The Classic Bass Champions Tour will have their second tournament of the season on Lake Mille Lacs, this coming weekend July 21st. Once again, beautiful Izatys Resort on the south shore of the lake will be hosting the event. This tournament is a Champions Tour Open, meaning any angler could sign up and participate in the event.
A lot has changed on big Lake Mille Lacs since the Champions Tour visited the lake in early June. At that time, the bulk of the lake’s big smallmouth were shallow and relatively easy to catch. We saw record weights come in which included Nathan Whiting’s winning tally of 117 lbs 9 ounces, along with Brian Wood and John Figi cracking the century mark to round out the top three spots.
The bass fishing on Mille Lacs in mid-July is much different. The lake has seen several bug hatches and significant algae blooms throughout the past few weeks, making the bite tricky at times. Fish have moved to their summer haunts, but can often be difficult to find. There’s no doubt that Champions Tour anglers are going to catch fish be we expect this to be a feast or famine event.
Some anglers that find deeper schools could do some serious damage and post big weights, but if the deep fish elude you, things will be tough. As always, there’s certainly shallow fish to be caught on topwaters, swimbaits, lighter tube jigs and other traditional smallmouth tackle. But at the end of the day we really expect this event to be won somewhere in the 12-20 foot of water range.
Keep an eye on the largemouth as well. If the smallmouth are avoiding anglers or if the wind blows, green bass could play a roll in this event. The south end bays such as Isle, Wahkon, Cove and Vineland will certainly be explored by our anglers in search of fat Mille Lacs largemouth.
To follow the action, visit www.classicbass.com or the Classic Bass Facebook page on Saturday, July 21st. Live standings will be displayed through ScoreTracker Live and we will be posting photos and videos illustrating the day on the water. Any day of bass fishing on Lake Mille Lacs is always an exciting one so don’t miss the Classic Bass Champions Tour Open on The Pond this weekend!
