For the fourth year in a row, Wade and I hit Mille Lacs with a group of guys. One of the guys owns a lake home there and a bunch of us get to stay there. Pretty awesome place and we have a blast with the group that gets together. We headed up Friday after work and, after fighting traffic for a while, ended up at the lake around 8 PM. We got all unpacked into the home and told fish tails for a while that night before hitting the sack.
We got up around 4, had some breakfast and hit the water around 5:30. The lake was calm and weather was great. Best opener I can remember being a part of when it comes to weather. We made a run up to the north end to start on the sand. It was a good choice for us. The first fish I hit was a 16 ½ “ keeper for the box. A few minutes later I caught a 17 ½ “ but they had to be under 17” to keep. We continued fishing and pulling fish about every 15-20 minutes but all were over 20”. Wade stuck a nice 23” towards the end of our time on the sand.
We motored down through the crowd out of Agate and continued south to hit some rocks. We found fish and were consistently pulling them in but, again, all were over 20”. I stuck a 23” for myself.
This wasn’t helping out our friendly fishing contest we had going with the crew of the cabin. You get to way in five keepers and we only had one. So we moved around to more rock reefs with the same results of fish over 20”. We headed out to the mud and marked a ton of fish. By this time it was after noon and warming up nicely. No one out there was pulling fish and we fit in nicely with the crew as we didn’t pull in any at all either. So we headed back to Shaw’s reef to try to get a few more keepers. It just wasn’t meant to be, we again pulled in a couple of big fish but nothing that could hit the box. So we headed in at 3 PM for our weigh in.
We almost won the tourney by default as it was 2:55 and none of our other boats were in yet. But with two minutes to spare they all came roaring in. The winning boat had all five of theirs under 17” and the big fish of the day was a great 27 ¼” fish.
Bruce's prize winning 27 ¼”
I think there were about 20 fish brought in between all the boats so they got cleaned up and we all sat down to a meal of Sloppy Joes and Fresh Walleye. More fish tales and some naps and it was time to hit it again.
Al lot of talk was going on that 9 Mile was producing some nice fish so most of us decided to head out there for the evening. We left the cabin about 5:30 and heading out to 9 Mile. Fish were stacked and as we pulled up one of the boats was pulling in a nice 21” fish. We dropped line and started dragging our leeches. About 15 minutes into the evening I stuck a beautiful 25” eye that turned out to be my biggest of the weekend! Man did it fight. At first it didn’t do much getting up to the boat, but once my weight broke water and we got a look at her, she tore off and spun the drag on my reel. I love that sound! So after a few of those runs we managed to get her in the net and got some pictures.
My 25" eye.
25 inchers have some gaping mouths.
We fished the mud for another hour or so and not one of our six boats landed a fish at all. So we figured it was time to head somewhere else to see if we could get anything. We headed closer to the cabin just south of Big Point. Boats were stacked thick out there. The sunset was awesome and I couldn't pass up taking a couple of shots of it.
We set up to the south of it and trolled around. Again, nothing was hitting but we were making them. About 8:30 Wade and I were tired and wore out so decided to head in. The consensus of the other boats was the same. We reeled up and headed in. We were waiting for the others that said they were right behind us but they never showed up. A little over an hour later they all came in with more keepers. Apparently right after Wade and I left the spot it lit up. They all caught a dozen or so fish with some nice keepers mixed in. It appears we left ten minutes too early.
There was a nice bunch of fish caught in that run though for a good couple of meals.
Sunday Morning we got up early and headed out again after packing up. We were on the water at 6 and went to 3 Mile for some rock bite. Wade stuck another 22” a short time after getting there and then it was slow. I couldn’t buy a bite. Then, on what was going to be our last pass, Wade set the hook and thought he had a snag. That is until it started shaking the head. The fight was on and it took a little time. Like my big fish the night before, this one didn’t like the site of the surface or the net and went on a couple of runs but you could see it was a very big fish. Wade fought it well and we finally got her in the net. This was a big, thick 27 ½“ walleye! It is now Wade’s personal best walleye so the congrats were going around. We got a couple of pics of the beast and watched it swim away to put a smile on someone else’s face.
Wade's Personal Best 27 ½“ Walleye!
One more face shot of the beaut. Congrats Wade!!
After a couple of more passes of no action we headed down to Big Point. We lined up with all the other boats and threw out the drift sock. The wind was blowing Sunday so drifting in the 2 foot rollers was the way to go. We again stuck several fish that were over 20” but no keepers. After a couple more hours of fishing we decided to head home since it was, after all, also Mother’s Day.
Here's a couple of pics from a couple guys staying at the cabin with us.
Tom had a couple of nice fish.
Bruce won the big fish but wasn't done yet. he managed to pull in a very nice 28 ½“ walleye Sunday morning as well.
It was another great opener with a great bunch of guys. It can be frustrating to not get into many keepers but then you remind yourself how lucky you are to be pulling in beautiful fish over 20” with a lot of consistency. Catching fish that are too big to keep is not a bad problem to have. I know some are not fans of the slot limits on Mille Lacs, but it does work in the fact that it is a true trophy lake and I can’t think of many other places you can go and pull in fish like you can there. All of the fish caught came off a lindy setup with 8-12’ snells. Red and chartreuse hooks were working well for us. The water temp was between 52.8 and 56.3.
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Topic: Walleye Opener On Mille Lacs (Read 2226 times)
