My dad, who passed away in 1985, put many thousands of hours dragging a fishing line in Mille Lacs waters. From the mid-50's through the year he died, he'd spend 7 days a week on the Mille Lacs water from May through September. In all that effort, he never caught a Mille Lacs smallmouth nor a muskie. But he never targeted either species. No one did. There simply wasn't a fishery in the big lake for much other than walleyes.
I remember as a teenager, kinda like a mail man taking a walk on his day off, my dad would take me muskie fishing up to Leech Lake. We'd rent a boat at Federal Dam and cast our arms off. One time we had a muskie "follow". Those trips, as they have for many, got me hooked. When I got a drivers license, I'd park my Mille Lacs charter boat a couple days each summer and make annual solo trips to Leech, Red Gut Bay on Rainy and the Chippawa Flowage in Wisconsin. I had more follows and finally caught a 39 incher. The muskie hooks dug deeper into my fishing blood. A neighbor of ours and avid muskie angler named Loyd Boelter got me hooked even more on a trip to Monument Bay at Lake of the Woods.
Then talk of stocking Mille Lacs with muskies surfaced. And even more talk about it. Finally, one day in the mid 90's, Loyd came over to the house via boat and was shaking he was so excited. Without a choice in the matter, I got into his boat as he stuttered telling me of the muskies he was seeing just a few hundred yards away. Now if you knew Loyd, you maybe questioned his fishing report success. So I figured he maybe saw one or maybe he just had a nice northern follow his bait. But then it happened. This time Loyd's story was for real! My knees turned to rubber as my first muskie cast into Mille Lacs ended with a 40 incher thrashing on the surface just as I pulled the lure out of the water. I knew what I saw. And the next cast went further than the first.
I often have been asked "when is the best time of the year to fish Mille Lacs?" It's an easy answer these days. What used to be a period of time that anglers viewed as the "dog days" is not too far off. Old Mille Lacs anglers often put the boats away as June turned to July and August. Not anymore! Nowadays, mighty Mille Lacs is like going to a fishing buffet. No doubt times have changed. Muskie catch rates both in numbers and size are now potential record-breaking at the big lake. It's no secret so fishing pressure in some areas can be heavy, no doubt. But countless muskies never see a big lure as well. Oh, and I just remembered as my mind drifted with all this muskie talk, the buffet features smallmouth 2nd to none too. Over a 100 miles of Mille Lacs shoreline related rock piles and ridges are now home to countless smallmouth that commonly reach 20 inches or even bigger. But then again, what's the big deal about a 20 inch smallie when it's common to see and catch muskies 2 1/2 times that long?
Yes, the buffet line at Mille Lacs is now open. The next 2 plus months everything will be steaming at Mille Lacs. Sure, there's walleyes too. For guiding info with Steve, contact him at 651-270-3383