Mille Lacs on the 4th

[Nova]

Had the whole family back for the 4th. Taildancer(Trev) and his gal pal came back from Montana. Rapala(Josh) and his gal pal got time off of his busy schedule and the whole family was once again at the lake. The bite was tough. Multiple storms hit the lake in the presious days when T-bird and I were the lake, but I was determined to get the boys
(and girls) on some fish. I had some luck in the shallow rocks at sun up and sun down, but that bite faded fast We tried corking, pulling shallow cranks, deep cranks...nothing seem to be productive Finally, I decided to head out with the whole crew and try pulling lead and planner boards. The original plan was to head for the mud, but the wind and the oversized load wasn't in the cards. We pulled up short of the mud on deep gravel and started a down wind troll with 3 lead lines(one on a board) one on mono with a board. We didn't go far and we had a fish on. It turned out to be a standard 22" eye. We kept on, but the wind and waves and loaded boat really limited what we could do. I ran down wind for 4 miles picking up 3 more fish over the 20" mark, but when I tried to go sideways or into the wind it just didn't work with that load. We pulled up there with the crew getting hungry, having to use the rest room, and getting pretty wet from the waves overtaking the boat. It was a super fun trip with all the gang talking, joking around and generally having a good time, But the bite was slow, the waves were big, and we all needed a break. Here is a pic of the crew getting ready to take off for the trip. Notice the multiple logos on the side of the boat.

[Teng]

do you think the over-netting on Mille Lacs effects the walleye bite?
I'm not much of a walleye fisherman but I would think that with that much eyes being netted every year, it would effect the population and bite..

[Nova]

Sure the netting has a huge affect on the lake, but there really isn't much we can do about it. The DNR has there work cut out for them trying to manage the lake with the netting and angling. That being said I don't beleive that is why the bite was a litttle off this weekend. The bite has actually been very good this year although finding keepers has been tough. This I do atribute to the netting. I think the multiple bug hatches and hot weather lately have slowed the bite right now for the most part.