Lead Line Confidence Has Arrived

Last weekend my brother Steve had Friday off with the intent of having me take him fishing on Mille Lacs.  Never fishing a full moon walleye bite he wanted to see what it was all about.  In past years the September full moon has been very successful and although the last couple of years have been less than stellar, I have always had at least one good trip before October.   The 3 days before saw record rains in southern Minnesota and Wisconsin resulting in serious flooding for this time of year.   The weather showed Friday as a clearing day with Saturday having a chance of rain again.  Meeting me at work Steve and I headed to the lake with the wind howling from the northwest with gusts to 35 mph.   My strategy to fish the east side was definitely going to change.  Arriving at Lundeen's, Bill agreed that it would be a wet outing if we launched at Liberty Beach but the good news was the reports from the north side where it would be significantly calmer.   The latest fishing reports had the deep sand bite on the north end pretty good.  Running lead lines in 27 feet of water with #5 Shad Raps was the rumor for the hot bite.  With the 25mph steady wind out of the NW, this was a great option.  27 feet is fairly close to shore and after a short run, we snapped a Hot Steel Shad Rap on one rod and a Clown color on the other, let out 5 colors of line and headed east.  I am still amazed how well my 115 Suzuki trolls down, even with the wind it was under 2.0 mph.  Although the wind was blowing hard, the wave action was more than tolerable.  Within the hour we had our first rod double over, a nice 18 incher for the live well.  Starting at 3:00 in the afternoon, by 7:00 we had boated 7 walleyes, 5 for the live well and 2 were too big to keep such as this one pictured.  It was my best day fishing with lead line and it is definitely boosting my confidence with this presentation. 

At 7:00 it was time to find a shallow reef and check out the post sunset bite.  A 4 mile run to the shallows in front of Fisher's we trolled for about an hour and decided we should have stayed in the deeper water.  The waves were significantly higher and the fish were no where to be found.   Heading back we loaded the boat and made a beeline to my friend Mark's ice house for the night.  Our plan was to catch supper, get a good nights sleep and head home in the morning.   Located at Fisherman's Wharf, we stopped at the resort restaurant to eat before cleaning our walleyes.  The nights special was pot roast with all the trimmings for $10, a fabulous deal considering how much food we got.  A short ride to our quarters found a nice surprise, Mark had decided to drive up and stay the weekend.  After cleaning nice batch of walleyes, we proceeded to solve the world's problems, something that that took till 4 in the morning.  Admittedly we only scratched the surface!  Here is another nice walleye we nailed.  If you notice the pictures are once more lacking quality.  Being too excited at the landing, I again left my camera in the car.  I bought an extra camera to keep in the boat especially for my forgetful streaks however that camera was also in my car.  So much for that plan!  Steve took these with his fancy smart phone, not bad as I had little choice.

It is going to be hard to get out this weekend with a wedding on Saturday and a surprise anniversary party on Sunday.  The weather forecast is predicting a hard frost for Saturday night and things are drying out nicely.  With Indian Summer scheduled for next week, the fall rush to get those last minute chores done has started.

Back to Normal

Well, what has seemed to be the longest 3 weeks of my life is finally over. Having spoke at both funerals, I was more than ready to hit the water, and that is exactly what I did. The full moon of this past week provided a couple of great opportunities to hit the pond. One of my favorite times to fish on Mille Lacs is during September and October full moon periods. Although sometimes I feel it's more hype than reality, it definitely provides the incentive to head up and fish what I call the "Witchin' Hour". This is the time between 1/2 hour before sunset to when it is completely dark and can last up to 2 hours. When I was younger I could stay out till one or two in the morning then drive home. It finally became apparent that I caught few fish after the sunlight disappeared and although stories of guys hitting the mother lode at 3:00 in the morning, I luckily outgrew that desire.

I remember one time I was out with a friend on Mille Lacs, it was new moon dark and we were fishing near Hennepin Island. It was October and at 10:00 the sky was about as dark as it gets. I wanted to head to 3 mile reef which was north of our position by at least 4 miles. The night was crystal clear and the shoreline lights around the lake created an illusion of closeness to the shore. At that time GPS units were unheard of so heading north, the reef is usually easy to find by looking for any lights from boats that might be fishing the area. As clear as the night was, I did not see lights. Finally stopping to get my bearings my guest suggested that I was lost. "Are you kidding" not wanting to let on that I was clueless. Abruptly turning to the left I headed out towards my hopeful destination. Running about 5 minutes I stopped again, as I remembered I had a spot light. 3 mile has buoys on it and with my light I could easily see the reflections a mile away. Again my guest prompted the question.........Dave, are you sure you know where you are? "Of course, you worry to much!" I hit the light, scanned the water and voila, the reef buoy was 50 feet in front of us. As amazed as Greg was, I never told him how lucky I was!! We trolled for about an hour before deciding to give it a rest. I threw out the anchor and we decided to take a nap before hitting the shad raps again. We woke up 2 hours later with about 5 boats trolling around us. We never did catch any fish.

Last Sunday was time to try this the fall pattern. Picking up my neighbor Tom we headed north launching at the new public access at Liberty Beach. The lake levels are back to normal and the launch is perfect for fishing those east side reefs. Settling in, we fish a few reefs before heading to our honeyhole. 3 mile has not been very good in the last 3 years however I always feel compelled to try it one more time. Arriving I decided to stay with the Chartreuse #5 shad rap that Bill suggested I use. Tom was bent on catching a muskie which left me alone to figure the pattern. After catching 5 smallies and losing a nice walleye he switched to the same color in a countdown. Withing minutes Tom landed this 20 inch walleye. I proceeded to catch a few more smallies including this one that I had Tom take my picture with. Not huge but a simple memory of a good time.

On Friday I headed back up to fish with my good friend Mark Applen. He has a boat slipped at the Fisherman's Wharf and hitching a ride with him would make my evening care free. Asking me to provide the strategy he would take care of the boat ride. Heading back out to the offshore reef, I started where we ended last Sunday. This time the chartruese rap fell short. Switching to a crawfish colored shad proved deadly. I ended the night with over 12 smallies, a keeper walleye, and a nice perch. Mark had never fished shad raps like this and was quite impressed.

The weekend will see me shooting the Kramer Open, a charity sporting clays shoot where I almost beat Tom Emmons last year, but that's another story. It is definitely good to be alive. I will leave you with one of those spectacular Mille Lacs sunsets.