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26 Inch Mille Lacs Walleye
It was a cold day in early October on Lake Mille Lacs in
north-central Minnesota. Mike T, a fellow MNOutdoors.org member and avid
Bass angler, and I set-up at about 2 P.M. to troll around the south
western corner of the lake. Our goal was to get a little afternoon action
from the legendary Northern Pike population that exists in this lake. We
stayed shallow between 7 and 12 feet of water and had a few good strikes and
one good fish that we brought all the way back to the boat before a netting
snafu robbed us of our prize. The fish seemed to be attracted to the
Rapala opaque to clear-opaque rattling crankbaits, and showed us little or no
action on the solid and more traditionally colored Rap's. As we entered
the late afternoon hours the Northern bite slowed dramatically, so we decided
to call it a day for that species.
We then set-up a troll over the rocky reef that extends from the
west to the east from Rainbow Island just south of the western shore
public access. This is a nice reef in that on the south side it drops
from about 4 feet to about 25 feet in a short distance, while the north side
maintains a fairly consistent depth of about 8 to 12 feet. Several other
boats had the same thought as us, but the reef produced no fish that we could
see. This is a popular jig and drift location, but those boats did not
seem to be having much more luck than us.
As the evening hours wore on, we could see boats beginning to
congregate on both Anderson's reef and Rocky reef to our south. These
reefs have been particularly good producers for me in years past, so a quick
executive decision was made to pull up the lines and run across the bay.
When we arrived at the first reef, we quickly realized that we were the only
boat trolling and set-up wide sweeping trolling paths in a loose figure eight
between Rocky and Andersons by way of the 15 foot ridge that parallels
169. This area of the lake is fairly rocky so Mike and I were dealing
with hang-ups every so often. Once again, action was pretty slow on this
part of the lake as even jiggers were not pulling in anything worthwhile.
At about 10 o'clock P.M. my rod bent like I was hooked up on a good size rock
and I said "I think I hooked a rock" to Mike. I no more than said those
words when I felt the tell-tale jerk of a fish resisting. "Holy sh*t,
this is a fish!" Mike quickly put the boat in neutral and said, "are you
going to need the net?"
By this time, the fish on the end of my line was giving me quite a
work out. We were in about 5 feet of water and I was concerned that the
fish may run for cover by way of some sharp rocks. It felt huge on
the end of my line. I was certain we were dealing with a rogue Northern
feeding on minnows over this reef. "Yeah, you better get the net ready"
I decided out loud.
I don't know if any of you have ever experienced night fishing on
Mille Lacs, but let me assure you it gets real dark. The only light
(besides the light from the boat dashboard) that we had was one of those
LED head lamps that Mike had thought to bring along (I realized later that I
had a flashlight in my tackle-box, but who thinks to look).
As I'm fighting this fish, Mike is trying to follow my line down and back into
the water with his head-lamp to try to get a glimpse of the fish. We both
see it at the same time; a soft, white under belly plus the eerie shine of
illuminated Walleye eye glints in the light from Mike's head-gear.
"That's a Walleye, that's a huge Walleye" Mike exclaims.
After we landed the fish we realized that we did not have a scale,
so a measurement would suffice. She measured in at just a hair over 26
inches, and was within the slot. I would have let her go anyways, a fish
that size deserves respect.
All I have to remember her by is the grainy photo above (the fish
is laying across one of those large rubber Walleye nets), her measurements, and
a good fishing story.
Back at the launch we ran into some Walleye fishermen who showed us
their catch. Apparently they had their pick of small Walleyes, none of
them over 2 pounds. When we told them about our 26 incher they all
agreed, one fish like that is worth any amount of smaller catches. I have
to agree.
Brent Kastner
Staff Writer and Editor at large
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