We hit the lake a little after midnight Friday night, we fished until 5 a.m. It was a little brisk out there, but after the first hour or so there was absolutely no wind, which was really nice. There was not a ton of boats out there this year and it was awful quiet. We pulled rapalas for the first couple of hours, with no luck. We tried that right on the weed line for a while in about 11 f.o.w, then we tried it shallower for a while..still nothing. Then we tried slip bobbers with a leach in the shallows up in the rocks..nothing again. We went back to doing the rapalas, we started doing that from Terry's resort, went all the way down past pike's point, past garrison bay, and finally I got a bite in front of garrison sports on the weed line, I pulled in one that was just a little over 26" at about 4:00 am. We gave it another hour and kept going with the rapalas until we got down toward Garrison Bar Harbor Inn...we then called it a night.

We didn't get out Saturday, it was rainy and sleety..and didn't look like much fun at all.

On Sunday we spent 9 long hours out on the boat. It was a nice day, just a little windy, and that died down later in the evening. We tried everything, shallow, deep, rocks, sand, bobber fished, pulled rapalas, and lindy rigged it. I ended up catching one more, a 25 1/2" walleye on a lindy rig with a leach. That was the only bite we had all day!!

The water temps were pretty cool, around 43 degree's or so. The whole weekend we only saw around 4 other walleye's netted by others. That is insane!! I don't know what the heck was going on, maybe all the netting the week before had something to do with it, I'm not sure. All I know is that on other lakes that are even further up North than Mille Lacs, people were getting there limits...there water temps have to be just as cold as ours I would think. So who knows why, but it was the slowest opener I've ever seen...it was so quiet it was almost eerie.
it can only get better I would think, because I can't imagine that it could get much worse!!
By memorial day the temps should be much better, so we will see if that makes the difference or not. But you know those netters that were out last week, had their nets put out right where we fish....so that really sucks, and we heard a few comments from others kinda thinking the same thing.

We went as shallow as about 5 ft of water or so, or maybe it was more like 3 to 8 ft up in the sands was more like it. I can't quite remember exactly, all I know is there wasn't much places that we didn't try, we pretty much covered the whole west side of the lake. Except for one thing we didn't do was go out to the reefs, but I heard they weren't catching them there either. We couldn't even get a rock bass to bite, that's pretty bad!!

I guess we were on the WRONG side of the lake!! I have read some reports that they were catching them on the East side, and we actually did talk about that a couple of times...wondering how everybody was doing on the other side...go figure! To be honest, the whole time I was out there, I kept thinking about them netting all of those fish...it was constantly in the back of my mind. And after putting that much time on the lake, and only seeing a handful of people net a walleye...we kept going back to thinking about how insane it was that the nets were just out here a week ago...and loaded up with walleye...it actually makes me sick! There wasn't as many boats out on this opener as usual, but there was still quite a few, and all the launches were still out. Every other year, you usually hear some hootin' and hollering coming from those launches, this year we heard them only one time.
Anyhow, until I read this thread I was seriously leaning towards that the netters cleaned our side of the lake out! You wouldn't think that would be possible, and I know it probably isn't quiet true..but one thing for sure is...they made one [PoorWordUsage] of dent!! Hey they did it to Red, so there is no reason why it won't be happening to MilleLacs too, it makes me sick!! I sure hope this isn't as damaging as I'm thinking it was.

girlguide

Welcome to FM girlguide!

Hey thanks!! Nice site you got here, very informative!

gg

Ya nice report and welcome to FM.

I would not give up yet. It will turn around.

Thanks Shackbash, no I'm not giving up...just a little disappointed is all. And I really shouldn't be pointing fingers at anyone or any one reason, we could of just had a bad weekend fishing, although we still had fun..just very, very slow, and hopefully that will turn around. I just don't want to see what happened to Red happen to Mille Lacs, but I know I'm not alone on that one, nobody wants to see that!

gg

Hi GirlGuide, Believe me you are in the VAST majority of the people who did very poor this last weekend. Sometimes it can get a little depressing reading on here of all the people who did well but remember, most people will only post if they did well not if they did poorly. Look at the #post to #hits on this thread.

keep your head up!

Just got back today.

Hit the NE sand about Saturday and had a 18.5 within 5 minutes and that was it for the morning. We missed a few and had a few nicer fish get off but very slow morning. A ton of boats and not many nets.

Saturday afternoon went out by Lakeside and caught a 22 and had a couple other bites. Saw some fish being caught but called it a day when the rain came.

Sunday went back up to the sand and never got a bite from 10-2. Saw one fish caught. Worked a variety of depths.

Went out by Lakeside when the winds died on Sunday and just hammered them from 7-9:30. Caught 18-20 between 17 and 24 inches. It was a beautiful night and the fish were cooperating.

Monday couldn't get back to our spot because of the winds and went down by Isle and managed 3 all between 18-19.

If it wasn't for Sunday night it would have been my worst opener in many years. It was amazing the amount of fish we caught at just over 18 inches. The DNR knew what they were doing when they set that slot. Not much traffic on the lake yesterday. I think the fishing will pick up when the water temps get up. I did see 50 degress yesterday in Isle. Alot of milk still in those males.

wow nice to see fishorgolf say something positive and not try to make us face what he believes is reality. Thanks fishorgolf!!!!

Fished last night from 8-10. Caught 8 - 14,19,21,21, 22,23,23,24. Not to bad. Let the one keeper swim.

Your welcome theicehooker!

Are you guys having fun telling people your fishin from 10PM until 6:00 A.M, or have they changed the regs so we can fish these hours before the 9th of June?

Opening weekend is open 'round the clock. Night ban didn't go into affect till last monday.

AAAaaaarrrrr...ya scirvy dogs. Headin' for the big pond in about 15 minutes. Hang on to your drift socks, looks like we're in for a blow! Hope the fish in a better mood this weekend. Good Luck all!

Ya H20F,

Opening weekend is a 24 hours, until Monday. Then the night ban goes into play. Just like Anyfish said.

Miller, good luck dude.

Good job on the clarification ANYFISH.
I wanted to respond to that this morning, but enough time.
"hooks"