Fishing Report August 18,2010

What a weeks worth of severe weather can have on Mille Lacs. Since last Friday we have recieved over 4" of rain, two days of very high NNW winds over 20 mph and several cold fronts. Since last report we have lost over 10 degrees in surface temps, and the clearity of water is a stained redish tan.

Lake Conditions: Surface Water temps: 66- 71 degrees (last report temps were pushing 80 degrees) Water Clearity/Visibility: 1 to 2 feet. Water Color: High winds have stirred the bottom of the lake, color is a tan/sandy color. Sight fishing structure is nearly impossible.

Fished Tuesday with Erik Loyd from Bakersfield CA. and his dad LeRoy form Oklahoma City, OK. It was a beautiful day weather wise but the fishing was very slow due to lake conditions from the severe weather just a couple days prior. Was hoping to get a few brownies on "top" early but the fish had other ideas. Tried a couple spots with no results, swithed over to soft plastics and found fishing to be like fishing the dead sea. We finally cought a few fish (11am)on spinnerbaits and a couple northern pike. Took a long boat ride in search of cleaner water and was able to find better water conditions where we could see lake sturcture and we began catching fish.....few here and a few there. Most of our fish were caught in 6 to 10 feet of water, fishing very slow. the lake conditions had changed dramaticly over the last couple days. Erik and LeRoy had to work very hard for the fish we caught, have to hand it to them for" staying in the game" all day long.

Forcast: Lake needs to settle down, become cleaner/clearer. A few days of normal temps should rewarm the water to the pre front conditions. so put your top water baits away for now...