Mille Lacs: The Best Trophy Smallmouth Lake in the World
OutdoorHub Reporters 09.22.16
Regardless of whether you follow professional bass fishing, what happened this past weekend on Minnesota’s Mille Lacs Lake is noteworthy. The top 50 professional bass anglers from across the country gathered on Mille Lacs for the Bassmaster Elite’s final event of its 2016 season.
In Minnesota, the walleye is the state fish, and Mille Lacs has long been known as one of the state’s finest walleye fisheries. The lake also has outstanding fishing for muskies, northern pike and perch. But as you’ve probably deduced by now, the bass fishing on Mille Lacs must be top-notch, too, and that’s why Bassmaster chose to visit.
The lake has large areas of shallow-water cover suitable for growing big largemouths (at least by upper Midwest standards), but the vast majority of the 50 anglers who competed September 15, 16 and 18 on Mille Lacs were after brown bass – smallmouth.
By the Numbers
For comparison sake, consider the results at the 2015 season-ending Bassmaster Elite event at Sturgeon Bay (Lake Michigan) in Wisconsin. This event also featured 50 of the best bass anglers, and Sturgeon Bay is well-known for big smallies. The anglers could keep a limit of 5 bass, and here were the results:
- 4 anglers brought in limits weighing 20 pounds or more on day No. 1
- A limit weighing 19 pounds was good for 5th place on day No. 1
- 40th place on the first day was 6 pounds, 2 ounces
- After 3 days of fishing, the winning weight (15 fish) was 53 pounds, 4 ounces. Only 2 anglers broke the 50-pound mark after the 3 days.
Consider the 2016 event held on Mille Lacs Lake (5-bass limit):
- 23 anglers brought in limits weighing 20 pounds or more on day No. 1
- A limit weighing 19 pounds was good for 33rd place on day No. 1
- 40th place on the first day was 16 pounds, 14 ounces
- After 3 days of fishing, the winning weight (15 fish) was 76 pounds, 5 ounces. An astonishing 41 anglers – out of 50 – broke the 50-pound mark for the event!
Dave Mercer, the event emcee for Bassmaster during the 3 days of weigh-ins, put it plainly: “There have never been this many big smallmouth bass caught in Bassmaster tournament history. Nothing holds a candle to this.”
Of course, anyone with skin in the game when it comes to tourism in central Minnesota – including the MN Department of Natural Resources – could not have been happier with the results. “People across the country are seeing what a great fishing lake this is,” said Tina Chapman, director of the Mille Lacs Tourism Council. “We’re looking forward to the national exposure this tournament is bringing to our area.”
As angler after angler stepped on stage to talk about their day of fishing and weigh-in their catch, they kept repeating the same message: Mille Lacs in the best trophy smallmouth fishery in the world.
Kevin VanDam (below), a 7-time winner of Angler of the Year, finished in 10th place with 64 pounds, 3 ounces. He wrote recently on his Bassmaster column: “I’ve fished for smallmouth all over the Great Lakes, Canadian waters, New York and all the way to Maine. My home state of Michigan has absolutely some of the finest smallmouth in the country. But what is happening here is something very special. I’ve never seen so many big, old smallmouth in one lake.”
