The Night Bite is ON

[PerchJerker]

The fall crankbait bite is ON right now. The numbers of big fish will go up when the temps fall some more, but the last week has been very good to the nighttime trollers. Nice to see that full moon shimmering across the water.

I was able to go only Sat night this weekend, but one of the guys I fished with has been there the last 4 nights and getting over 20 fish per night. We started out slow on Saturday, really slow in fact as we pretty much blanked on our first 3 spots, but once we got our act together we started landing fish at a pretty good clip and had a good finish to the night. We got off the water about 1:00 am.

The biggest fish we boated was 25", we had a couple others over the slot, a couple really short fish, and the rest were all nice solid eaters that mostly pushed the upper edge of the slot.

We fished the East side, water temp was 66-67. All our fish came from 6 fow or less and over rocks. Shad baits only pulled one fish for us, everything else came on stick baits. Best patterns were firetiger and perch.

I'm hunting this weekend but I think we're going to put in some time on the water on Friday night on the way up to the cabin.

Who else has tangled with these fall fish this year?

[double_dog]

Great report PerchJerker,

Trying to get out on the water the 23rd weekend. Let me know if you had any success (or failures ) before then.

[Doonbuggy]

Perch - An educational question for myself: when you're trolling up in the shallow rocks is it a spot that you know tops out at 6' or are you going by buoys etc.?

The last couple of years I have heard about the famous Mille Lacs night trolling, but want to understand the presentation and trolling method.

The spots don't matter to me personally. Just wondering how you're trolling without worrying about trolling up on to some rocks.

I have no doubt the fish are there, just wondering what you're doing to avoid rocks, etc.

Thanks for the help.

DB

[PerchJerker]

All the spots I fished on Saturday were spots I've never fished before (I usually fish the other side of the lake). We trolled shorelines and reefs. Some spots had buoys, other spots did not.

I use the LakeMaster chip which is very good for the reefs but not good at all for the scattered rocky spots along the shoreline breaks. On the shorelines we ran the 9 foot contour on the chip which gave us a depthfinder reading of 6 feet, but we went over plenty of rocks that were a lot shallower than that. On the reefs we went right over the tops and between the buoys if there was room by the bobber fisherman.

A couple times we scraped rocks with the skeg on the big motor but never with the kicker or the boat. I use the plotter and the map chip and learn as I go. It's an uncomfortable feeling when your depthfinder reads less than 2 fow.

Quote:

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Just wondering how you're trolling without worrying about trolling up on to some rocks

just wondering what you're doing to avoid rocks

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If anyone has an answer to this I'd like to hear it.

[LovenLifeGuy]

With the water down as much as it is I would use one word, "LUCK"!

LovenLifeGuy

[minnesotatuff]

wow, thats incredible! do you have to troll that shallow? im going up saturday for the first time since late july. sounds like it will be a good warm up to find trolling patterns during daylight. its really helpful to know the lakemaster chip actually shows about 3' difference now with the lower water, thank you. i have a flasher & graph too. they will be the main sourse. i will be extra careful. it sounds like the night bite is happening. im very excited and grateful to have the opportunity to do some night fishing trips up there this fall. best of luck to everyone.

regards,

minnesotatuff

[PerchJerker]

I've also heard reports of people catching fish in 8-9 fow with husky jerks and #5 shad raps but we only had 1 fish on (got off) in that depth.

Trolling should be covering lots of water and experimenting with depths and lures until you put it together. The first half of our trip was lousy, no fish landed and 2 bites lost, but the second half wasn't too bad.

[Borch]

My dad and brother were up this past week. They got theirs in the 2-10 fow with most coming from 5-8 fow. You'll find fish deeper if you look for them there. There might not be as many, but frequently they are bigger off the structure(often suspended).

Good Luck!

[dfv87]

Borch, (and everybody else)

We did our damage running cranks (Both sticks and Shads) over the edges of reefs 8-9' water, our key seemed to be getting away from others. NOt as much location.

[wallter]

Anybody doing slip bobbers? What are you using (leeches or minnows)? Please advise.