Mille Lacs Lake - Weekend Outlook 10-12-07

[Bill Lundeen]

Hi

Most of the angling pressure on Mille Lacs so far this week has been pretty close to shore (on the "calm" side) - high winds have kept all but the most hardy folks on shore looking out. Walleye action has been slower than average for this time of year. All the fish we saw taken this week were in less than 10 feet over rocks... slip bobbers/leeches during the daytime, crankbaits after dark. The surface temperature has dropped a lot - nearly 8 degrees from last week at this time. The current surface temp of 53 should be a good indicator that the "peak" of the fall bite should begin anytime now. Perch action is intermittent, but when you can find a school they bite like mad!

The reef markers have all been removed from Mille Lacs. The water level is well below "normal"... go easy!

Yes, we STILL have BIG leeches!

I attended the meeting of the Mille Lacs Fisheries Input Group this past Monday. The purpose of the meeting was to propose a "slot limit" for the upcoming winter season. We were able to see the data from the test netting the DNR did this fall, and based on that data the group unanimously agreed to send a proposal to the DNR Fisheries Chief and the DNR Commissioner for a 20-28 inch release slot (the same as we started the open water season with and the same as last winter). Commissioner Holsten is expected to review the recommendation and make his decision sometime within the next month. The regulations for the 2008 open water season will be proposed/decided/announced after the technical meetings are held this winter. Look for this process to take place sometime around March.

Some of the data we were shown at the the Input Group meeting suggests we may be beyond the "crest" of the current cycle. Nearly everyone who has fished Mille Lacs for more than a couple of years agrees that the lake "cycles" - a process where angling success is measured by average years, great years and slow years. A number of components contribute to this - baitfish numbers (high or low), high or low mature fish count, unsuccessful spawning seasons (often caused by weather/high winds), water temperature and water depth. We've enjoyed several succssful years in a row, and the future trend appears to be flat or slightly downward. Yesterday, the Twin Cities TV folk decided to make a big deal about this same data - data which even the biologists will agree is not totally processed yet. Before you sell your boat and run out to buy golf clubs, give things a chance to unfold... it's nothing we haven't been through before and it's nothing we won't be going through again in a couple of years.


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The weather for the weekend (from the National Weather Service) looks like this:

Today: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 52. Calm wind becoming south southeast around 5 mph.

Tonight: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 37. Calm wind.

Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 56. Calm wind becoming south southwest around 6 mph.

Saturday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 41. Light north northeast wind.

Sunday: A 30 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 53. Northeast wind between 3 and 10 mph.

The new moon was Thursday, 10-11-07.


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Finally, An Engineering Student, a Physics Student, and a Mathematics student were each given $150 dollars and were told to use that money to find out exactly how tall a particular hotel was. All three ran off, extremely keen on how to do this. The physics student went out, purchased some stopwatches, a number of ball bearings, a calculator, and some friends. He had them all time the drop of ball bearings from the roof, and he then figured out the height from the time it took for the bearings to accelerate from rest until they impacted with the sidewalk. The math student waited until the sun was going down, then she took out her protractor, plumb line, measuring tape, and scratch pad, measured the length of the shadow, found the angle the buildings roof made from the ground, and used trigonometry to figure out the height of the building. Of course, with all that was involved in getting this experiment done, they were up plenty late studying for other courses' exams. These two students bumped into the engineering student the next day, who looked quite refreshed. When asked what he did to find the height of the building he replied: "Well, I walked up to the bell hop, gave him 10 bucks, asked him how tall the hotel was, and went inside for supper!"

Have a great weekend,

Bill Lundeen
Lundeen's Tackle Castle
38752 Twilight Road
Onamia, MN 56359
320-532-3416
lundeens@lundeens.com
www.lundeens.com

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