you both very much. Those are good tips. Now I'll just have to get practicing!

[Mykal]

gkl, Also, I would bring a GPS if you have one. It is a valuable tool if you catch a fish in an area you can mark the spot and retrace your path. Alos you can mark hazards or potential fish holding structure. At night things look different and this year so far the fish have come off certain key areas for us. Once you hook into one try and duplicate how you caught it.

Good luck out there!

[gkl]

Unfortunately, my plans for going out tonight (thursday) fell through. I would like to hear what I missed out on. Mykal (or anyone else) when fishing the south end, do you fish the shoreline? If so, what kind of shoreline? Steep or gradual breaks? If fishing a reef, are you fishing along the edges or on top or at the tip?

While I'm at it, I would also like to troll a bit for muskies. Any pointers?

[Borch]

Quote:

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While I'm at it, I would also like to troll a bit for muskies. Any pointers?

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Put your favorite lure on a spinning rod with 6# test and troll for walleyes. That usually does it for me. Seems like muskies have a sense of humor too.

[borchawk1]

worked for me, caught a 44-46" muskie while trying for eyes. We did keep six nice fish and got bit off once. The big pigs were not up top, at least not before 1:00am when we left. Plenty of company on Sunday night.

[Schnauzer]

There has been very little in terms of night trolling reports lately. What's up? Are guys just not catching anything... packed it in for the year... or has the fishing been so good that nobody wants to let the cat out of the bag? I'm guessing it is one of the first two possibilities. There have been a couple reports but not much over the last week or so.

I may get out this weekend and will let ya know how I do if I'm on Mille Lacs.

[borchawk1]

I'm sure there will be more after this week! Not much has been happening on the south west side (Anderson and Rocky). Few fish caught, all have been males. I've yet to convince my wife that it would be a great idea to hit the pond this Friday, for some reason she thinks it will be too cold! The thought of pulling in a 30"+ walleye always seems to keep me warm.

[addicted]

Got out on the pond Wed night. Fished out of Bayview from 8:30-11:00 nothing, pulled up and drove up to Liberty Beach. Released a 23" (very healthy/fatfish)at midnight nothing else headed back to the cities at 3am. Falling asleep at my desk as I type. The elusive fish fell for a jointed crawdad shadrap pulled with 10# fireline. All in all it was still better than work!!!

[gizmoguy]

Got out Wed. night. 6:15 to 11:15. Went out of Mac's Twin bay. (The dock was out at Cedar Creek launch and I was alone) Fished Hawkbill, in front of Liberty Beach and Hunters Point. 1 fish on Hunters point. A very fat 26". Got it on a jointed Rebal minnow. Chart/flo orange. It's usually a plug I would use for Browns or Rainbows in L. Mich. It was very dark. Couldn't even see the water around the boat. Almost bagged a deer on the way home. Might get out Sat night with the kids after tending deer stands.

[SM River Rat]

Here is my report for 10/22, 10/23, 10/25 and 10/27. Mykal put up the last report for my boat, he also landed that 28" walleye for me--thanks Mykal.

For the past week, we've landed between 7 and 15 walleye each night. We have averaged 5 to 6 hours of fishing per night.

Friday the 22nd, was a good night with few boats on the water and 9 walleye and 1 northern in the boat, 26" was the biggest, the others were between 19" and 22".

Saturday the 23rd was a little tougher with only 7 walleye and 1 muskie(+/- 40"), 24 was the biggest eye.

Monday saw 12 walleyes landed with the biggest at 26".

Wednesday was a little better with 15 eyes landed and again 26" was the biggest. If the 26's hadn't been caught in different parts of the lake, I would have said we were catching the same 26" fish each time--they all looked the same--fat and sassy.

Haven't seen any 50 fish nights that I've heard about, but the action has been real steady--fish caught throughout each night. The surface temp has been steady also between 47 to 49 degrees.

We have fished the west side from the casino to Garrison. Working 8' to 10' of water with Husky Jerks and Rogues. You all know the colors.

[LuckBites]

Fished out of the east on 10/26. 16 fish landed between 2 guys. 4 over 27" and 1 28.5" x 16" piggie!!! We filled 2 limits with 19-22". What a great night! I weighed the 28.5 x 16 @ 8.6 Lbs, anyone know what the DNR calc would put it at? Best luck was on #9 shad raps.

[PK3]

Are the majority of people out fishing using kicker motors or electric motors. If kicker, has this affected your presentation?

Thanks

[LuckBites]

I was using my "big" motor and went faster than most people are posting. I found my best speed was 2.6 but caught fish as fast as 3.2 (down wind). If you have a kicker that's the way to go! I've never heard of anyone pulling raps with an electric...

[Mykal]

PK3,

I don't think the electric or kicker motors are the key themselves, it's more about the speed and presentation. I use electric when I can, just because it's quiter. I use my big motor and run into the wind or kick it in and out of gear when I need to get the right speed and presentation down. It's all about triggering a strike.

[Schnauzer]

We took advantage of the extra hour provided by daylight savings change and trolled on Mille Lacs Sat night/Sun morn. We didn't have a spectacular outing but did manage to catch around 10. Most were between 19" and 22" with a couple larger fish (mid 20's). I think we were one short of a limit of keepers. We didn't happen upon any real big fish (27" or bigger). We kept rotating a variety of baits in different sizes. We caught fish at a slow rate on pretty much everything. If I were to single out one lure, a perch colored Yozuri was probably slightly more productive than the other lures we were using.

Interestingly... we always seemed to pick up one or two right when we arrived on a given spot. That caused us to always linger a bit longer than we should have before moving on. Our last two fish came on a "double" where both hit our lures at pretty much the exact same time. We trolled over that spot several more times without any results.

Much of what we encountered mirrored what I have been seeing posted here and elsewhere regarding the trolling scene on Mille Lacs these days... All the fish cleaned were full of perch, most were in that 19-22" range, and we did better when the moon was out. We saw very little of the moon (way too cloudy) but it did appear a couple times and we seemed to catch fish each time it was out (maybe that was just a cooincidence). We also had a lot more misses and fish barely hooked than what I am used to seeing. We got the impression they were more in the mood to check out lures than smack them.

I lost one lure to a Northern/musky but was bit off so fast I never got the chance to guess at how big it might have been. We also had "something" huge on another line for a short time but it popped off pretty quickly. We were trolling off the top of some structure at the time and it hit the lure running about 6 feet down over 15 feet of water.

Trolling Mille Lacs at night this time of year is a lot of fun. Even if you have a mediocre night like we did... it somehow always feels "fishy".

[CRAPPIE 1]

Luck, DNR calculations would be 8.57 lbs. Congrats on that (and all those) nice fish.

[Kab Dreamin]

We fished out of Garrison on Saturday night. Didn't get anything out on the reef and then moved in towards shore. Fished from 6-11PM. My partner boated the first fish, a 25 incher, at about 9:45 on a fire tiger #13 jointed floating rapala. I caught the second and last fish, 21.5 incher at 10:00 on a #13 jointed floater that was fluourescent orange and gold. Both fish were caught when the moon peeked out from behind the clouds. Both were caught going against the wind at about 2.5-2.8 mph and were caught witin about 50 yds of each other halfway between Terry's and the Garrison ramp. With the wind we would run 3.0 mph and didn't get anything. The boat goes into storage on Wednesday so the trolling season is over for me.

Schnauzer,

What part of the lake were you on?

[Schnauzer]

We were farther south than you... In the bays and off the points between Vineland and Wigwam. It is interesting to see what a difference the moon made. I sure wish we could have had an entire night of moonlight.

[Kab Dreamin]

Yep. I would have been quite a night. It's been several years since I caught so many that my arms got tired. I think we had the potential for that if it wasn't for the weather. I'm already looking forward to next year.

[Dhenry]

I've noticed several posts describing that the fishing has improved when the moon has shown itself this fall. I've been up twice in October, Once with a little moon showing and last Thursday with no moon showing. My observation is that the moon has had less to do with our bite than the color of the lure and the speed of our troll. Two Saturdays ago our bite actually got worse when the moon came out. Was out last Thursday and caught between 15-20 fish with the bite slowing down at about 11:30. What does everyone else think about the effect of the moon?

[Tour. Pro 175]

I've been fall fishing the full moon on Mille lacs for about 10 years. It's been my experience that the nights that the moon is showing we have had slightly better success. I personally think it is more important to pay attention speed, lure type, water temp and depth you are fishing. Also take into account fishing pressure.

Good fishing

[SM River Rat]

Here is my report for 10/31, 11/2 and 11/3.

Halloween, after carving pumpkins and watching part of the Vikings game, I left my wife to pass out candy to the trick-or-treat kids, and I headed to Mille Lacs solo. I caught 10 lost 7--I lost 2 at the boat when my anti-reverse let loose--net in one hand, pole in the other--I didn't have a prayer of landing these fish. After loosing the 2nd fish that I brought to the boat 3 times, anti-reverse slipped 3 times, I decide to change reels on my favorite 7' St. Croix spinning rod. The 2nd fish I lost was..., lets just say bigger than the 26" I caught later in the evening. I ended the night with a 26", 2 at 25", 2 at 24", 2 at 23", 2 at 22", and 1 at 21". The bite really seemed to pick up when the moon started peaking through the clouds.

Tuesday, November 2nd, clear sky, moon up at about 8:40pm, we decided to hit several areas that have produced very well in previous years, although the fish were not there this year. We ended the night with 3 in the boat--1 at 21", 1 at 22", and 1 at 24". Several fish also came unbuttoned on the way to the boat.

Wednesday, November 3rd, I fished from 5:00pm until 11:00pm, one 18" eye at 5:30pm--no other fish or hits the rest of the night even though the moon provided plenty of light after about 9:30pm. Marked a lot of fish, I think they were Tullibees in the +/- 10' depth. Maybe I should have tryed that blue and siliver or black and silver, oh well, next time.

The surface temp was +/-47.0.

Good luck to anyone heading up this weekend. I'll be there also--I'm too addicted to this night trolling on Mille Lacs to consider doing anything else like hunt or ?

[docternus]

riverrat,

what were you using for cranks? #10 husky jerks have been going nuts lately. I am surprised that is all you ended up with the last couple of nights Good luck. I will be on the west side on Tuesday night weather permitting. take care.

[Dhenry]

We fished Wed. night as well. Started at sundown at the Casino and fished there for three hours with one bite. at approx. 8:30 we went up to Garrison and fished the weedlines there and the bite was pretty good. We caught 8 fish all on #10 HJ's. We left at approx. 11:00. Five of the fish we caught were slotters and the biggest was 26".

[SM River Rat]

Docternus, I was using #10 and #12 HJs in FireTiger. Does color matter? I also tried other baits as well--Yozuros, frinzys... When I was leaving the lake at 11:00 another boat was coming off as well--the other boat was a Ranger, I thought it may have been Steve DeZurik--I saw his report also. Needless to say, I was just a little surprised when I read his report that was quite different from my results. I truly thought the fish just developed lock-jaw because when I launched at the Casino public access, there were 6 to 8 boats trolling the bay, when I returned around 9:30 there was none. I will be up there tonight and tomorrow night--I'll report my findings. Hopefully, I'll have something to report.

DHenry, I was at Garrison when you pulled up. I was fishing the weed lines from 7:30 until 9:15 without a hit, I then decided to head back to the bay by the Casino. Maybe I should have stayed at Garrison a little longer. Do you think the moon helped or not? Congratulations on a good night--8 eyes in 2.5 hours.

Docternus and DHenry, thank you for responding and providing some suggestions and feedback.

[Dhenry]

Actually two of the eight were northerns. I'm pretty sure the other boat with us was Steve Dezurik up at Garrison. We got there just before the moonrise and the fishing was pretty consistent before and after. I was using firetiger and my friend was using a metallic blue and orange color and I finally switched to his color after he caught 6 fish to my none. I think one of the keys may have been that you're able to get the HJ 10's back further from the boat then you can the HJ 12's. We were running the 10's back from 120'-140' and maybe that was making some difference.

[Cyberfish]

I am planning on being out there saturday evening. I will be in the old red lund with a 25 honda and a Fishingminnesota sticker. stop and say hi

[Cyberfish]

Good to meet you last nite Mykal and Mr pike! Fishin was kinda slow, but me and a couple of friends had fun tho. Wasted too much time trolling infront of the landing,got one fatty around 4 pounds,but they just were not biting. finally with about an hour left to fish we decided to try indian point. good choice! A stiff north wind came up and some pretty good waves were pounding the point. nailed a couple of chunky 6 pounders trolling the windy side. on the last pass before we had to head in my friend who never went nite fishin or ever got a big eye got bit, we got it in the boat, the biggest of the day over seven pounds! woohooo, good way to end the nite!

[SM River Rat]

Cyberfish, I was watching for your red lund--now I know why I didn't see it--I was 10 miles north of your location. We decided to fish Garrison after talking with Mykal on the way up--he hadn't had a hit and there were quite a few boats fishing the bay by the casino access. Congratulations on finding a few NICE fish--that is what Indian Point is known for this time of year.

Last week when I launched at the casino access, there was a net straight out from the access, does anybody know what it was for? Is it still there?

Not much to report for 2 nights of fishing:

Friday night I fished with Mykal, he caught 1 nice 21" eye. I had 1 hit and lost it after a few head shakes.

Saturday night, The sameting for me--1 hit, few head shakes, gone.

The bite has really dropped off for me from a week ago. I'm not giving up though--I'll be there until hell or Mille Lacs freezes over--which ever comes first.

The surface temp was +/-46 degrees. This is about 8 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year.