Lac Seul, Part 2.

Beautiful Walleye

OK, so I need to get back into my standard routine however being out during the week of fishing on Lac Seul and the fact that I really seem crazy busy these days, It's hard to find any time.  Oh well it doesn't pay to whine does it!  I am still winding down from our trip of 2 weeks ago as it seems like not too long ago the time would never come.  One thing that I love about Lac Seul is the dark stained water produces some really nice looking fish ranging from a bright golden color to dark brown to having a teal colored hue to them. Depending on where you catch them the fish in Wapesi are different than the fish in Tuk Bay verses the ones coming out of the main channel in front of the resort.  Some say that the genetics are different for each area, this might be true and as well I am sure the bottom structures have something to do with it as well.  Bruce claims that the walleyes in Wapesi never leave that bay which is an interesting thought.  Speaking of Wapesi, we did spend the last 2 days fishing Bruce's favorite bay which is about a 15 mile run from the cabin.  So the second real day of fishing was different than the first day as the wind had calmed down somewhat.  There are a couple of spots way back in the bay that we tried and for the most part caught fish however we had to go looking for them.  Now the original plan was to eat fish on Tuesday night, which we did, have steak on Wednesday night then have walleye again on Thursday before we left.  I was somewhat concerned that because we could only have a limit (4 walleyes) each in possession, eating fish on Thursday would leave us short of fillets to bring home as we couldn't have our limit + dinner.  Luckily they saw my Norwegian logic and agreed to have fish on Wednesday then steak on Thursday which left us the need to get 19 walleyes for Thursday.  Fishing was tough but Pete had the secret hole which allowed us to get our limit and the other guys only had to pony up 7 fish, which they did!

Another great Sunset on Thursday night

With a freezer full of fresh walleyes I made Steak ala Kienitz, the same way I did this spring however I used ribeye's instead which are much better.  Leaving Friday morning meant trying to pack up everything early so we could get back to the boat landing and home at a reasonable time.  One of the interesting features on my new Evinrude Etec G2 is the trip computer and because of the distances, gas usage, and price of gas at the resort, it would be really nice to accurately understand your situation.  It actually has 2 separate trip recording modes so I reset the one on Monday prior to leaving the boat landing and heading to camp. On Thursday night it said we had gone 142 total miles and used 39.9 gallons of gas.  The tank holds 51 gallons and not being sure how full it gets plus not knowing the accuracy of the trip computer I decided to put in enough gas (10.5 gallons) to get back to the landing with at worse case about 6 gallons minimum to spare if the fuel usage is +/- 10%.  Arriving at the landing the computer said 177 miles, 49.9 gallons used.  When we finally got back to Pete's I filled up the boat and it took 39.5 gallons which means if you consider the 10.5 gallons in the tank proves that the computer is extremely accurate.  This will help with future trips to better manage my fuel consumption and with high dollar gas purchase it is nice to have the confidence that you know exactly what's in the gas tank.  One other thing it tells me is we sure travel a lot during the trip as it's 35 miles in, 35 out, and interesting that we averaged about 35 miles each day heading to and from our fishing destinations.

Precise anchor control

I have been having issues with my Motorguide front trolling motor and it's ability to successfully hold a position in the anchor mode. Sometimes it works great then the next day it acts as though it loses where it at and goes totally stupid and damn near twisting off all the cords. The picture to the left is a screen shot of our anchoring positions on Lac Seul on Tuesday afternoon on Dan's Hole.  The trolling motor has a jog feature that allows you to move over in 5 foot increments and each spot represents a 15 - 20 foot moves to the right or left, up or back.  By the way, we really did well moving around the point and catching fish, what a great feature. The next day the trolling motor went crazy in anchor mode and started spinning the shaft looking for a position to the point of wrapping the cords up so tight it pulled one out of its exit location. It was very frustrating especially considering how well it worked the day before. Upon returning I called Motorguide to discuss the issue of losing it's place and twisting to the point where a cable had pulled out of the plastic housing.  They suggested I do an upgrade on the software and Ok'd me messing with the cable to reinstall.  Lucky I had to take the brackets apart as the main pivot shaft was missing it's end clips and had come out one side which caused all sorts of issues as well. Actually I am pretty good with all of this and actually fixed the trolling motor better than when it came from the factory.  After upgrading the software with the dongle MG sent me earlier in the week, Lory and I went to Mille Lacs to try it out on Saturday.  Once we calibrated the position and compass functions the motor worked beautifully. Unfortunately it's history has been to work great the first day and not so hot the next so we'll have to try it again next Saturday.