Mille Lacs Bite

[WalleyeRanger]

Anyone been on the lake lately? Going on Friday, never been there so any advise will be helpful. Location, techniques, depth, live bait, plugs, bottom bouncers, downriggers, ect.

[MarbleEye's]

My dad and I went to Mille Lacs for the first time on tuesday. We caught 8 walleyes, 2 of them in the slot and all of them between 15-22". We were out from 3:30-9:30pm, and trolled lindy rigs the whole time off bottom bouncers. The best was a lindy rig 8 ft long with #4 silver blade and a crawler behind an 1.5 ounce bottom bouncer. We caught fish on 8 mile, sloppy joes and spirit island. A good map is a must, and you should program coordinates into your GPS (if you have one) prior to getting on the lake. All of the fish came between 25-29 ft of water. If there is anything else you need just hollar, and im sure someone can fill you in. You might want to think about slip bobbering at dusk, we talked to some people who had better succes doing that than we did. MarbleEye's

[BruceMN]

Kinda funny. I went to Mille Lacs a week ago too. First time in over 5 years. All these people moaning about the slots and boycotting the lake is why I actually went. Now don't flame me, but for me... I always throw back the big ones and little ones, and will sometimes keep two or three 2-lb fish. So the slot mostly suits me. All the talk about catch a dozen fish to find one in the slot was true. In 4 hours I caught 9, two too small, one keeper, and 6 ranging from 4lbs to one at 7lb. Made my trip very enjoyable. Wasn't worth cleaning one keeper, he was still frisky and also got released.

For all the polictical dispute, for which I do sympathize, I decided to try Mille Lacs which I always avoided. Obviously, a number of other people are also going for the C&R hogs.

PS. In the morning caught em on rocky point edge at 10', then midday caught the smaller ones at gravel flat at 26'. All on bottom bouncer spinners with leeches.

[whitetips]

Was on the lake wed for 6 hrs , took my dad out and we were busy for all six hours I think it was just over 30 with 3 in the slot. Most were 20 - 23. 28 to 30 ft right now. There is a petition being passed around, please take the time to sign. proposal to try and improve the take slot. Some fish need to be harvested in that 19-23 zone , the lake is healthy from what we saw, but later could cause a forage problem with so many fish. The best fishing in the country right now. Crawlers and spinners worked for us. Try during the week or get by yourselves to work the pods. Good luck.