Mille Lacs Trolling Report

Wow! What a run on some of the best fishing to be found anywhere. I had trips on Mille Lacs since late last week through Friday night and I can’t ever recall a time when the fishing was more outstanding. We put 45 -80+ fish in the boat each night out with the vast majority of our fish running 23″ or better. On the top end we enjoyed a 30.75″ and a 30.25″ plus some pretty staggering numbers of 27 – 29+ inch fish most nights out on the lake.

We caught fish on rock, gravel, sand, suspended, and near weeds….. but we never fish deeper than 12′. Our most productive technique was to pull stickbaits about 3′-5′ down in 8′-12′ of water and allow the walleye to “come up to” our baits VS. running the closer to the bottom as is typically the case. I can only assume that the fish were using the moonlight to spot and silhouette our cranks and running them high in the water column was one of our keys to catching much better than average sized fish.

Speed seemed to be equally as critical and we had our best results moving relatively slowly…. 1.5 – 2 mph. Prior to the full moon 2 mph was the “norm” but after the cold front settled in middle of last week, slowing 0.5 mph, down to 1.5 mph from 2.0 mph, made all the difference in our catch rates. When the water temps finally began to fall from the low 60’s into the upper 50’s, the fish really seemed to lose their willingness to chase as far or as fast as they had earlier in the week.

Stickbaits far and away outperformed shad style baits for us. We could catch walleyes on raps, etc. but these fish ran much smaller. T-sticks, husky jerks, original floating raps, bomber Long A’s all caught fish and our top two patterns were firetiger and anything gold/black. Larger baits in the 5″ – 6″ range worked the best. Bigger baits DID produce bigger fish.

I’m completely pumped about the next full moon!

Below: Jim Kaufer with a 30.25″ walleye….. one of 15 between 27″ – 30.25″ he and his partner Jerry Kaufer caught on 10-02-01.

James Holst

Moving Waters Guide Service

http://www.movingwaters.net

Ditto on James’ report. We did FANTASTIC! I caught 31 fish over 23″ on Friday, and one pike around 20 pounds.

Saturday, same thing with a pike even BIGGER!! Pics to come…

Tuck

I agree,

We had 32 on friday- saturday, and as good of fishing saturday-sunday. Real runs from midnight to 0ne, multiple doubles at this time each night, And then again an hour before daybreak. We even had snow friday night!

Hook

We fished in the snow too! It did only lasted about 90 seconds but hey, I was there to see it. Plus that little front, (did you see that enormous, low hanging cloud that dropped the snow?!!) really kicked the fish into a feeding spree and we had 3 over 27″ with a 29.5″ fish for a kicker centered within about a 15 minute span on either side of that brief snow squall.

God I love fall fishing!!

James Holst

Moving Waters Guide Service

http://www.movingwaters.net

James,

You think the next full moon will be as good?? I’m assuming we’ll still have soft water then. It looks like the end of could be another fantastic bite potentially. Maybe it won’t slow much between now and then??? What are your thoughts on trying these techniques from now til the next full moon??

The water temps when I left were still running up near 60 degrees. We have had some cool /cold night over the weekend but we also look to be settling into a period of warmer weather now. As long as the water temps don’t drop into the lower 40’s I think it should be very good.

I have also had fantastic fishing on quarter moons on Mille Lacs. Don’t worry too much about the moon phase. This time of year, just go if you can make it. Dark nights….. upsize and go with lures with a rattle. It will make all the difference.

James Holst

Moving Waters Guide Service

http://www.movingwaters.net

Hey James. Good to here of your great results. I have a question for you. Did you guys go out after any perch or eater size eyes while you were up north, and if so how were they biting? Also I saw something in your first post on this

subject I belive you said you were trolling higher in the water column say 3 to 5 feet over 12 feet of depth and the fish were coming up after the stick baits? What I’m wondering is if the fish we are seeing suspended on our fish locaters say about 6 or seven feet down in 12 or 13 feet of water arn’t walleye feeding on something. I’ve been out a couple of times lately and I’m not seeing the fish on the bottom but up higher. I tried something new and used a very small jig crappie size and put on a small piece of salad shrimp. I started catching small white bass about three inchers. So what I’m getting at do you think those walleyes are just at that level chowing those down as I can’t catch any eyes on normal stuff like deep cranks,leechs on floaters or spinner rigs,crawlers,or fat heads on jigs. Of course I wonder all this after reading your post and I’m off the water and now I’m thinking I should have been running floating raps,thudersticks,ect. How do you think this would work on Pepin or other lakes at this time of year when we all think the walleye bite is slow. Maybe were just not using the right approach. Good luck everyone and remember that the water temp is dropping and it’s time to start wearing our pfd’s.

Lienieman

There’s a well documented, and exploited (!), suspended walleye pattern on Lake Pepin. It usually starts to took shape in August most years and by the time mid-September shows up, many of the trollers on Pepin, myself included, target this fish more often than the tight to the bottom fish. A real typical scenario is to run #7 raps down about 7-8 feet over 12-15 feet of water. Many days it works like a charm and the average size of the fish you’ll catch suspended far exceed those you’ll catch banging bottom most days. Don’t know why… but they do.

That being said, I did fish Lake Pepin Sunday and we did best by casting cranks to shoreline rocks… using those same #7 raps. Retrieve fast and pound the rocks to trigger very aggressive strikes. We took a super nice 8 LB eye this way on Sunday that got its picture taken with some of the fall colors in the background just prior to release. Man I love this time of year.

No, we did not try the perch on Mille Lacs but we were able to catch eaters when we wanted to. They were running in different areas and at different depths. When I gave my customers the option to choose between catching smaller, eater sized fish or ‘eyes from 25″-30″ long… they took the obvious choice. But the eaters aren’t the hard to come by in my opinion. A guy just can’t sit on a spot that’s producing hogs and whine that there’s no eaters…. you have to go find them.

I sure hope this answers your question.

James Holst

Moving Waters Guide Service

http://www.movingwaters.net

I knew I should have taken my line counters and trolling stuff with me my last couple of times out. It seems like the walleye are wherever I’m not lately. I’m deep there suspended, I’m throwing a jig, they want a crank, I’m in Wisconsin, they move to Minnesota. I guess I just got to get

out more. Thanks for the input. I’ll be doing some suspeded trolling next. How far back with a 3 to 4 inch stripper or white bass on 12 lb mono to get down to seven feet? Maybe a bobber. LOL

Leinieman my friend and i did same thing till we found right lure we caught over 50 perch in 2 hours

going to rocks area and try find sharp drop like 5feet to 9 feet we use buckshot spoon (with rattle) with minnow head i replace trible to single hook prevent rip perch mouth i hope my tip help you