Mille Lacs Report

[Mayfly]

I spent the last few days on Mille Lacs chasing walleyes. After hearing mixed reports from last weekend’s opener I wasn’t sure what I was going to get into if anything at all. When I arrived at the lake on Thursday I spoke with a friend who was on the lake the evening before and had a great bite. There was a 2 hour window from 7-9pm that they could not keep the fish off their lines. That got me very excited. Rather than settling in we hit the water almost immediately and focused on shallow rocks. We hit a few spots and picked up a fish here and there but nothing consistent. After trying those spots I went to one of my spots that never seem to fail, the fish are always there. That was the biggest surprise to me this week because the fish were not there in the numbers that they usually are. We kept two for the box but could not get anything more to go. The rest of my time up on the lake was the same. We could not get into any type of rhythm. The fish bit when they wanted to and where they wanted to. The most consistent action that we had was from about 7:00pm to 7:20pm. I think in that time we boated 3 walleyes and watched a few boats around us catching just as many, and then it turned-off and we couldn’t get into anything else. What a weird lake it can be at times. I am convinced it will be another great year in the lake though. It seemed that there was a lot of fish around but the changing weather that we were dealing with may have played a roll in the bite. In one afternoon we went from clear and calm to gusting winds out of the west, then it rained and then the wind shifted almost directly out of the north. It was weird weather and an even weirder bite. I talked to a lot of fisherman over the 3 days I was there and they too said the same thing. There were a couple anglers who got lucky and found some nice pods of fish but the majorities on the lake were not having much luck. The water temp was about 48 degrees when I arrived on Thursday and when we left it was 54 degrees in the same spot. As the water warms we can only hope that the bite will improve.

Attached are a few pics - If you do not see them it is because you are not logged in.

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[GirlGuide]

Nice report Tim, I'm hoping to be back up there next weekend!
gg

[tom fellegy]

that sounds about right, catch a few fish on a spot and then they stop. i found we would just move 50 or so yards and reanchor or just use a cleat and that will move the boat over new water, and catch a few more. they are spooky when they are shallow, if you drive through them with the boat, it's all over for that spot. hopefully i will get my boat back from the shop on monday and i will get back out there fishing again. they are done spawning now and the water is warming up, so the fish should be moving into the spots that people are accustomed to catching them this time of year.................tom fellegy

[Mayfly]

One interesting note....the majority of fish we caught were 16 inches +/-. Looks like those 13-15 inch fish that we couldn't keep off our lines last year have grown up.

[Super Star!]

Tim  how did the shore line look?  after the big ice push? 

[Mayfly]

Tim  how did the shore line look?  after the big ice push? 

The shoreline was fine. There was still a big pile of ice/snow on the outside of Hawkbill.

[Joe]

Nice report Tim. My uncle and I couldn't buy a walleye under 18" until dusk and even then we never caught one over 16". We tossed back 6 or 7 that were 12 inches or smaller. We ended up keeping 4 between the 2 of us all were between 14" and 16". I'll try to post the picks of all the bigger fish tonight.