After a several-week hiatus from fishing Mille Lacsm I was able to break away for a few hours on Saturday evening to hit Mille Lacs in search of some hungry walleyes. Joined by my good friend Garret, I hit the water just before 6 p.m. for about 2.5 hrs of fishing. With fall just around the corner, and night temps dropping into the 50’s, the fish are starting to move toward shoreline breaks. So even though our gameplan was to troll the open basin rather than heading to the middle of the lake, we chose an area not far from some of my favorite fall trolling runs along the East shore rock reefs.
We began with Garret running a Rapala TD-11 long lined behind a planer board while I had a Storm Deep Thunderstick directly behind the boat on leadcore. No more than 5 minutes had passed when the board started thrashing and Garret was hooked up with our first fish of the night, an extremely healthy 27" hawg.
In short order, the clicker on my leadcore reel started screaming and I brought my first fish of the night to the Frabill. But after watching Garret land three more big fish on the board line, it was apparent the better pattern for quality fish on this evening was on the boards, so I quickly made the switch.
It’s no secret that one of the biggest factors in catching fish in any situation is to find a pattern that closely matches the natural prey, and for open-basin walleyes on Mille Lacs that primarily means tullibees. One of my favorite baits in this situation is quickly becoming a Purple Clown Flash-colored Rapala TD-11. Hopefully I’m not giving anything away, but you can expect to see this exact lure show up frequently in an upcoming IDO TV episode on Mille Lacs that I filmed with James earlier this summer.
Time sure goes fast when you’re busy netting fish and shooting the breeze with good company, as it seemed like we had just started when sun began dipping below the horizon. What began as nothing more than an excuse to spend a few hours on the water with one of my closest friends had quickly turned into an awesome night of fishing! Garret had the hot hand, as he landed six of our 10 fish, including two over 26 inches, one over 27 inches and one just over 28 inches, our last fish of the evening.
Summer may be winding down, but the fishing on Mille Lacs continues to be on fire!