Lake Mille Lacs Perchin’ Report.

When there is no wind and with sunshine in the forecast, you can find me out on this years perch factory known as lake Mille lacs. In the middle of February, and the beginning of March soon upon us, we’ll all lose a bit of sleep the night before a perch outing on lake Mille Lacs pondering what Jumbo’s the lake has in store for us. Friday night was no different.

I arrived at the lake at 9 AM. I know what you’re thinking, but I’m fighting illness here and needed my sleep. Anyhow I was on my way to the east flats when I made a last minute decision to try the mud flats that had abruptly turned off in the past 3 weeks. Figuring the deep mud areas should kick back in soon, I popped a few dozen holes planning not to stay long in anticipation of the “great bite” on the east side. By 9:30 I’m dropping bait at the first hole I drilled and the Marcum’s zoom column appears to fill up. Before I can find my jig in the water column I’m setting the hook.

By 10:30 or so I’ve iced 8 11 inch perch only then to be greeted by a break in the action, and time for a cup of coffee. After I’ve collected myself from the fluster of action, I get on some decent fish. Not very often do I need to describe a specific technique, but this scenario called for a specific method to put hook to lip. With My Marcum set on narrow beam I was able to see the interested fish closest to my jig. The 20 degree cone angle just clutterd my screen to the point that I couldn’t read properly. With 8 degree cone on I was able to target the active fish that would give chase to my lure through out the water column. In order to initiate a chase I had to set my Glow Devil tipped with Waxies on the bottom for 5 or 10 seconds then bring it above the fish. At this point the interested fish showed itself rise above the others and then quickly bringing the lure up got the chase going. Utilizing the LX 5’s fine line feature gave me the separation I needed to see what was going on. Thats what it took to trigger them to bite. Bait of choice was perch pattern glow devil tipped with a couple waxies. I’m still working on taking pictures of myself but I’m seeing improvement.

As the day went on I ended up with 15 perch for the freezer and new knowledge of the mud areas coming back alive with perch action. I think your best bet is to arrive early light as the best flurry of action was/is early morning. It will only get better as perch spawn draws nearer. I took the last picture here of my sportmans board of my final 2 victims because I wanted to point out the significance of the new brightly colored male on the bottom. Both of these perch are male. You’ll notice the fins are bright orange and the golden yellow is much brighter. You’ll find these traits more prominent in the mature male perch as their spawning time gets closer. This is a good sign. Good luck to you all out there!