Minnesota, Mille Lacs, Trolling - Walleye Fishing Report at IDOfishing.com

Gut's 1st Mille Lacs Eye a
Dandy 26"

I was up on Mille Lacs this past weekend with the intent of hopefully having a good planer board bite. This bite seems to be struggling getting going with the water temps lagging behind their normal schedule. Usually, I start fishing this bit in beginning to mid June when the temps near 65 degrees. Well this past Saturday when Pat (gutone4me), Stacie and I finally hit the water after a good breakfast, letting a few storms pass by, we were greeted with a angry sea of waves, some wind and 66 degree water temps.

Stacie's 3rd Largest Pike

We got out a lot later then I wanted to but we checked an area that I lightly scouted the weekend prior. Cruising at around 18 mph we scouted the area again and I was graphing some good action on my Lowrance. With the wind out of the SE I headed into the waves and thought I would just keep driving until I drove out of fishy water. We finally left the school, so I whipped the boat around, dumped the kicker in the water and we were almost at trolling speed with out the kicker running.

We put out a spread of two rods on boards and one long line out the back. My past experience has told me that sometimes in these type of wavy conditions the fish actually prefer not having a board. By long lining this reduces the surging of the crank in the water by not having the board. Well we made a pass and just at the end the wind started to switch and now was coming more from the West. With the winds intensity it did not take long for the waves to switch also so we turned the boat around and headed right back through the same school. This time we switched the baits up a little bit and ran them closer to the bottom since most of the fish seemed to be within a few feet of the bottom on the graph. We also ran just one planer board rod and long lined 2 out the back and chose to ride the troughs of the waves to see if that would get us a bite. It didn’t take long and soon a long line drag started to rip with a Mixed Veggies Reef Runner on it. Pat was up first and the fish kind of came in rather easily and had us fooled until the last 30 feet or so. Then the other long line rods drag started to scream as the Perch Tail Dancer found a victim and we had ourselves a double going. Stacie grabs that rod and instantly said this fish is pissed as she starts wrestling with it. Pat soon had his first Mille Lacs Lake walleye in the Beckman net and what a first fish it was. Pats girl taped out @ 26” and Stacie made her call of her fish was no walleye. Well, she was right. However, Stacie did get a little excited when I mentioned it could be that Muskie she was looking for,

but soon we caught a glimpse of a very nice Pike and her 3rd largest ever.

Another Mille Lacs Walleye
for Gut!

We struggled the whole afternoon to boat fish consistently and put together a pattern, even though we covered quite a lot of water. The only patterend we noticed was riding the troughs in lieu of going with or against the waves and longlining out the back and not using a planer board caught all of our fish. We probably would have been better off rigging or corking the flats or shallow rocks, but we stuck with our plan and pulled boards and caught some fish. I just think this bite is still not quite here yet as the water temps are still in the mid 60’s, the big pods of bait and bugs have not been found yet and the fish just are not bunched up like usual. You can still catch some fish, no doubt, but the bite is just not quite in full swing yet. Typically this past weekend and this coming weekend are the best 2 weekends for me pulling boards. The good news is I believe the best us yet to come here as we enter into July. So don’t give up on it quite yet, it will get better.

Stacie seems to catch a
dandy every time out.

After about 5 hours on the water we decided to go in and have something to eat @ Hunters, meet up with Brad and Tina and their group. We enjoyed a meal and talked about our day and our water observations with the intent to go back out and cork the night bite. Well after a call from the Compound and BigG, we (Brad, Tina, Stacie< Pat and I) opted to go over there for a few beverages. Pat got to meet some others form the Site (DMan, Big G, Tuck, Josh, The Girls) as we sat around the campfire and talked about fishing and hunting stories of the past in the future. Now this is what it is all about if you ask me.

It was great seeing you again and having you up Gut, and hopefully we can share some more boat, stand, or blind time in the future.

Well, that is my report for the past weekend, as we opted not go out on Sunday with the monster waves and the 25-30 mph winds. I will be back up for a day or so over the 4ht of July Holiday. I'm hoping the bite will be a little better and then Stacie and I will be making our way North to McGregor area to spend some time on Lake Minnewawa and Big Sandy. I hope everyone has a fun but safe 4th of July Holiday weekend. Remember there will be a lot of people out there this weekend, so please be extra cautious and aware of others this weekend.