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#1495800 - 08/19/08 07:56 AM
Re: Muskies
[Re: HuntBigFish]
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HotSpotOutdoors Family
Registered: 12/19/07
Posts: 38
Loc: St. Paul, MN
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I spent 72 hours fishing in a 96 hour period on the Lake this weekend, including a 27 hour stint from Friday at 9pm to midnight Saturday hunting muskies and saw one fish. We were all over the lake, north, south, rocks, weeds, sand, shallow, deep, hair, rubber, topwater, jerk, glide. NOTHING. We threw everything we had and even trolled and all we got was a good cooking by the sun.
Try your luck elsewhere till it gets colder.
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#1496033 - 08/19/08 11:44 AM
Re: Muskies
[Re: Team_Ice_Heave]
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Hello I'm New
Registered: 06/23/07
Posts: 9
Loc: Northern Wi.
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Good for you, To do so well when its been really slow,,As for giving up your spot,, I think someones just mad because you gave up their spot...Makes you wonder??
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#1496310 - 08/19/08 04:20 PM
Re: Muskies
[Re: AllWet]
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FishingMN Family
Registered: 07/25/08
Posts: 146
Loc: MN
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Everyone throws back muskies anyway, no one eats them. Most, if not all the muskies caught are still in the lake. Not a big deal when talking about muskies. JMO
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#1496409 - 08/19/08 05:50 PM
Re: Muskies
[Re: brdhunter]
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Sr FishingMN Family
Registered: 04/21/04
Posts: 331
Loc: 9,999th cast
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Everyone throws back muskies anyway, no one eats them. Most, if not all the muskies caught are still in the lake. Not a big deal when talking about muskies. JMO While most people who target muskie practice strict CPR, there are many who don't. Offering any harvest numbers would be pure speculation on my part, but I think you may be surprised how many muskies are harvested every year from the lake. Besides some of the casual muskie fisherman, some Mille Lacs guides are known to regularly harvest muskies. I won't get into naming names, but the harvest of Mille Lacs muskies has been a particularly hot topic.
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#1496534 - 08/19/08 08:41 PM
Re: Muskies
[Re: MuskieSlayer]
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HotSpotOutdoors Family
Registered: 07/05/06
Posts: 287
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I guess I wouldn't want to support or promote that particular guide. Those big fish are just too valuable and rare (and old) to remove them from the resource. I'd love nothing better than to catch the state record and watch her swim away so that somebody else had a chance to catch her.
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#1496706 - 08/19/08 10:59 PM
Re: Muskies
[Re: propster]
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HotSpotOutdoors Family
Registered: 07/09/07
Posts: 51
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Ok, maybe I need to clarify a bit for those who question my post. First, the lake has been an absolute zoo this season. I've pulled up to the WEEDLINE in Wahkon Bay several times this season and have been the only boat there. Within MINUTES, there's 5 boats cutting every which way.It's a big bay, but "the zone" isn't. Go ahead and cast the acres of weeds. Good luck. I'm on the water a lot and this has been the absolute worst I've ever seen it. SEVERAL times in the dark, I thought we might have to jump from the boat. It's crazy. Naming a location has the POTENTIAL to make it even worse.My spot? Hardly.Getting cut off repeatedly by people who obviously don't care or are just ignorant to what they're doing or in some cases, have no idea about boat control is frustrating. Not only to me, but to my clients. The "experience" is being lost in the chase.How would you like to pay a guide $400 and get cut off repeatedly? I have had clients ask me where we're going to fish next season as they want nothing to do with Mille Lacs, and THAT has nothing to do with the fishery itself.Jealous? You bet I am. I'm jealous of those who don't have to "fight" crowds and deal with the idiocy that has plagued Mille Lacs this season all the while trying to run a business. Work your day job and fish for fun.Must be nice. It's a whole different ballgame when fishing IS your job. I liken it to someone walking into your office and plopping their butt right down on your desk. Huh? Exactly.Please don't rush to judge unless you KNOW what you're talking about. Everyone has opinions and unfortunatly/fortunatly the internet gives us a platform to voice them.I apologize to anyone I may have offended, but this stuff needs to be said. Oh, and when did it become OK for a boat to pass 10 yards off anothers bow at wide open throttle? I guess I'll save that for another post.Fishing shouldn't be dangerous. Steve
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#1496734 - 08/19/08 11:21 PM
Re: Muskies
[Re: SJonesi]
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HotSpotOutdoors Family
Registered: 07/09/07
Posts: 51
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Oh, and congrats to the angler for an awesome afternoon. Hard work and persistence pays ! Steve
Edited by SJonesi (08/19/08 11:47 PM)
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#1497081 - 08/20/08 10:28 AM
Re: Muskies
[Re: broodwich]
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Sr FishingMN Family
Registered: 04/02/07
Posts: 344
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I think a good lesson here is that we all need to understand the incredible power of the internet. I have learned, mostly by watching, to be very careful with it.
Yesterday, I'm on the phone with some random person who's just beginning to musky fish, and he tells me that he heard somewhere that some guy caught 5 fish down in Wahkon Bay in one afternoon. Several other people have mentioned the report to me. I saw it on the internet as well. The whole countryside is buzzing with the story.
I have not been down there, but I can just about guarantee you that someone in the background watching would have seen an incredible increase in fishing pressure over the past few days down in Wahkon. There's probably times when the water is beat to a froth!
And I agree with Steve, the pressure and lack of respect for others who are boating or fishing nearby is rampant. Vermillion is the worst I have ever seen, and as of late, it seems that Mille Lacs is heading in that direction as well.
It seems that there are those on the lake with one mission in mind, and that is to catch a musky, and they will do absolutely anything in order to make that happen, which often involves stepping on someone else.
Last week, I arrived on a reef, and set up a drift so that my clients could cast downwind. Another boat was down on the other end of the reef with it's lights off, quickly turned them on, and ran over and got in front of me to fish it before I did. They came from several hundred yards away, and came in and parked about two casts downwind. I figured they had a big fish spotted, and didn't want us to get it before they did. Rather than hollering at them and putting a damper on my clients night, I bit my tongue. Then when they got a ways out, we rolled in behind those other guys and caught a 54 incher. Justice was served! But what they don't understand is that if they would have had their lights on, I never would have stopped by there in the first place.
Guys get rammy all the time on weedlines...but it's really pretty simple. One takes the inside, and one takes the outside, and you go around. You don't pull up 100 yards in front of someone and park. If you need to go in front, go up a few hundred yards or so, and then fish at the same pace. If you want to go slower, then pull in behind someone.
We all need to work hard to promote good fishing attitude and good boating ethics so that this does not continue to get worse. It's a great big lake, and there's (at least for now) plenty of room for everyone to fish. Just remember, like you, everyone is over there fishing...looking for a good experience. Do your best not to dash their expectations, and then perhaps, you can expect the same.
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#1497121 - 08/20/08 11:10 AM
Re: Muskies
[Re: Tim_Anderson]
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Hello I'm New
Registered: 06/23/07
Posts: 9
Loc: Northern Wi.
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Only $400 a trip !! I'll have to keep my "Day Job"
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#1497139 - 08/20/08 11:27 AM
Re: Muskies
[Re: Tim_Anderson]
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HotSpotOutdoors Specialist
Registered: 02/15/07
Posts: 6870
Loc: 37 minutes from Mille Lacs
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Sounds like Big Point and Doe Island Reef around midnight on an October or November full moon from about 99-2004  . You could literally walk from boat to boat in some locations. I just went out and fished, tried to stay out of people’s way and tried to see the fun in it and have fun. It is very easy to point out the bad in every situation and much harder to find the good. I understand though. When ever I am in a spot (shore or in the boat on any waters), someone comes up right next to me, one tends to feel the territorial rush coming on. I have been really trying to curb this feeling the last few years. I know I am not fishing for a living like you guys (all though I wish I was), but when I fish, I want to have fun. Very good thought guys! But!! I am still in the camp of Wahkon Bay is a very general location. If naming that area gives people hope (Confidence in a certain large area of the lak) and gets them to head up to the pond (especially this season), I am all for it. A post like the original one gets people to call guides, stay at resorts and support the local economy. Yes, there are people who buy gas and food at home, drive up and stay in their boats. Their all ways has been. Sharing info though is what this site/forum is for. Last I checked, forum policy says nothing about not giving away locations. Now, if people want to come on here and give out G.P.S, cords, maps and other stuff, by all means go ahead. But, like said, people will use them and be prepared for company. As far as rude people, what are you going to do about them? Spreading the word is a great thing, but Mille Lacs and rude fisherman go back as long as I can remember. I can still remember a conversation I observed back in 83 or 84 when I was a kid. I was with my Grandfather and we stopped for coffee before a fall time trip at a west side resort we launched at. I remember the main topic of the conversation one time was how rude and disrespectfully other boats and fisherman have become. I also heard at that time or another trip how a couple guys said the lake would fall in a couple years  . Speed up to now-a-days and like my father used to say “same thing, only different”. All you can do is heed the advice Tim has said and IMO go out and have fun. Good luck!
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#1497253 - 08/20/08 12:58 PM
Re: Muskies
[Re: shackbash]
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HotSpotOutdoors Family
Registered: 12/20/07
Posts: 60
Loc: Ossipee, MN
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#1497579 - 08/20/08 06:31 PM
Re: Muskies
[Re: PieEyed]
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IceLeaders Family
Registered: 01/28/07
Posts: 180
Loc: Brainerd, MN /SW MN
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This website is made for sharing info, and besides a "hotspot" is only a hotspot the day it is discovered, especially for skis. Also its not like Wahkon Bay is small, it doesn't really narrow it down- For me, if I hear a tip on a location, I won't even bother if more than 2 days old, whether it be word of mouth, or on this site-
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