Lac Seul, Last Trip of the Year.

Sunset at Chamberlain Narrows

Monday September 17th was the start of the last trip of the year to Lac Seul Outpost.  After a year's absence, our good fried Dan Sadler was graciously able to join us again on our fall trip to Chamberlain Narrows.  Dan was even gracious enough and offered to pull my boat up, which was very nice of him.  Arriving at the pole shed at 5:30 we had everything loaded and ready to go in 15 minutes.  Besides gas the next stop was T. Pattenn Cafe in Orr, Minnesota to meet Bruce, Wayne and the new guy, Barry Blazevic for breakfast.  After our fill of a good homemade breakfast next stop was the Holiday in International Falls to fill up the vehicles and boats for the long trek to Sioux Lookout.  Dan decided to stop at the Duty Free store to stock up on some Crown Royal before we went over the border.  Unfortunately when asked what he had, he wasn't quite accurate with our counts so I corrected him as I had it written down.  the customs officer saw I had it written down so she asked for the paper, which we obliged.  I have a theory on border crossings and alcoholic beverages.  I think that if you answer the questions directly, they really don't have that much time to add it all up in their head, this time it was written down so for only the second time since 2013, we had to pay duty.  Not that it's a big deal, as we have been over our legal limit many times yet I find it interesting that this time was different and I attribute it to having wrote it down, oh well.  Next stop was Sioux Lookout to get some large minnows then off to Deception to launch the boats and head north to the cabins, a 34.5 mile ride across the water.  This time of year the weather was often cooler and it was no exception.  Arriving at the landing around 5:30 that gave us just enough time to get into camp before sunset, which we did.  As you can see Sunsets are beautiful and I just happened to catch this one from our deck.  A great way to end an evening.

So fishing was good but not the best we have seen over the years.  Our first day was spent in Tuk

A day's worth of keepers, most for supper, some in the Freezer.

Bay, just south of camp.  It is one of my favorite areas but the fish seemed to be awfully scattered this season.  I am not sure if it was the late spring, the hot summer, low water, what ever, we had to look hard for our fish.  Once we found them it was game on for a while before we had to move again.  I was surprised at the amount of boats in Tuk, I am sure we saw at least 10, which can get crowded.  Never the less we did pretty good by the Island and a place I call Pete's point. We weren't getting a lot of slot fish (16 - 17-3/4 inches) but we did get quite a few in that 18 to 22 inch range.  Needing to get enough for our fish fry we headed to what we now call Craig's Corner, on the north edge of Chamberlain Narrows, it is usually good for some action, we accomplished our goals for the day and headed back to camp.  As stated before I tend to clean all of the fish in camp after my first trip there seeing a guy hack their walleyes.  Well Barry was interested in helping me which was fine however I told him I was fussy.  After watching him clean his first 2 fish I told him he would be better at skinning them and as he states, I fired him.  We had fun and by the end of the trip he was getting pretty good.  It was nice to have someone to talk to while filleting the fish. 

Next post I will have some pictures of the guys and their walleyes, unfortunately I only had a few fish large enough to warrant pictures. As well, I have to wait till the guys send the ones of me!

September Lac Seul, Part 2.

Pete's 40 inch Northern Pike

Although the 2016 open water fishing season is winding down with about another 30 days of comfortable fishing, my current situation with the restrictions on Lake Mille Lacs as well my newly found opportunity to fish Lac Seul in Canada on a somewhat frequent basis has me looking at this season as a success.  Normally my routine has been opening on Leech Lake, maybe 12 - 15 trips to Mille Lacs with some time on the river thrown in there.  Occasionally the summer may be interrupted with a trip to South Dakota or some other exotic place however this year it was not in the cards. Looking back I suspect I have fished just as many days as what I would call normal however they were concentrated, like in my Lac Seul fishing, in 3 to 4 days of focused walleye chasing rather than a day here and there.  I was just commenting a few days ago, and those who know me and my love for Lake Mille Lacs would find this statistic interesting but my new Evinrude has pumped more Lac Seul water through it than anywhere else, at least 530 miles and over 30 hours of running hours this year alone.  My normal trips to Mille Lacs is about 50 miles run and maybe 4 hours running time.  I feel bad for the lack of time spent on Mille Lacs however the issues on the lake makes it difficult to commit any serious time and even more critical is it is difficult to find anyone who wants to fish the day with me. Most of my trips to Mille Lacs has been with people that are outside my normal circle of fishing friends.  The other thing of consequence is that my new boat is taking a lot longer to get used to fishing Mille Lacs, wheel vs tiller control.  You know they say...it can be difficult to teach and old dog new tricks however Lac Seul fishing has my boat written all over it.  I was looking forward to the fall trolling bite on Mille Lacs however they closed the walleye catch and release season on September 6th, so much for that.  Being able to go to Lac Seul on September 13th pretty much makes up for my missed September fall bite on Mille Lacs as we got to fish 3 days in a row and for a couple of those days the bite was slow but between 3 of us we did land over 150 walleyes in the boat plus had enough to eat for the first 2 days.

Dan's Walleye off of Dan's Hole

We always are blessed with a good group of guys that fish Lac Seul however as I state before I am
pretty fussy with my boat.  Usually in the fall I have Pete and Dan in my boat, both are good fisherman and both have been trained really well to wash the sand off their shoes before getting into the boat.  This saves me a lot of work as sand and boat carpeting don't really go together very well.  It is almost impossible to vacuum it all out and it get's everywhere, especially in the lid hinges for my compartments. Fishing out of the Ranger is pretty nice as the seats are very comfortable, there is a lot of room, we have Sirius/XM radio, an onboard baitwell for our minnows, of course my opinion is the small jester of respect shown by these guys pay huge rewards!   The picture on the right is one of Dan and a nice 24 inch walleye out of one of my favorite places to fish in Tuk Bay we found 2 years ago, Dan's Hole.  Now Dan uses what Pete and I refer to as a Snoopy Pole.  It literally drives me crazy but Dan is pretty proficient with it catching his share of walleyes.  The problem I see is that he is constantly reeling against the drag and as a result is twisting the line like crazy. Being a closed face spin casting reel, he seems to do just fine however I am really tempted to buy him a significantly better reel, something we can tighten the drag down but yet still be closed faced. Maybe the other thing that drives me crazy is that he has his closed faced reel mounted on a spinning rod that is turned upside down.  Uffda is about all I can say yet he is a great guy to have in the boat, never complains about anything and is simply happy to catch fish, even doesn't mind when I make him clean his shoes off!  Beyond this I have spent the last week drying out and vacuuming the sand out of my boat, getting it ready for winter.  That doesn't mean that I am done fishing for the fall but time is definitely running out before deer hunting and ice fishing starts!

This week was the anniversary of the shooting that took my friend Ron Edberg's life.  Ron was a great guy and all of his friends miss him dearly, it's still a good time to reflect on life.  The weather is really starting to cool down a lot, I guess it's almost October already.  Next week I head to the Coil Winding Show in Chicago where I plan on seeing a couple of great friends in the business and start planning our early December fishing trip off of Marco Island, Florida.  That should be a perfect time depending on the when we can get out on the ice.  I have to take my tires off of my Ice Cabin and get them resealed as they are leaking air, too much to do, not enough time!!!

Lac Seul in September

Pete's High Noon Walleye

No worse for the wear because of my bonehead move on August 31st, our trip to Lac Seul finally got underway last Thursday.  As stated last week, this trip would be quite a bit different than my previous visits as we were taking my Ranger 620T.  It's was sort of exciting and worrisome at the same time.  The exciting aspect had to do with the accessories on the boat, a great depthfinder/gps, a bow mount trolling motor with Ipilot that has an anchor function, the Sirius radio attachment for weather overlays, it would be a real test of their validity on Lac Seul.  The worrisome part deals with my own, what some call anal, concerns with the huge amount of sand everywhere.  Sand is hard on carpets and can really scratch up the gunnel's if one rests their sandy shoes on them.  Without being too much of a pain I gradually let Pete know of my concerns and both him and our other guy Dan Sadler really respected my wishes.  Having a broom and a rug on the dock right where you entered the boat didn't hurt either!  The only other concern was the stainless steel prop on the Suzuki, they are great for open water performance but hitting a rock can bend the prop shaft, I know as I have done that in the past.  Prior to leaving I was able to locate an aluminum prop from Frankie's and installed it, using the stainless as a spare.  Being extra careful, we returned with not even a scratch on the prop.  The only other issue was the tilt/trim function on the motor, on Sunday it started acting up, I'm not sure what I did to fix it but the rest of the week was fine.  With the concerns addressed it was time to get into camp and hit the water.  From the landing at Deception Bay to Lac Seul Outfitters, it's about a 75 minute run at 30 mph.  We followed Bruce as he had the route on his GPS, however my Lowrance and Navionics chip had a detailed map of Lac Seul which included the safe routes displayed on the map. Although we did deviate somewhat, a safe arrival at camp was welcome.  Unloading and settling in, it started raining so it was decided that cocktail hour would suffice. 

Dan and Dave with a couple nice walleyes

Friday morning arrived as planned with coffee, eggs, bacon, American fries, and stove top toast (toasters draw too much current for the generators).  This would prove to be our staple morning meal for the next 4 mornings.  Our first destination was Wapesi Bay north west of camp and about a 30 minute boat ride.  Actually its only about 5 miles as the crow flies yet the route takes us past Tom's Landing, Pecker Point, and back southwest around islands and sunken reefs.  Following Bruce we stopped at one of his favorite points with only a few fish.  Using the electronics we moved over to the next point and drifted the 25 foot to 12 foot depths looking for active fish.  At 20 feet we found them as we deployed the Minnkota and set the anchor function.  This really works slick as the head of the motor has a built in GPS and it directs the motor to stay on that spot, or at least within 15 feet.  We started hammering them including the first picture, Pete's high noon walleye.  Fishing with a simple jig and a minnow dropped over the side of the boat was all one needed to do.  Often the jig never hit the bottom before a walleye would take it.  Lac Seul has a nice regulation, 4 fish, everything from 18 - 21 inches has to be released and only 1 over 21 is allowed in the 4 fish limit.  Our own slot is 16 - 18 inches and no fish kept over 21.  Catching over 100 fish a day is pretty easy for the boat yet our tight slot can mean limited fish to bring back to camp.  Of course we always have enough to eat yet trying to time our take home fish can be interesting.  Dave Callister was the new guy in camp and in his honor we did a genuine shore lunch.  BTW, I am the designated fish filleter as I've seen what the others do and personally I can't deal with it so it's lucky I love to fillet fish.  Going to work I cut up 10 walleyes while the rest of the crew (except Pete) started the fire, cut up potatoes, cooked up some beans, and got the oil nice and hot.  Everything was ready as I filleted the last fish, it was time to relax and chow down.  Because the shores are 99% rock one can't be too choosy where you have your shore lunch as long as it had sand, we managed to find an acceptable spot.  An hour later we were back catching walleyes, filled to the gills with shore lunch and 2 hours later we headed back to the cabin, a great first day. 

Blue colored walleye

On Saturday it was decided to head south to an area called the Goal Post.  A 14 - 20 foot flat rising in the middle of the channel, we drifted a couple of runs before anchoring again.  Although the wind was fairly strong the trolling motor held up beautifully.  Unfortunately it was difficult to fish as the wind continued to get stronger by the hour.  Deciding to leave, Bruce headed into what is known as Tuktegweik Bay as we followed.  Being out of the wind would be nice and who knows, the fish might be biting better than where we were.  Bruce headed to the front of an island to fish the face of the steep drop off that existed.  He likes this kind of structure yet I prefer the sharp drop offs then 15 - 25 foot flat area just off the points.  With little room to maneuver 2 boats we decided to go and look for fish with the depth finder.  Two points later we mapped an area where the fish seemed to be stacked, dropped the virtual anchor and again started hammering the walleyes.   What was really interesting about this spot were the "blue" coloring on the walleyes.  Checking the Internet it appears that they are simply a coloration phase of your standard walleye, much like you see then vary from dark golden, green, to almost black.  These fish were absolutely beautiful, especially as they came to the surface the color was almost neon like.  Our spot was consistently producing all day as it was hard to leave.  Before leaving we established a waypoint on the Lowrance and labeled it Dan's Hole after Dan Sadler, the guy that occupied the middle seat.  Although his fishing equipment leaves much to be desired, his fishing abilities are second to none! Catching quite a few, we ended up with enough fish for our evening dinner. 

Lac Seul is a great place to fish and as I get to know the lake better it's really fun to go exploring new places.  It's easy to have a few honey holes and jump between them yet finding new areas can be really exciting.  This spring we discovered an area just full of walleyes in the 7 foot depths and there was no one around to bother you.  It's said that you cannot catch fish where there is no fish so using the electronics to verify that a spot even holds fish became very important.  Next week will be the last 2 days of our trip as we have a wedding on Saturday and there will be little time for fishing this weekend, not that the last 4 days shouldn't last me a while!