Mille Lacs Ice Fishing Report (Christmas 2025 Walleye and Perch)

It's been a great start to the 2025/2026 ice fishing season on Mille Lacs Lake! This season's walleye fishing has been unexpectedly good, with many keeper sized fish being caught. MN DNR test netting results are also looking good for perch fishing this winter. Samples show numbers similar to last season, which was excellent for jumbo perch. Other good news includes this years ice conditions. Mille Lacs has nearly a foot or more of good ice, with little snow cover. Making travel easy on the big lake.

Walleye fishing has been very good, with many fish caught in the 10"-16" size range. While many of the fish are too small to keep, there are still plenty of slot fish biting. Most of the fishing done on my guided trips this season has taken place on the rock piles or gravel bars. The gravel bars tend to have faster action, the rock piles tend to have better size quality.

The most consitent areas on the rocks have been points or edges in 12' to 18'. Jigging spoons tipped with minnow heads have been far more productive than set lines on our trips. However, the set lines tipped with a small golden shiner are still productive on certain days. Typically we see the set lines get better as the season progresses.

While the rock piles are producing better overall quality, the gravel bars are still producing keepers. You'll just have to sort through small fish to get at them. If fishing the gravel, I recommend fishing on top of the bars. The tops of the gravel are producing more keepers for us than the edges lately. It seems that when you fish the deeper transitions, the small fish take over. The same techniques that are working on the rocks are working on the gravel.

Perch fishing will start for my trips soon. Walleyes have been good so far, so we havn't made it out to the better perch areas yet. I expect the perch bite to be similar to last year. With deep gravel and mudflats producing the best action. A couple of our best techniques last year were rattle spoons tipped with minnow heads (for aggressive fish), or gold tungsten jigs tipped with spikes.

Good Luck Fishing

Merry Christmas

Ryan Kelly

Lagoona Guide Service

www.fishlagoona.com

@fishlagoona

651-769-3142

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1PoxODvR7o