Mille Lacs Crappies???

[Survey]

FYI

20"x20"x20"/ 1600= 5 lbs.

I've gotten a few 17" blacks that weighed over 3 lbs.

2 NUTTS

[mtreno]

nicely said! now where to find that 20 incher - humm....

[monstermoose78]

I have caught them in the weeds it was only about 5 fow and in the day you could see weeds but at low light and all night the crappies would show them selfs I never got a limit but i would 3-6 per outing and that was more then enough. Now if my cousin would show me where to caught them big Bull gills in there i would be happy.

[monstermoose78]

Lake Superior might have a 20 incher

[Jimmy from Cottage Grove]

Was that through the ice monster?

[monstermoose78]

yep late ice i might be up for a trip sometime soon i let ya know if i get a day off work.

[Jimmy from Cottage Grove]

yeah that would be awesome

[76k20]

The state record 5 lb crappie did not come from a big body of water, or even from a major river, I am almost positive It was caught in the vermillion river less than 10 miles south east of hastings. It doesnt take a large body of water to produce large fish. But It takes above average skills to catch these monsters. They didnt get this big falling for every jig bounced at em.

[monstermoose78]

Man my dad has a pond and we have caught bluegills in it that were up 13 inches long and one was over 2 pounds my brother tossed it back. The next one i get over 12 inchs i will take a picture and post and that pond is not much bigger then a hockey rink.

[monstermoose78]

Jimmy do ya work weekends? I have to work manditory over time until the 12-22-2006 so woohoo for me. There goes fishing and hunting for the year, but I still head up Saturday mornings around 730 or so let me see what is going on the weekend.

[minnesotatuff]

when i was 8 or 9 years old...that would of been in '60 or '61, my grandfathers brother and i caught 30 bluegills out of osakis that averaged a pound each. of course, that was before anyone thought about measuring the lengths. i was a little smaller then too...haha. i got a little taste of a spring bite for bluegills in ratt lake some years back. i did measure some 10-1/2"ers... all this talk about mille lacs and crappies & bluegills though...it sounds like if anybody knows where they are, you do monstermoose...go get em!

best regards,

minnesotatuff

[SFBOY]

Sometimes they are that dumb. I heard the guy telling the story of his state record white crappie a year or two ago. I think he said he caught it in July during the middle of the day in 4' of water just screwing around with a piece of nightcrawler. Not the most likely spot to catch a fish like that. I guess somtimes is pays just to be plain lucky.

[monstermoose78]

My largest lake came when i was bored screwing around on Burntside lake. I was banging my jiggin rap in to the ice on the side of my hole then i it smacked that rap so hard i about lost my rod. Here is that laker 33 inchs long

[JIGGIN']

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,,,, anyone get any of those crappies around Isle as of yet. May try it this Sunday.

[fish hawk kris]

Hey Ritz,

Congrats, did you stumble upon by sheer luck! Or a calculated guess? Today is my day of aging (B-Day), and would appreciate any clue's to possibly stumbling across some slabs. Like perhaps just the preferred lure, color, bait, technique & depth. I'm not necessarily looking for coordinates.

To me, planning the journey is half of the fun!!

Thanks

[monstermoose78]

when there around ya catch em i used bigger jigs like ya use on URL and then a biggers fatboy with a waxie. Watch out for them pike they got alot of my jigs the last few winters.

[monstermoose78]

Well Jimmy I think i might head up saturday but i cant leave work in anoka until 7 am saturday morning and i want to be on the lake chasin perch by. I promised my uncle i would call him but he has not gone with me yet this winter and seeing you need a new lic he wont go i bet i will get hold of him yet to night. If doest go i drop ya a line and see if your up for a day perchin and then try to snap a couple slabs for bit that evening.

[JIGGIN']

Planning on giving Isle Bay a go on Sunday. Just wanted to know if anyone had iced any decent crappies out of the weeds in that bay or are they still focused on suspended deep water in that bay??? There is a small area of deep water those crappies will be in before they move up shallow. I know people have done well right in the weeds there before. Any reports? Good luck.

[ozzie]

What resort has a road or is the easiest way to get into Isle Bay?? Thanks in advance.

[dan]

a 5 pounder, eh?

are you still talking about crappies? or what.

the state record is 5 lbs, you really think it was a crappie. i have huge doubts.

[JIGGIN']

Go out of scenic bay resort right as you come into Isle from the west on hwy. 27. 8-10 bucks I think?? Road should still be good this weekend I would imagine...

[riverrat56]

How come it is whenever someone claims to have caught and realeased or lost a record fish everyone doubts him.........At some point that record fish was caught, at some point it will be broken, why does everyone have to doubt that you lost a biggin, tough luck on having that fish boatside and having it get away....

Sometime I want to get out on Mille Lacs and pursue some jumbo perch and maybe throw in some time chasing speks, my personal favorite.

[ozzie]

the only problem I have with the "5 pounder" is first if you are fishing and have a big fish on usually the net comes out. 2nd how do estimate a crappies weight being over 5 pounds when the state record is 5 and you didn't even have the fish in the boat. It would be better stated that he had a crappie that appeared to be bigger than the ones he had already caught and they went 3 pounds.

I did go out in Isle Bay early Sun. morn form 6:15 to 9:30 along the west side of the bay up and down the shoreline from 4ft to 12ft and all I saw was 3in perch by the thousands. Kinda cool to watch them in the hole attack a waxie but nothing but perch and I drilled and fished alot of holes. The ice was geat on the roads but I walked out into the bay and atleast on the west shore I wouldn't drive alot of ice with slush under it. The area I covered was in the bay (started out of Scenic Bay) out past the boat launch in Father Hennepin State Park. Alot of area covered and the same results in every hole.

[J Smith]

Well Ozzie I'll tell ya...When the Walleye season is South of here I fish for Crappies, Perch, etc. If you ever have the opportunity to see a 4-5 lb. class Crappie, you probably would have a hard time telling it's a Crappie. They don't look like a typical Crappie...They're almost deformed. The Crappies we were catching would take the Flu-Flu then Zig-Zag along the surface of the water on the Retrieve. This particular Crappie never broke the surface. We thought it was a Bass. We had netted every fish before that due to the extreme size of these fish. Once we realized it was a Crappie we SCRAMBLED LIKE A BAT OUT OF HELL to get the net! I was also Small Mouth fishing the Boulder's of Indian point one year-which I do every year-with a couple guys I guided out. Well guess what? One of the guys had a 10-12 lb. Small mouth up to the boat. He lost it; that being said and witnessed, I know Mille Lacs holds more than one State Record species fish. I've been fishing for more then 35 years and caught several 10 lb.+ Walleyes. Not to mention numerous Kings in the 20 lb. class. I know what a 5 lb. fish looks like. Anyway I talked to the DNR Census guy at Scenic bay Sunday and the Crappies are BITING AT SUNSET in Isle. Look for 12-14 fow. The fish are NICE SIZED. White Moon Glows and Waxies. Occasionally a Minnow.

Good luck

J.

[gorrilla]

Thanks for the tips j. But as a fellow doubting Thomas I need to see some pix of these 5 lb. craps and 10-12 lb smalleys. Oh yeah, they got away right???

No wonder us fishermen don't get called on stand as character witnesses more often...

As a former creel survey clerk all I can say is a Kodak goes a LONNNGGG ways. If I had a dime for every guy who had a 50 incher or a six pounder I'd be rich...

[schr0563]

For anyone that has gotten into crappies on Mille Lacs, is there a certain time of day that is best? I would imagine low light conditions, like in the evening would be prime time. But if I can't be up there during this time am I just wasting my time trying during the other hours of the day?

[tom fellegy]

hanronson,

you have me mixed up with my cousin steve. he is the one that fishes for a living, i just fish for fun............tom fellegy

as far as a 5lber in mille lacs, anything is possable but i would have to see it to beleave it. that is a very large crappie anywhere in the country. they always look bigger in the water, and then when they shake off at the boat they get that much bigger again.

[ozzie]

I guess J Smith that if I was catching big crappies and netting them and I had a fish that even if I thought it was a smallmouth I guess I would have had the net ready!! I don't doubt that it was a big crappie but c'mon you don't know what a 5lb crappie looks like cause there has only been one caught on record in this state and I don't think (maybe you were) you were with on that trip. Now it is also a 10-12lb smallmouth bass........getting harder to believe you!!!! If you want to change my mind lets get together in the spring or late ice here and go target these crappies. I know and live near Cole about a mile away...

[river rat316]

10-12 lb Smallie huh? I call BS that would absolutley shatter the state record and push the world record, it also would be a 26+ " fish, I have seen Pics of Lake Erie and Dale Hollow smallies pushing 9-10 pounds and those fish are freaks of nature, there is absolutely no way Mille Lacs has a smallie over 9 pounds in it, if it did there would be tons more like it and the record would have fallen about 3-5 years ago. I dont doubt it has the state record smallmouth swimming in it, but its not gonna break it by much, definately not 4 pounds over the state record.

[Willy]

5lb crappie? 12lb smallie? Getting a little carried away there aren't ya bud?