Mille Lacs?

[Wall-i-Lama]

Hi all! Can anyone provide a general update on how they walleye fishing was at Mille Lacs this year? A group of us fished there for many years and had a great deal of success. It was quite easy to limit in half a day with nice eater walleye. Then the fishing began to taper off some, and we began to struggle to consistently catch a decent amount of fish.. Has it picked back up yet there? Thanks for any insight that you may have.

[guideman]

I can't tell you if the ice fishing has been any good this year, however the open water season was one of the worst in years. I'm sure there some that fish the lake more than I do that might not agree, however I have several friends that own cabins there and they all struggled this summer.

Happy Holidays!

"Ace" :)

[went522]

Hi all! Can anyone provide a general update on how they walleye fishing was at Mille Lacs this year? A group of us fished there for many years and had a great deal of success. It was quite easy to limit in half a day with nice eater walleye. Then the fishing began to taper off some, and we began to struggle to consistently catch a decent amount of fish.. Has it picked back up yet there? Thanks for any insight that you may have.


It was a tough year for many. Lot's of fish down there, few takers. We could get into decent numbers of smaller fish corking the rock piles in the morn/eve. or windy days but nothing like years prior. The lake is experiencing a bait fish bloom right now, perch, shiners and tulibee all had good hatches in recent years. Top that off with several large bug hatches a year makes for tough fishing. We not only saw the catch rate go down for walleyes but all species, perch, smallies, skis and pike were tougher to come by this year as well. I think we'll see a tough winter bite like last year. We caught fish but not in record numbers like the years prior.

Lots of controversy going on right now when it comes to Mille...the indians netted them all out, perch bloom, DNR doesn't have a clue, netting results are wrong, netting results are correct?? EESH!! I believe the bait fish bloom is extremely high, there's plenty of fish and it'll just take a couple years for the forage to get knocked down...fish don't want to chase a rapala, eat a bright red hook tipped with a leech or chase unatural spinners when they have a natural buffet for easy taking. Time will tell.

BIRDDOG

[Wall-i-Lama]

Went522 & Guideman, Thanks for the info. The part about bait fish seems to make a lot of sense. Last couple of times there, we marked a lot of fish but had trouble getting them into boat. We'll keep a eye on it, cause sooner or later they would have to thin the bait out. Have a great Christmans!