I’m not a bass guy, mainly focus on walleye. Headed to ML this weekend and thought I should try and tango with some of those big smallies I hear so much about. If I were to spend a few hours targeting smallies this weekend, what tactics are best right now on the Pond?
Shallow rocks, and a jig and a plastic has been dynamite for me this time of year, in years past.
I would have a tube rigged up at all times
I would have a tube rigged up at all times
I did some damage with a tube today. These things are like footballs. Even caught a couple of those wet noodles too lol
276D2A3F-479E-44D6-BDDC-C462BDD840BA-scaled.jpeg
AA7D48F9-C223-4384-9E62-35BC9B4A4840.jpeg
8D6137BA-7FF3-4CDC-8044-88435B78F5DA.jpeg
Damn those are nice fish.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
I would have a tube rigged up at all timesI did some damage with a tube today. These things are like footballs. Even caught a couple of those wet noodles too lol
Hell yeah bud. The tube is a quick go to for me and they work for smallies. Tomorrow I’m fishing st croix and that will be my first rig of choice. Good job today
Those are some fat fish to. Even better.
Around 12:15, what appeared to be a formula one racing boat hauled ass from Malmo to the south end of the lake in just minutes. That thing musta been going over 100 mph. Loudest boat I’ve heard too. That was quite a sight.
Anyone else out there hear or see that thing today?
How shallow of rocks are you guys targeting? I have tried a few times in past years without much luck.
How shallow of rocks are you guys targeting? I have tried a few times in past years without much luck.
I was in about 4-8 feet today. They will be spawning soon and then many of them move out to deeper offshore structure.
Around 12:15, what appeared to be a formula one racing boat hauled ass from Malmo to the south end of the lake in just minutes. That thing musta been going over 100 mph. Loudest boat I’ve heard too. That was quite a sight.
Anyone else out there hear or see that thing today?
Yes I seen it, it launched from agate bay where im at, it has twin 700hp racing mercs on it and can do 140mph, it came from lake Havasu. The thing just sounded knarly!!
Yes I seen it, it launched from agate bay where im at, it has twin 700hp racing mercs on it and can do 140mph, it came from lake Havasu. The thing just sounded knarly!!
Holy cow that is wicked.
Once they move a bit deeper DT-10’s can be pretty effective.
I’ll be the first to admit, Mille Lacs has never treated me well, but when I do catch fish, it’s on a ned or football jig. I’ve never made it up there for the spring bite though and I’d say a jerkbait would absolutely crush out there when the water is still cool.
The tactic by my dock and boat lift this weekend was for a different boat to harass the 2 smallmouths on their beds every 25 minutes or so. I saw them get caught mutiple times. I only had to yell at two cidiots yesterday that decided it would be easier for them to get closer to the fish via walking on my lifts top rail and dropping the bait straight down along the dock tire 3″ from the fishes nose.
Wish I would have brought up my game camera and placed it on the dock…
I’ll be the first to admit, Mille Lacs has never treated me well, but when I do catch fish, it’s on a ned or football jig. I’ve never made it up there for the spring bite though and I’d say a jerkbait would absolutely crush out there when the water is still cool.
That’s exactly when I try to fish it. Before they spawn. A jerk bait was effective about 10 days ago and it also caught a few wet noodles.
On Saturday a jerk bait wasn’t as effective with the bright sunshine. Slower bottom contact plastics were working instead.
I find it to be more difficult after they spawn because many of them vacate shallow water and head out into the abyss. Offshore finesse fishing still works but it’s not my jam.
I am pretty sure there is about to be a big bug hatch out there too.
Army worms and skeeters are in full swing on the southwest corner.
A friend and I fished smallmouth on Sunday, May 28th. Tough going for us, at least for size. We caught over 20 smallies but the largest was just 16.5″ Most were in the 13-14″ range. Ned rigs caught the most but some also were caught on an X-Rap. We fished the NW corner of the lake on Garrison and Myr Mar reefs targeting rocks/boulders/rock-to-sand transitions in 5-10 feet of water. At times we could see a half dozen or more smallies under the boat. I could get them to swim up to a jerk bait but the vast majority would not hit it. We also tried drop-shotting a tube and also slip bobbering a leech. We had a water temp of 53 in Garrison bay in the morning and as hot at 63.7 F on top of Mry Mar reef in the late afternoon.
We were not fishing close to other boats all that often, but when we did, we didn’t see anyone else catch anything. That goes for boats that appeared to be fishing smallies or boats fishing walleye.
We thought we saw what appeared to be beds in sand areas between big rocks.
We’re debating if we should give it another try in early or mid June or just wait until next spring and try to get there earlier in the season.
You can catch smallies all spring summer and my favorite time fall on the pond.
Early spring is great. But you can’t beat the fall smallie bite. Best bass bite of the season
Early spring is great. But you can’t beat the fall smallie bite. Best <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass bite of the season
X2!
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
