Mille Lacs update 11/24

Wow, the crazy warm weather continues. The water temperature on Mille Lacs is still 40-41F. The water is gin-clear now and it's easy to see a deep follower, even the lazy ones way down, if it's calm enough. The cisco (tullibee) are done and have left the reefs and are dispersed neaby. I've been fishing the reefs and the open water nearby using a mix of casting and trolling. The lake will definitely be open until the season closes. Remember, the last day for musky fishing in MN is 11/30.

Here's a summary of the past few days:
11/21 Warm and sunny with a strong south wind. No fish - not even a follow.
11/22 Warm, calm, cloudy, and foggy. We raised about 7-8 muskies, two of them very big. All the follows were pretty lazy. We even had a follow while trolling. I was reeling in a 13" Grandma to switch to a different lure and had a musky follow it all the way to the boat. I had slowed the boat to idle speed to switch out a couple lures and was pulling the lure then reeling up - pull, reel, pull, reel - and the damn thing still didn't hit. It was pretty cool but frustrating. It was dead-calm and the water is so clear we saw the fish from a long way off.
11/23 The approach of rain might have helped and finally there were at least two fish in Mille Lacs there were ready to eat. One of my guests caught a fat 51"er (didn't check girth) and another came unpinned after a ten second tussle.

Fishing has been spotty. This time of year isn't the best for numbers of fish, but it's the time for a shot at a 50 pounder. This isn't the time of year I'll be off the water for a couple days then back out on Thursday and hitting it hard until the season closes. I have a couple openings if anyone's interested in getting out. Get off you butt and go fishing. I'll bet that every lake in the state will be open until the season closes. Go fish.