Mille Lacs Opener Report!!

[Mayfly]

Well the season has officially begun. It sure was good to be back. Because of work I could only head up for the night and left today around noon. We decided to head out just after midnight and hit some rocks that usually hold fish this time of year. In the past years I have not had much success fishing at night at this spot but I just wanted to get a line wet and plan the rest of the night out. We got set up and in the water by about 12:30. It wasn't long and to my surprise the bobber went down! Missed my first fish of the year ::hittingself:: Good sign though, the fish are here! Immediately our spirits were up and it didn't take long for me to hook into my first walleye of 2007!

A 16 1/2 inch beauty. Perfect for the dinner table


After that we were getting bites pretty steady. My buddy that I brought along has maybe caught one walleye his whole life so night bobber fishing was new to him. He missed a lot of bites but did manage to catch a couple. We had 2 highlights of the night. His bobber went down and as we were watching it my bobber started to go and before we knew it we had two eaters in the boat!



The big fish of the night was a 23 1/2 inch fish. Good looking fish!



And we finished the night off with 7 fish boated and took 4 home for dinner For only being out there 2 hours I thought we did pretty good! Can't wait to get back up on Tuesday!!!! From what I did and what I heard I think we are going to have another great year!

[rchaze60]

nice fish there Tim...... how was the weather? much wind?

[ScottPugh]

Great report Mayfly.  Here is our quick trip in a nutshell.  Will write more later. 

Made a quick trip up Saturday afternoon with my cousin and his buddy.  5.5 hours later 12 keepers, 7 released over the slot, 15+ smallers ones released and running out leeches as our 12th was headed to the livewell.  Best fishing of my life so far. 

[Mayfly]

Made a quick trip up Saturday afternoon with my cousin and his buddy.  5.5 hours later 12 keepers, 7 released over the slot, 15+ smallers ones released and running out leeches as our 12th was headed to the livewell.  Best fishing of my life so far. 

Scott, It was really good for us as well. We just went to one spot and fished there for just under 2 hours. I have never caught a fish on this spot opener weekend but I try every year I have also never caught a fish on this spot after dark but I try every year. Why I went there this night? It was close and easy and it turned out to be the best I have ever done there considering the time and conditions. I imagine if we would of stayed it could of only gotten better!

I will be up Tuesday - Thursday and then Friday - Monday. Hope to catch a lot more!

[Tompton]

 Timmy, if I come up to Mille Lacs will you bring me to a spot that you never catch fish?  That would be awesome.

 

[Rywheat]

Yeah this was some of the best fishing I can remember Myself and Mickbear and our buddy Hammer Hammered them we went home with 8 in the box plus a jumbo perch with a couple over the slot and one that was to small. Every spot we tried had fish and many around us were boating some nice ones as well. One of the other boats with us got a nice 28" monster that was released among other 23,25,26,26,26 and others it was a great opener weather was great saturday.

[Mayfly]

I'm a bit jealous I didn't get to fish during the day saturday. Heading up tomorrow again!  Not sure how much fishing as I will have my daughter with but I will get out!

[GirlGuide]

My Mille Lacs report is not as grand as Mayflys, but here it is.  We got out at midnight from Terry's Resort, by St. Albans Bay.  It was pretty rough, but we trolled our rapalas and fought the waves all the way over to Pikes Point (by the blue goose).  That took us about and hour and 1/2, with no luck.  When we got over to pikes point where we usually fish every opener, our light bulb burnt out on the back light of our boat.  YIKES, i did not want to be out there without a back light, neither did my husband. Safety First, Always!!  So we tied a flashlight to the post and headed in for the Blue Goose dock so my husband could walk up to the holiday station in garrison to get another bulb.  It took us four tries to get our boat up to the dock, that is how windy it was!  Finally got the boat tied up and my husband ran up to get a light bulb and they didn't have the right size bulb.  We were done fishing then for the night.  By then I didn't even care though...as I was starting to get quite sea sick and was ready to call it a night!  It was not a good opener night at all for us, wish I would of been wherever Mayfly was, where he doesn't catch fish, sounds like much more fun!! lol!  Anyway, Saturday was a much better day, winds died down quite a bit and the sun was out.  We ended up catching a 19", a 24", a 25", and a 25 1/2".  So we didn't get skunked, and it was a lot of fun bringing in those big ones, even though you cant keep them.  We were trolling with rapalas when we caught all of those ones, mostly in front of garrison's big fish in about 11 ft of water.  Some friends of ours were trolling with rapalas in St. Albans Bay, were catching some big walleyes too.  They didn't catch hardly any keepers though, they were all too big.  So they switched to lindy rigs in about 11 to 13 ft of water, and as soon as they did that, they caught 25 more walleyes...all within the slot limits!  So that made a big difference for them.  Hope you all had a happy and safe opener!! GirlGuide aka Renee