Flats Report

[Flick]

Muskie-I'd say there was a good 13-14" of good clear ice.

Walleyeweasle-It's not very complicated, eelpout eat a lot of forage, the same forage that walleyes eat. By killing eelpout for no reason you are making it easier for a walleye to find a meal. Summer 2002 had unreal catch rates and a depleted forage base, I can't explain it any easier.

Hopefully the ice isnt taking a beating with this warm weather.

[WalleyeWeasel]

Guess i was a little confused by:

"Every one you throw on the ice is making another meal for a walleye"

Point taken.......also in the spring, they stink AND it is illegal!!

FOR CRIPES SAKE TAKE YOUR GARBAGE WITH YOU !!!...........

[troutman72]

i cant belive people throw there eel pout on the ice. (shows what kind of sportsmen we have in MN). just kill the fish you dont like.

I JUST DONT GET THROWING THEM OUT ON THE ICE.

YOU CAN BET I WILL GET THE PLATE NUMBER OR FISH HOUSE NUMBER AND A PIC OF THE FISH THEY LEFT BEHIND TO LOCAL CO THIS SHOULD NOT BE TOLERATED IT IS NEEDLES WAISTING OF FISH WITCH IN MN IS ILLEAGAL.

[long caster]

kooch....thanks for your post, i appreciate all the detail. I was planning on heading up today, but the weather and not having a partner for fishing kept me around home. I did score some serious points with the g-friend though, so i will be up on new year eve!!!! I ended up fishing a washington county lake and brought home a 21" and 16" 'eye...pretty good for a couple of hours on the ice. Fish were in 19' of water on a distinct point, both at prime time. Will be on the flats on the 31st giving it our best, our back up will be farm island.

U live by LOTW or? I hunt in koochiching (close ot the y @ pelland)

keep your bait in the stike zone

[half2fish]

I say just eat the eel pout. i like them and think they are relativly good eatin. just my two cents. am going out of hunters tommrow. will post how we did on tuesday sometime.

[nblasin]

Fished the big lake 3 days over the weekend and had pretty darn good fishing. The key seemed to be finding a place that has had little activity and search them out. Released 10 fish 25" or larger in the 3 days with many smaller fish. The eyes seemed to change their feeding preferance. Depths really varied, but I would say 28-30' seemed to be the best even in low light. One day they would like an active jig, the next they would want a plain hook and minnow. Tips ups did well too. What a great Christmas Vacation! I'll try and post some pictures in a couple of days.

[fishingmikey]

We were out on East flat on Friday. 5 eyes between 15 and 17 inches - good eaters. Went out of Barnacles, the have road plowed and vehicles driving everywhere, but don't know how ice will hold up with all this warm weather. Fishing slow but caught enough to keep us busy.

[lindy rig]

We were also up 12/23 and went out of Terry's on the West side. They had a road plowed to 7 and 8 mile. We fished on 5 mile to avoid the crowd, but didn't have great luck. Caught some eelpout and perch.

That was some of the worst fog I have seen out on the ice. Very tough without a GPS. Very slushy on top of the ice too. The ice was about 12" and there were trucks and perms all over. Still seemed a little borderline for some of the big rigs out there IMO.

Am also curious to what this warm weather will do to the ice if anything?

[Sportland_Bait]

Hey Blaze sounds like you guys had a great weekend. We were out yesterday morning near your spot and it was a little slow but tonight was better. We didn't hit the big ones like you guys but a bunch of nice eaters. Hopefully this bite keeps up. The best depths for us was 26-32 feet. Glo-Devils produced the most bites. Seemed like lots of perch down there as well but they weren't too hungry.

Jason Erlandson

[minnesotatuff]

its 1:00am tuesday. just finished cleaning 3 between 14-1/2 & 15". three guys caught 9 keepers, no big ones, 3 eel pout & no perch at blue jug from about 3 until 8pm. i had a blast watching the camera until it was too dark to see. its really cool to see a walleye take a shiner under a bobber before you see the bobber go down... however, that was the one that would of been my limit...he got away...lol. saw about a dozen walleyes. they were really hard to get to bite. after dark, i marked lots of them on the fl-8, but still couldnt get them to bite. i was in 26fow, close to the top. there were probably 10 or 12 portables on blue jug. we drove a f150 from fishers. there is a road all the way there in good shape. however, there is a pressure ridge between blue jug and boot flat making it not possible to drive there yet from fishers. there was between 13 and 15" of ice. cant say as i used anything special and probably didnt change enough. three times walleyes came in to my jig (different jigs) on the camera and i couldnt get them to bite. when they did bite they bit like perch, sometimes barely even feeling them, not what im used to ice fishing. for a first trip to mille lacs this winter, it was a real good time! looking forward to going again this weekend, not to mention walleye breakfast in the morning.

regards,

minnesotatuff

[moneyback2]

Did well on the flats 12/23, 12/24 and 12/26. Jigging for all of them in 26 - 31 fow. Went out of Terry's each day. Did see two trucks with the front wheels down on Terry's road yesterday. Stopped and made sure they had cell phones. They were in contact with Terry's. Little shaking on the ice.

[SUICK]

Went out of the boat landing south of Mcdonalds with the 4-wheeler on monday ice conditions are very good 12" of good ice with 1-2" of slop in some places were the snow is.Some of the best ice Millelacs has had in years only foreseable problems are going to be when it gets cold again going over the truck ruts.As for the fishing had very good success fishing the flats seen lots of walleyes but they bit real light and took abit of coaxing also the perch are out there too. Avoid the cfrowds and good luck

[SUICK]

Went out of the boat landing south of Mcdonalds with the 4-wheeler on monday ice conditions are very good 12" of good ice with 1-2" of slop in some places were the snow is.Some of the best ice Millelacs has had in years only foreseable problems are going to be when it gets cold again going over the truck ruts.As for the fishing had very good success fishing the flats seen lots of walleyes but they bit real light and took abit of coaxing also the perch are out there too. Avoid the crowds and good luck

[FishingwithJake]

I'm planning on heading out to flats some time Thursday. The only problem is that I've never actually fished Mille Lacs by myself. I've always gone with someone else who knows where they are going. I'd like to either go to the Boot flat or 7 mile or 9 mile. Could anyone tell me the best place to access the lake to head to either of these spots? I'll be driving a Ford Ranger, is the ice thick enough for me to drive out now? Thank you.

[moneyback2]

I drove out to the flats with a f350 on Monday. I would not plan on driving out there again unless I checked with the resort before going up. Just place a few calls, you will get a good feel for what is happening.

[John Mickish]

We where out yesterday, drove on at Terry's and then drove out to 8 mile flat. 13" of very clear hard ice. Terry's did have to plow a different route because they did have a pickup stick a front tire thru a pressure ridge. Fishing was slow.

[bgfish00]

Was out Wed. 12/28 out of Garrison Landing...

We worked hard bouncing around and picked up 1-18" 2-17" 1-14" and some nice perch...

Ice was about 12-14". We took the 3-wheeler as the Shop said he did not advise vehicle traffic yet...

Nice Day...

[HARPOON-OR-BUST]

MY BUDDY AND I WERE OUT ON THE FLATS TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY WE TRIED A FEW SPOTS SOME DIDN'T PRODUCE SOME DID. OVERALL WE CAUGHT ABOUT 40 WALLEYES HAD NO PROBLEM PICKING OUT 8 BETWEEN 16-18 TO KEEP. BITE SEEMED BEST JUST AFTER FIRST LIGHT AND JUST BEFORE SUN DOWN. 1/16 OZ JIGS SEEMED TO WORK BEST. THE BITE WAS FAIRLY LITE.

[nblasin]

Hey Jason, glad to hear you got out there too. I'm hoping to maybe get out Sunday afternoon and spend the night on the ice and fish most of Monday. Haven't even set foot on Gull yet this year as sad as that sounds. I love Mille Lacs! I ended up settin up on the west side of that spot and it seemed to be the most consistent. I will stop in next time i'm in town. Have a good new year.

[Capt.Blaine]

Me and a few buddies are heading out in the morning. What I am wondering are most of the fish coming off the edges of the flats or right on top?

I will make sure to post a report tomorrow night.

[koochiching]

Capt. Blaine asks:

Quote:

---

...What I am wondering are most of the fish coming off the edges of the flats or right on top?

---

Yesterday afternoon I visited the Eelpout Hump, a very small flat just SW of the intersection of latitude 11.0 and longitude 35.0 on the Whiffer map. Two wheeled houses were dug in at the north and south ends of this flat, both in about 18'... so I punched a E-W line of holes across the flat between these two houses, and at about 3pm I set up on the top of the hump, at about 17'.

During the next hour, another large wheeled house moved in to the east of me, and ATVs towing two Otter II portables set up just to the NW of me... I was surrounded! So much for trying to get away from the milling crowd!

One of the Otter owners told me they had limited out a few nights earlier, set up exactly on the northern edge, where a wheeled house currently sat.

All of the wheeled house occupants had been on this location in previous years, and were planning to stay permanently on this flat during the current season.

I was sitting on top of the hump, and I didn't get a single bite... Didn't appear that anyone else was catching fish either... The only fish caught, as far as I could tell, was an eelpout caught about 3:30 pm at the northern wheeled house; the owner saw the pout on camera, but it took his minnow before he could pull the rig...

Maybe the imminent snowstorm killed the evening bite? Anyway, it didn't happen last night...

kooch

[nblasin]

I would say a good place to start would be right on the edge, (28-30 ft) then if no luck try out deep off the edge, if no luck there try on top. The fish have really been moving around and seem to spook very easy. One minute they will be on the edge, next minute they will be in the deep. Use your electronics, if your not marking fish after half an hour move.

[BJP]

I was up with three other guys yesterday and fished a couple of different flats. We fished from 8am to 7pm and ended up bringing back six walleyes. We purposely released 2 others and lost a couple more do to operator error. All of the fish we caught were on the top (or close to the top edge) of the flat - 26ft. One group was out in 28 fow and only caught one fish while my buddy and I were in shallower and did better. Most of the action was between 4-6pm. From 6pm on, we had fish on our screen constantly but could not get them to bite. Has anyone else experienced such negative fish? If so, did you find something that seemed to work? Good luck to all those that venture out this weekend.

BJP

[LovenLifeGuy]

BJP, I have not been up for over a week but when I was I did experience the same thing. Knowing you im sure you were changing lures often. I found that when I got away from using all sorts of buckshot spoons and went back to my goto lures of years back the fish wanted to bite more. If you remember the lure that we slayed fish on LOW a few years back that was the lure that I caught the majority of my fish on the last time I was up. If I remember its called the smasher. It could have just been the fish became active also! At least the guy you were with didnt burn off ur hair . I hope to get out with ya before you leave!

LovenLifeGuy

[Capt.Blaine]

Just got back from the lake. Fished Friday 9am-6pm ended up filling out. And throwing one back at 23inchs we had 2 otters one set up in 26ft and the other 29ft. We where fishing a small no name flat all by are selfs. The depth didnt matter we cought about the same in each house. Today we fished 7:30am-130pm Nailed 3 right away in the morning then had to work to get a couple more. Over all a good weekend. The ice was about 12 inches But we did find one spot that had only 8 inches. Lots of trucks out there. Not me yet.

[flipper]

Fished most of the day on Friday. Caught three walleye. Two were nice eaters at 16 inches. One was a 25 incher. Marked a lot of fish . They would follow the lure up and then swim away. All my fish were caught on a chartruese jigging rap. All in all not a bad day. You wouldn't catch me driving anything but a 4 wheeler or snowmobile out there unless I was on a road.

Flipper out

[BJP]

Spent the afternoon on the pond with one other guy. We started fishing at 11:30 but didn't catch the first fish until after 3:30. We had our limit by 5:00 though so it was worth the wait. The fish were negative again today but I eventually ran through enough tackle to find the right combination. The weather was also nice enough to allow me to hole hop which kept me on top of active fish. All of the fish we kept/caught were between 15-19 inches. Good luck to all that venture out the next few days.

BJP

[black max]

I was out yesterday and found the fishing to be pretty slow also. I took my 16ft wheeled house out of barnacles and spent most of my time moving around the barnacle flat area. I got 2 eyes, a 13 and a 15incher. I lost a really nice eye near the hole with a tip up.

I drove my truck all over from the shore out to as far as shultz flat. I didn't fish shultz's flat due to all the people fishing on it. Everywhere I went I found 15 solid inches of ice, and saw alot of big plow trucks and 4x4's everywhere out there. There were also alot of wheelers out though still, so drive what you feel comfortable in. I would have no problem driving my truck out again on the north end with 15inches. I even saw someone out there with one of those huge track vechiles.

As for the fish, the ones I saw on the camera were very skittish. They would come in and investigate and then peel out of there if you moved your bait too much, but on the other hand I only had two fish hit a rattle reel all day; got one and lost the other. I didn't have many lookers during the day but closer to evening I had quite a few eyes come in look and then leave. They seemed more interested in playing around than eating. We were set up right on the drop offs of the flats. I positioned the house to try to be on the top on one end and the slope on the other. Most fish I saw were near the bottom of the drop, but the two eyes I did get were near the top edge of the flat.By the way the two fish I did catch were at 11:30am and at noon on a tip up.

Barnacles road went out as far as barnacle flat and if you have a 4x4 you can go further. I tried out some new tire chains yesterday and boy did I like them,easy to install and I went anywhere I wanted to no problem. I don't think I could have made it to shult'z flat pulling my shack without those chains. If your just driving your truck you can go just about anywhere. I didn't see and heaves or cracks out on the lake anywhere I was but there was a few small areas of slush 6in deep that were about 20-40ft.long.

[koochiching]

Thanks for a detailed report, Max...

Where is Barnacle Flat? Is that the "Bumps" south of East Flat and east of Pantry Flat?

And please tell us more about your new tire chains... I'm about to purchase a pair for a small pickup truck...

Good fishin'

kooch

[black max]

Kooch

Barnacle flat is a rather large flat with a couple un-named smaller flats around it. It is directly south of east flat. As far as the tire chains I bought some off the internet after having trouble finding any I liked in stores. I bought the diamond quick fit heavy duty chains. they run around $125 for a pair of them, but I think it was well worth it. They also have much cheaper ones also. if you are interested check out (tirechains.com) Make sure you have your exact tire size because they are size specific.