2/4/06 Report - Banana and Graveyard out of Lyback's Resort.

[Cheetah]

Just got back from Mille Lacs. Took my girlfriend up for the day to see how many perch we could get. It was my first time out of Lybacks, so I didn't know the area too well, but I had a printout of the area from the Lakemaster's software, and an older GPS. So I managed to find the main reefs well enough.

Started out about 8am on Graveyard. Fished 24', just off the edge of the road on the NW slope of the reef. Didn't even bother moving since there were perch right there. Was slow bite, but eventually had a school of super active jumbo perch come through. Fish slowed by 12:30, so we moved to Banana to fish deeper water.

Arrived at Banana, setup at 30', again on the NW slope of the reef. Tried to keep away from the other guys out there, it's a big enough area. Most were clustered for some reason. Marked fish on the first hole drilled, caught small perch immediately and non-stop for quite a while. Eventually slowed down, but weather thankfully warmed a little so I could go outside and jump between holes.

Overall, I'd say to avoid Banana, only small perch for the most part. Took a few keepers, but most were too small by a long shot. If taking kids with, it'd be hard for them to NOT catch a fish there, so may be worth it. Graveyard was slower bite, but bigger fish. Lots of guys were setup on Tulibee Hole, but I didn't go out that way to see how it was.

Oh, almost forgot. THE secret color for the day, GLOW RED! Tipped with "euro grub", also did ok with waxies. Vertical style jigs did best. Glow blue and green were not nearly as good as glow red. Took the biggest perch on a fathead on a glow green jigging spoon, that was it though for minnows, even partial minnows did poor.

Good luck to anyone else going out. Hope I was able to provide some good information for anyone else going for perch.

[RogersMN]

caught lots and lots of small perch out of rocky reef with only 5 over 9 inches, biggest was 10 1/2. i also found that glow red with a euro larvae was the ticket. i only caught 2 fish in about 45 minutes after i ran out of euros. i'll get 2 boxes next time.

[Cheetah]

My biggest was 13.5" and weighed 1lb 4oz. Only had 5 "jumbos", and 7 non-jumbo but still keepers.

I also forgot to note that most of the perch were puking up large amounts of little larva that they were eating. Must taste like euro larva.

[Cheetah]

Can't forget the photos: