Mille Lacs Lake Perch and Conditions

As our available time on the hardwater begins to decrease, Mille Lacs lake still continues to offer opportunities for the late ice angler. Great weather and more than sufficient ice conditions made my latest excursion to the Mille lacs fishery significantly enjoyable. With the above said and perch breaking 2 lbs; I cannot stress enough how important it may be to restrain yourself from even pondering tinkering with your soft water craft.

Throughout our day on the water I was able to locate our prespawn perch over 33 feet of water in the gravel rock transition areas, making sure to stay consistently in the prespawn areas. By doing so, we were rewarded with more than respectable size fish in good numbers. Scott and I were very pleased with these fish. Little did they know they were going to star in MarCum technologies Demo videos. We spent our day filming the demo videos; and what a great way to do it catching trophy sized perch! I beleive Scott has now broken his personal best with a fish over 2 lbs. This fish absolutely dwarfed our other 11 inch fish. Scott will have to give you the details on it. The picture does not do the fish justice.

Early morning the action was consistent while we enjoyed an almost empty lake. Having the lake to ourselves gave us plenty of options and plenty of room for experimenting. Although there was little need for experimenting. We were set up in the same general area for the day hole hopping. Moving the cameramen around doing this is not easy but it proved useful for some great action. Fishing was consistent from 7 AM to 11 AM. Lure of choice was the perch patterned glow devil from scenic tackle tipped with either wax worms or heads. I’ve been hearing many reports of having to downsize the presentation, however the same size jigging spoons have proved effective throughout the year. The aggressive fish were usually found in numbers, while the lookers tended to be stragglers. Constantly moving to say on top of the large school was key. I found the large school to stay in the same general area througout the day. I wasn’t for numbers on filming day due to being constantly busy with other objectives, however with the small time frames we were able to put our minds to fishing, we were able to keep around 30 perch with the smallest at 10.5 inches and I beleive Scott’s big girl measured 14.25 and weighed over 2 lbs. The bottom picture shown here is a brightly colored male ready to spawn shown with another immature fish. Along with fish shown you can see how those 14 inchers dwarf the 11 and 12s

The Ice continues to be in great shape on the main lake. Access’ I’ve used previously are currently in rough shape, however Nitti’s at Hunters Point are taking good care of their lake access. Their bridge is still out over a main breaker. There is very little snow left on the lake. A small car can now get around just fine. I thank George again for getting me on the lake and for the beverage after. We’re still going to have great ice and beautiful weather for the next couple weeks. I’ll plan on having a couple more reports for you as the ice season ends Take advantage of March and April, and make sure to bring some sunscreen and chapstick,… ouch that hurts!