Just got back from a week of fishing Mille Lacs. My Dad and I fished the 26th Annual Wave Wackers Tournament on June 9-10 and pre fished all week leading up to it. We concentrated on Mud Flats and found good slot fish all week, but unfortunately for us, they disappeared from our spots come tournament time. All week we would just cruise around, look for fish and once we found them we’d work a spot for no longer than 45 minutes. Most spots we found that held fish, we would catch a good slot fish or two in that small span of time so we felt pretty good going into day one.
We caught over 40 walleyes during the tournament, but only 5 of those were under the 18” slot. We caught many just over 18" which was a bit frusterating. I don’t know how many 24-27 inch fish we caught….but it was a lot! At about 2PM I got one that I thought had a chance to stretch the 28" mark when we got it in the boat, but it came up just a bit short at 27 & 3/4 (the attached picture was taken just before I measured it).
On day two, we basically started pre-fishing again, hitting several different spots to try and figure out where the pods of legal fish were but we couldn’t find them. It was still a fun week of catching though, as I never get tired of hauling in those Mille Lacs big girls! We pulled crawler harnesses most of the time and the best colors by far this week were Firebelly, Sunrise Craw and Goby. There was a massive bug hatch last week and I think the Sunrise Craw and Goby really shined when the bugs were at their peak. We also got a few on Baby Walleye, Seyka Perch and Gold Foil all in #3. We had to hop around to several flats during the week. Some flats wouldn’t have any fish on them and some were just loaded. The next day, the spots that held fish the previous day were bare and we just had to keep moving until we found them. As usual with Mille Lacs tournaments, several teams had the slot fish dialed in as close to half the teams brought in 7 fish limits each day. I think most of those baskets were caught on southern gravel bars and rock reefs. We’ll be back at it next weekend, probably with a plan to work some gravel and see what happens. Attached are a couple pics from this week.
Best of Fishing,
Shawn Flemming
Jolly Roger Tackle