Lundeen’s Tackle Castle – The bite on Mille Lacs is still good – lots of walleye and smallmouth spread out in a number of areas. The fishing pressure remains light, so you shouldn’t have to fish in a crowd. The top spot for walleye is on the mud flats in the northwest quadrant of the lake – these fish will move up and down the edges of the flats throughout the course of the day, from 23 to 32 feet. Leeches are your best bait, followed closely by nightcrawlers on a spinner rig. Silver, pink and Copper are your top spinner colors. The evenings are still good for picking up some fish before bedtime. With surface temperatures approaching the 70’s, be sure to play your fish carefully. If you’re going to shoot a picture, have your camera out and ready. Smallmouth action has moved from “the beds” to the traditional rockpiles and hiding spots. These fish hungry! Tubes, Senkos, Shadow Raps, leeches… they’re all in play right now. That’s not to say you can simply throw ANYTHING at them at ANY time, but we’re seeing one boat pound the smallies on one thing and just a few boats over those guys are hammerin’ them on something totally different!
McQuoid’s Inn – The Smallmouth Bass action has stayed hot post-spawn. Anglers are finding fish off of the reefs in the southeast corner in 7-12 feet of water. Plastics seem to be working better than crank-baits or jerk-baits. Plastics like creatures, beaver baits, and tubes in dark colors like pumpkinseed, watermelon, black, and even purple have been productive for big bass. Fish can also still be found shallow on the tops of the reefs but, most reports or the larger bass are coming from just off the edges in the 7-12 foot range. Calm days have been the best for bass with action picking up in the mornings between 9:00-10:00am as the water warms for the day.
Walleye anglers are also still finding success in what feels like almost anywhere you can wet a line. Windy days are producing larger fish shallow in the 7-10 feet of water range, both on weed lines and off of the reefs. These are also great places to target low light. A bobber and a leech has been an easy way to get in on the action shallow. Anglers are also still finding fish rigging deeper water, 25 feet or more with leeches or crawlers. The gravel bite down south here should pick up soon.
Pike and Muskie are also still being found in Isle, Wahkon, and Twin Bays. Spinner baits and buck tails being the go to, anglers are finding their best luck targeting weed lines and reed edges. Pike are still plentiful and Mille Lacs saw a good Muskie opener last weekend with many reports of fish from around the lake.