It seems no matter how good or bad the open water fishing is on Mille Lacs......the ice fishing is worse. Are any promissing notes out there that this year will be different? Or can we expect the same (a lot of Ice Hole, and the occasional beer if its not to cold)?

I know of a few who did well last "hard water" season. The key for them was to keep moving, covering different depths, bottom content.

Better to just fish a different lake.

I fished it two years ago and had 10 fish in the 24 to 28 inch range. We even got one at 2am. But last year a dead sea we are going to LOW.

Sometimes fishing the lake can be tough - maybe consider a guide - we do both open water and ice fishing...

Don't just drill 2 holes and sit on them all day. Be mobile and try different lures and presentations.

Agreed! Been up there the last couple years with a group of guys. Even tried moving around. This year we are going to LOW. Had enough of the "Dead Sea"

There are fish to be had.

With the bad Ice last year alot of poeple where not able to move around much.

If you are mobile you will find fish that are biting.


Sifty

no offense to the resort owners but stay home if you think it is the dead sea, and feel free to drive to low for eyes the size of the perch you can catch on mille lacs. i find it funny that for the past five years when fish were jumping in the boat and through the hole people were raving about mille lacs and now that you cant sit in the same spot and fish all day long they call it the dead sea. i will be there all winter long and carching fish like last winter.

Yep ive definitely noticed last year that the key to this lake is being mobile. I had to drill about 60 holes the one time i came up but all in all it was a pretty good day, better than i would do on ANY lake in my area, walleye wise at least

getting out there early is a deffinite plus too.... the earlier the better in december.

Everysay is different I drill sometimes 100 plus holes in a day to find active fish sometimes with no avail. but I usually catch my limit each time. If ist was easy it wouldn;t be any fun. They do call it fishing and not catching.

WOW you even tried moving around and still nothing...LOL

just need to learn how to find fish!!

I think we can all agree that fishing on ML has been down lately. It will be back in a year or 2. It's not like all the eyes are gone it's just been a little tougher.