Mille Lacs report 6/28

Musky fishing on Mille Lacs continues to be hit-or-miss - rewarding some days, but frustrating on others. The inconsistency certainly couldn’t be a result of my guiding, so like every other fisherman (and farmer), I blame the weather. All joking aside, the weather continues to be wet, stormy, cool, and unsettled and it isn’t helping the fishing at all. But, we all have to fish with whatever weather we’re presented with and it’s been a bit up and down for my boat.

Reviewing the past few days, my guys today put a 41”er in the boat on a ½ day trip and had a solid shot at another but didn’t connect, and had a few follows. Yesterday (Sun.) saw a 48” pulled into the net by the lucky guy fishing 3rd in his group of three (I always say it isn’t a big deal to fish in the front) and a few follows. This past Saturday I didn’t fish. Last Friday was slow; we had a few follows, mostly from mediocre fish, and one grab at boat-side late at night that didn’t get hooked. This past Thursday there was only one lazy follow and couple missed hits, at least one of which I’m certain was a musky, but it was a slow day.

What’s been surprising the past week or so has been the numbers of pike that were caught as “by-catch” while musky fishing. The pike in Mille Lacs are big, which isn’t surprising since they’re protected from 24-36” and they’re well fed like the muskies. In the past week there were days with as many as eight unintentional pike caught, including a 38”er and a 40 ½” and many, many more that were 30-36. I don’t recall a time when so many pike were caught from musky spots at this time of year. Pike are a pain in the butt to unhook, they’re really hard on soft plastics, and they’re slimy and stinky, but they’re a lot of fun and they sure helped pass a couple slow days.

The walleye bite has been really good and the walleye fishermen are having a really good year so far.

Surface temps are 66-68, depending on the time of day and visibility is a few feet. The visibility is a little lower than usual for this time of year, due to a lot of wind and a lot of rain, but visibility isn’t a factor that’s changed my game plan.

Go fish. Good luck.