Mille Lacs over-nighters

[tr7]

Myself and four friends are looking to do a long weekend of fishing on Mille Lacs with our dad's and want to stay in some of the big over nighter shacks. None of us have ever been here and I was hoping you guys could give me some suggestions of places to contact. I have googled it, but am looking for your opinion on ood people to deal with. Thanks in advance.

[Hard Ice]

tr7, this goes without say'n much
check out Appledoorns sunset bay resort and if you call them ask for paul he will treat yyou rite  and tell him i sent you.

[tr7]

Thank you for the advice. I will look them up. Who should I say sent me?

[Hard Ice]

Jon "Hard Ice" Chapman

[SKilo]

How are the over nighters? Do the walleyes or crappies keep thing interesting for most of the night?

I always want to try it but my girlfriend has family in the area and wasn't sure if it would be better to use the portables and save some money by staying with the family. 

[Skipper]

Walleye bite goes all night and the eelpout bite best at night.

Use the sleeper as your home base. You can set some rattle reels while you snooze, they were designed to wake you up.

Bring the portables FOR SURE so you can roam for perch and daytime active walleyes. I will second Appledoorns, it looks like they are getting the shacks out there quite a ways now. Check their ice reports, they update almost daily.

http://www.sunsetbayml.com/ 

Don't worry much about the crappies. They can be found in Isle Bay, but Mille Lacs is not much on panfish. I have caught some nice sunfish in Cove Bay too, but with the football perch swimming around in there, it kinda seems pointless. The other snag for panfishing Mille Lacs is the billions and billions of bait stealing baby perch, they are like flies in a barn in those bays.

It's got good numbers of tulibee too, but I never mess with them till March. I would not even know where to start looking for them this time of year...

Walleye, Perch, Pike, Smallmouths, tulibee, eelpout, and even muskies are what you should be focusing on in this lake.

[tr7]

Thanks for the info Skipper! We would be targeting perch and walleye mainly. Good idea about the portables. I've never been to any such outfitter so to speak, do these guys generally put the shacks on the fish or is it a crap shoot?

[Skipper]

Some will move the shacks around quite a bit, others leave their shacks sit in one place for so long I use them for landmarks.

I know for a fact that two that shuffle their shacks around quite a bit are Rocky Reef and Appledoorns.

The fact of the matter is still, sitting in one spot is the best way I know of to get skunked on that lake. You can only jig a Swedish Pimple over the same rock for so long, sooner or later you will want to move on to the next rock.  

[SKilo]

Ya I really got to plan a trip! I just seen they have that perch extravaganza going on as well. Might just have to plan a trip and try checking out what that is all about.

[cityfishin]

Myself and four friends are looking to do a long weekend of fishing on Mille Lacs with our dad's and want to stay in some of the big over nighter shacks. None of us have ever been here and I was hoping you guys could give me some suggestions of places to contact. I have googled it, but am looking for your opinion on ood people to deal with. Thanks in advance.

Check out Terrys Boat Harbor ( http://www.terrysboatharbor.com/ ) Terry is a guide out on Mille Lacs and fishes with "the Griz" and has been on many fishing shows. Haven't been in his shacks in a few years, but I understand he's got some new ones. I agree with others that say to bring a portable. If you really want action, then jump around and find them. But as day ends, grab the cigars, cards and beer and settle in with the rattle reels. First one in bed, gets an eelpout as a bedmate.

Good luck. Enjoy.

PS. Careful. The ice is pretty unpredictable right now.

[tr7]

Thanks everyone. I will certainly check all of these places out. We were hoping for something late February so I am hoping the ice is good by then.

[Skipper]

The cold will come, it always does. That water is sooooooooo cold, one below zero night will lock it up solid.