Second Time Around

Last week was as crazy as this week.  After flying to Chicago and getting back late on Friday night, Saturday we left early to see my Dad in Eleva.  My brother was there so we got a number of things done around the house.  I decided to take the "old" way of going back home, Hwy 10 which runs a mile from the house all the way to Eleva.  Back in 1973 Oil Crisis the government instituted a 55 mph speed limit on major highways so there was little advantage between taking Hwy 10 vs the interstate, I94.  Today the major 2 lanes remain at 55 mph but the interstate is back up to 65 (in Wisconsin).  Having recorded mileage both ways, Hwy 10 is 5 miles shorter than taking I94, is much more scenic, and only takes about 5 minutes longer.  It's a welcome change from the last 25 years of thinking the interstate is better.  We headed back early Sunday with the intent of hooking up with my neighbor Lory Brasel and trying the late afternoon bite.  Last week the bite lasted well into the 6:00PM time frame, could it still be on?  Heading to the landing north of the Casino, evidence of a busy morning was confirmed by the truck trailers parked in the ditch.  Arriving at 3:00 there were enough empty spaces to stay withing the landing.  My strategy was simple, head to the Cut, backtroll to the corner, and depending on our success, either stay or move to 7-mile flat, scene of last weeks success.  Although the cut was void of boats, we only nailed 1 fish before deciding to move.  We did mark a lot of fish but they didn't seem to interested.  I caught a smaller walleye, 21 inches, but that was it.  Time to move to 7 Mile.  There were a few more boats on 7 Mile but the fish were just as uncooperative.  One thing was evident, a big mayfly hatch was about to commence.  My sonar marked huge masses of mayfly larva setting themselves up to emerge into adulthood.  There are theories as to whether these bug hatches affect the fishing or not but I can't believe they don't.  Evidence of the previous night's hatch were all over the surface.  Marking a load of fish on the point, we decided to anchor and try bobber for a while.  Using a crawler, Lory nailed the first keeper I had seen in 4 weeks.  We through it in the live well then spent the next hour trying to duplicate the feat.  No such luck.

My friend Bill had called to warn us that a weather front was moving in fast and we need to be cognizant of the approaching storm.  Deciding to move closer to the landing, we headed back to the Cut.  Again, there was not a boat to be found we started on the edge and immediately began marking fish.  Putting down the crawler rig, we went 20 feet before that tell tale thump, a walleye.  Setting the hook the 26 1/2 incher finally succumb to the net, a good start.  Re-baiting and 2 minutes later  boom, another 22 incher hit.  Releasing it and re-baiting I nailed a 24 inch walleye, again within minutes.  After the 4th fish, I suggested to Lory he reconsider my offer to use one of my hand tied spinner rigs as it was obvious the presentation was hot and what ever he was using was not.  Almost as scripted he retied, threaded the night crawler, let it to the bottom, and within a minute had a nice walleye.  I am not sure who was more excited, me steering him right or the fact that he caught one right away.  As we unhooked his walleye, the lightening made it's presence known.  Time to head for the landing.  We ended the day with 7 walleyes, 5 caught in the last 30 minutes.  We were able to stay just ahead of the storm but eventually it caught up with us.  An hour later the wind took out one of my nicest Autumn Blaze Maple, a 10 year old tree, the 3rd I have had in that location!  Oh well.  Power was off till 2:00, just in time for the air to kick back in.  The first picture is the 26.5 incher that I caught and the second is the last fish of the day, Lory's 24 inch walleye that practically jumped into the boat!  I am expecially fond of how his hat dressed up the boat significantly! I am in Loveland, CO returning Friday, maybe heading back home for Saturday and doing the Mille Lac thing this weekend.   Hopefully the bite is still strong!

Nice Ending to June

June has turned out to be a pretty good month for fishing walleyes on Mille Lacs.   The early spring put the fish in a pretty aggressive mood for the month with the fish being somewhat deeper than they normally are this time of year.  I usually reserve Sunday afternoon's for my trips as the lake is less crowded and it gives me a chance to get caught up around the house.  Along with great fishing we have had excellent rainfall that has keep me busy around the house.  I am in the process of replacing all of my landscaping that was put in 18 years ago.  Because I still am feeling the effects of my surgery I have some help in the form of 2 excellent gentlemen recommended by my good friend Tom McAtee.  Antonio and Jose are brothers and farmers from just north of Mexico City and have been coming to Minnesota for over 15 years to work as landscaping laborers during the summer for a number of nurseries in town.  Saturday is their day to make some extra money and half a day on Sunday,  they have been a Godsend for me.  Together we have removed about 15 tons of rock, removed around 20 mature overgrown shrubs, and have the areas prepared for an all new look!  It always seems to be something.

So this Sunday was Lory Brasel's turn in the boat.  Heading up around 1:30, our usual stop at Lundeen's gave us some indication of the current bite status.  With the wind howling from the west-northwest, there were no shortage of white caps. It was an interesting wind as it was blowing hard enough to create a frothy surface however the size of the waves were not as large as I would have expected.  Maybe we were just lucky to be on the right side of the lake and the big rollers were on the south and east side.  Our first stop was a set of humps just east of the landing.  They have been a good producer however it was starting to get too late in the season to really count on them.  Catching nothing we decided to head directly to Sherman's flat, as reports have been good.  This meant however that we would be subjecting ourselves to a little more punishment.  Starting at the what is known as The Cut, we would fish the top edge of the flat, just where it drops abruptly from 24 feet to 34 feet.  This drop runs for almost a mile in a SW to NE direction, perpendicular to the days wind direction.  This is a great opportunity to use a technique called quartering.  Pulling night crawlers on spinner rigs, the intent is to stay on the top of the break.  If you put the motor in reverse, backing into the wind, the physics of it will push the boat almost perfectly at a 90 degree angle to the wind, allowing us to stay on the break.  It is pretty neat but unfortunately it did not produce any fish.  Getting beat up somewhat we headed to the north side of the flat where there is an edge running exactly parallel to the wind.  This would allow us to drift right on the break with minor adjustments.  This proved to be a great strategy as we started catching fish immediately.  The run was about 1/4 mile long and we were catching 1 - 2 fish every 15 minutes (basically 1 run).  The first 4 were over 18 inches and had to go back however in the end we ended up with 5 keeper walleyes and 5 very nice perch in the 12 inch range.  I was surprised that we did not get any nice walleyes over 20 inches.   I decided not to take any pictures of my fish as I was looking for something large which of course never happened.   Well, it never hurts to be a little over confident!  The top picture is Lory with his largest, a nice picture for my post. 

This weekend is the traditional 4th of July outing with my friend's the Tom's.  Hopefully the bite will continue as I have yet to get skunked on the pond this year.  I am leaving you with a nice picture of a musky caught my my good friend and former Team Walleyer, Eric Hayes of La Crosse.  Eric and his family spend some time on Lost Land Lake, east of Hayward Wisconsin.  This year turned out to be a fantastic year for his group as they did very well on the muskies, including this nice on he nailed on Teal Lake, connected to Lost Land.  It is great to see my friends send in their trophy pictures as I always say, So many lakes, so little time! 

Finally In The Groove

Well after a tenuous June I finally made it back to the pond for the third weekend in a row! Sometimes beggars can't be choosers and this trip saw Mr. Emmons accompany me for the second time in as many weeks. Tom is a great friend to fish with, seldom shows his displeasure and lets me basically run the show with little complaints. He is the only guy that dares to smoke in my boat however he is keenly aware of what would happen should his lighted end get away from him. The day was as perfect as one could ask for with calm winds lasting right up to the time we left. I had my educated night crawlers with but still stopped at Lundeens and picked up ice plus an extra dozen leeches. My boat has 2 live wells and a baitwell which doubles as a great cooler. Generally Bill gives me bulk ice and I just dump it in the baitwell where it lasts all day long as long as I set the plumbing to recirculate. Arriving at the landing we unloaded and headed for Shermans. I generally start fishing the area on Shermans called the cut. It's edge runs southwest to northeast and is a great place to start. Within 15 minutes I caught the first fish, a 15" keeper, one in the box! About 10 minutes later we received a call from a my dear friend Mark Applen, who was on the 7 mile. We decided to head over and tag team the flat. Although it was nice to see Mark the only thing we caught was a 4 inch perch. After a short run to 9 mile we bid Mark ado and headed to the Sliver Flat, the site of Russ's nice fish last week. Almost immediately I hit this nice 25" fish on a crawler. This fish was the second on my educated crawlers, verifying my theory from last week! This fish hit like a freight train leading me to believe that the epic battle by my brave homegrown bait paid wonderful dividends! A couple more passes along this small flat produced little so we decided to switch strategies and don the planar boards. The calm weather proved excellent for trolling and it became a welcome change of pace. Heading between the Boot and Fishers flat Tom noticed his board dancing. Once he reeled the board in and I disconnected the battle was on. I was really surprised how active this fish was since often these fish are effected negatively by the boards. Landing this 24 incher, Tom was finally on the board. It took about another hour before I hit my first walleye on the planers. I have strike indicator flags mounted on the boards which fold back when a fish is on. These work great and makes identification of "fish on" considerably easier. Resetting our spread produced another nice walleye 15 minutes after this fish. We circled back through the productive area which proved to be less productive the second time around. We decided to see if our crawlers were still up to the task and tried a new spot, the southwest tip of the 8 mile flat. We nailed a couple of smaller walleyes but nothing worth bragging about. Although it was beautiful out, it was still hot and we both started smelling like ripe catfish bait. Having caught a few nice fish, one in the box, we decided to head to the Dairy Queen for a malt, some onion rings, and reflect on a great day on the water.

Some parting thoughts about Mille Lacs. The surface temperature is a cool 66 degrees. This is almost unheard of for the middle of July and should be at least 8 degrees warmer. Two years ago the temperature was in the mid 70's causing a massive tulibee die off which scattered several thousand of these dead fish on the surface. Mille Lacs is on the southern end of their range and "global warming" is suppose to be their ultimate demise. Last year was a record tulibee hatch and this cool weather will bod well for restoring the lake's population. It is offical, Mille Lacs has zebra mussels, probably riding on a boat that either came from the St. Louis River near Duluth or more likely a boat that just came from the Mississippi River. Zebramussels are a foreign invader and the jury is still out as to the effect that it will have on the lake. Time will obviously tell. The Minnesota DNR has stepped up exotic species laws meaning you must assure your trailer is clean of any weeds, your live wells and baitwells are empty, and your boat plug pulled at the landing. The fine for failure is about $150 and are strictly enforced. Make sure you pick up the latest boating guide in your area to note the regulations. At Mille Lacs each landing has information posted to your responsibilities. I am sure I will be heading back up this weekend to continue my nightcrawler theory validation. My great friend Chuck Teasley will be joining me the following week and I am really looking forward to fishing with him.

Catching With Clos...........and Nightcrawlers

After 2 years of promises, I finally had the opportunity to take my good friend Russ Clos to Mille Lacs for some soft water fishing. Russ and I have ice fished a number of times last winter on Pelican Lake, successfully catching crappies and sunfish each time. It was his first time to Mille Lacs during the regular open water season and I always find it exciting to share a good experience with a friend. The weather forecast stated a southeasterly wind 5 - 10 mph, which is more than a fishable forecast. Weather forecasting is the only job where you get paid being wrong 80% of the time and Saturday was no exception. Arriving at Lundeens to pick up crawlers the flag on the VFW told a completely different story, out of the Northwest and around 20 mph. As the lake came into view our fears were confirmed. Although the waves were not terribly large, each one was being blown over causing the lake to look like a determined washing machine. My strategy was basically the same as last week due to the amount of fish I marked, it seemed like a pretty good idea. The first two stops produced a small perch. The wind forced us to fish along flat edges that coincided with the wind direction. Arriving at 7 mile, the west side was positioned perfect for the drift. About halfway down the flat I nailed this nice 25 inch fish. We repeated the same drift 4 more times with only a little more sunburn to show for it. Russ was feeling the motion somewhat so I decided to troll to 9 mile flat with #11 Tail Dancers and give both of us a break. Nothing was hitting our Rapala's. At 9 mile we took out the crawlers and drifted the west edge looking for any takers. Although we marked quite a few fish, none were in the mood to hit our baits. The next move was to the Sliver Flat, is a small and very narrow flat north on 9 mile. Drifting over the top and down the edge produced Russ's first large walleye. This fish was over 24 inches and represented the largest walleye he had ever caught. Releasing it we fished a couple more passes before heading back to Shermans. Fishing in these conditions can be very exhausting and by 5:00 we were done for the day. Wind burnt, sun burnt, and 3 walleyes made for a tough day however seeing Russ catch his largest walleye made it all worth it.

My last three outings have been less than spectacular, especially hearing from my friends and their successes. First of all, I am not that bad of a fisherman! Opener at Leech Lake was fantastic yet my Mille Lacs outings have been less than stellar. Well, it rained enough last night to entice the night crawlers to expose themselves in my garden. Having bought crawlers the last 2 times, I figured it would be a good time to stock up on some home grown worms when it suddenly dawned on me, the night crawlers I have been buying are Canadian crawlers (no offense Bill). For crying out loud, what do Canadian crawlers know about catching Minnesota fish? Well, the answer certainly seems obvious to me, they don't. Looking back at my successful trips over the years, crawlers out of my garden have been the standard in my boat and I presume they are a lot smarter at catching walleyes in Mille Lacs than those imported Canadian beasts! This conclusion came to me as I was adding my own harvested crawlers to the ones left over from the weekend. For a moment there was some apprehension as adding good crawlers would make it difficult to distinguish between the two. Although I caught and added 86 worms to an already 2 dozen, what would the possibility of grabbing one of the Canadian bred for the hook and not catching anything again? I finally concluded that if my own crawlers were smart enough to catch walleyes they were smart enough to train their Canadian counterparts the fine art as well. With that problem solved I look forward to getting back up to the pond this weekend and really nailing them!