Back From Fisherman's Cove, Lac Seul

26.5 inch walleye, good for 2nd largest!

Last week was our week long trip to Lac Seul with my brother, cousin Paul, friends Mike Werms, Mike and Kevin Joyce, and a couple of new guys, Randy and Dave.  Our trip started out Friday afternoon, August 3rd at noon, whereas my brother picked up Paul in Hudson, we made it to the pole shed where we hooked the boat up and headed north to spent the night in International Falls before crossing the border the next day and getting to camp in the afternoon.  After a good nights rest and breakfast at Sandy's place, a local cafe, it was off to the border.  Paul Steve, and I had a little over our limit of alcoholic beverages however I have learned if you are open, honest, and spell out everything in it's package, maybe they can't add as fast as I can talk,  maybe we have that trusting look, either way we tend to get through the Canadian's without much of an issue!  Our next stop was Dryden to shop for Groceries, then headed west to the town of Vermilion River before turning north.  This trip was on the northwest side of Lac Seul whereas most of the time on Lac Seul is on the northeast side of the lake, about 120 miles from the Fisherman's Cove.  Never the less the fishing was good and the accommodations were 2nd to none.  We were able to get out fishing on Sunday as the weather was perfect all week. Unfortunately Kevin Joyce's outboard motor decided to call a time out about 6 miles into our initial run.  We decided to take the boat back to camp so Mike started his kicker and we followed him back, fishing along the way.  Of course nothing caught was "official" however it did serve to get us warmed up!  After getting it back to camp and deciding that having an oil light that won't go off as potentially harmful, we put an extra guy in my Ranger (Ranger 1) as well Mike took Kevin and his brother Mike in his Ranger (Ranger 2).  It was fine as these boats have plenty of room and it worked out really well.  Once settled we headed out to the Double D's, two deeper underwater humps (one can only guess how the name was figured out!) This is a mid-lake area about 20 miles from camp.  The group has a friendly little contest each year which recognizes certain individual accomplishments withing the group.  First fish caught, Largest walleye, Second largest Walleye, and most fish per boat.  Within 30 seconds Mike Joyce had the first fish, something that he is pretty good at!  Of course the most total fish would have to wait until Thursday evening however on Sunday I nailed a 26.5 inch walleye that held for 2nd place.  Admittedly this wasn't what I thought to be a large fish yet it held throughout the week, which guaranteed my initial investment back!

Location of an Island fire on the NW side of Lac Seul

One thing about Ontario this year, it was pretty dry in the area.  We've had smoke warnings on the way up as the forest fires in Canada have been pretty  widespread this year.  Doing some research one learns that most of not all the current fires have been started by lightening strikes.  If you look at this map, our camp is located on the western edge of Scout Bay (upper Left) and each day we would start  on a route to this fishing spot,  one could see a smoke bellowing from an island south of our route.  It was interesting because in the late afternoon, on our way back to camp, one could see the distinct yellow glow from the fires on the island which is marked on the map on the right by a red icon.  This fire was burning through the entire week we were there.  I am sure because it was on an island, it is not worth the time or effort to put it out so they just let it burn.  By Wednesday not only this fire but a number of them in Northwestern Ontario put a well defined haze into the air and there were respiratory warnings out.  Not enough to stop us from fishing however the effect of all the fires in Ontario were quite interesting when one realizes how large of an area the smoke can cover.  It even affected areas 500 miles south of us back home.   It makes for pretty nice sunsets however!

Lac Seul, Fisherman's Cove, Part 1

Vermillion Falls along Hwy 105

I finally returned from fishing a week on the west side of Lac Seul, staying at the Fisherman's Cove in Scout Bay, just south of Ear Falls, Ontario.  Invited by my cousin Paul and accompanied by my brother Steve, I met some great new friends, Kevin, Mike, and Justin Joyce, as well as Mike and Chris Worms.  The plan was to meet in International Falls on Friday night, August 4th, Stay over night at a local Tee Pee Hotel,  then cross the border the next morning, stopping at Dryden for groceries before heading Northeast to Fisherman's Cove  We arrived at the hotel at the same time the Worms brothers pulled in and immediately Chris looked at me and said...."I know you!".  Here he was at the Lac Seul Outpost for fishing opener at the same time I was and I recognized him as he was commenting on my the short fillet knife I was using.  It was a great start to what turned out to be a fabulous fishing trip. After a good breakfast at Sandy's Cafe, across from the hotel, we made it across the border just fine and headed north.  The word was out that Hwy 502 going to Dryden was bad in a few spots and they were not kidding as my brother Steve took a rock from the gravel kicked up by an oncoming vehicle and it put a nice chip in his windshield.  We finally got to Dryden then headed west to Vermillion Falls, ON before turning north.  A few miles up the road we crossed a beautiful area where the Vermillion River created a falls, it was quite spectacular.  Apparently they stop there every year on the way up.  Finally we stopped a few miles south of our camp at a place called Dutches, where the guys bought their fishing licenses as well they had gas and sold liquor, just in case!  We turned into the camp about 4:00 that afternoon and after unloading our gear and boats, we got settled in for the evening.  On the menu was Steaks a la Kienitz, named after a good friend who taught me how to make a nice steak absolutely to die for!  Bringing 8 20 oz Ribeyes from Costco, I marinated them in Tabasco Sauce, Frank's Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce, and Hot Pace Picante sauce, let them sit at room temperature for a couple of hours before simply throwing them on the grill.  I did get a few comments about what I was doing to those steaks but after dinner, everyone was quite impressed, which they always are!  Off to bed as Sunday was our first official fishing day.

First "Big Fish" entry, 25.5 inches

The plan was to fish Sunday thru Thursday and leave Friday Morning.  The set up was very nice, no sand to worry about getting in the boat at the resort, 2 dozen minnows/day/boat came with the price as well 25 gallons of gas.  Many people want a comparison to my fishing at Lac Seul Outpost vs Fisherman's Cove.  It was quite interesting as at the Outpost we generally fish mostly points along the shorelines whereas last weekend we fished main lake humps about 90% of the time.  Although we found the fish at basically the same depths, it was interesting that the average size of the walleyes were significantly larger.  I would say that the 300 walleyes that Paul, Steve, and I caught during the trip, 70% were over 20 inches.  I suspect that the main lake humps were the key to the bigger fish and will definitely be worth a try the next time I am on the ther side of the lake, especially in the fall. The picture to the right is my first entry for the big fish contest, a 25.5 incher.  Kevin Joyce was our camp leader and he set up a contest, $20 each times 8 guys =$160 in the pot.  $40 would go to the first fish caught, the biggest fish, the 2nd largest fish, and the most fish caught via the average of the per person verse the boat.  I leave the results for next week, however I did catch a nice fish on Tuesday, a 25.5 inch walleye that hit my Berkley Power Grub, slammed it hard!  It was also the largest fish to date so was the first serious entry.   I also have to say that the walleyes were huge!  Although we release all walleyes larger than 17.875 inches, never the less this picture weighed 10 pounds!! I could not believe how fat and healthy these fish looked, we definitely had to net the majority of the fish we caught.  Fishing mostly jigs and minnows, it was somewhat disappointing to see the size of the minnows we got.  I joked that I'd hate to see how small their crappie minnows were however regardless of the minnow size we caught fish.  I guess when you see the size of the minnows that the fish spit up once we had them in the boat,  one could stop worrying about the size of the bait as more often than not, we would dang near be down to nothing for bait by the end of the day.

As stated this is part one because I spent the weekend getting caught up with things around the house. My Summercrisp pears are ripening like made and falling from the trees. They are very good but quite small yet my neighbor Lory Brasel picked a couple of 5 gallon buckets full and steam juiced them, enough juice to make a batch of pear wine, which will be ready in about 4 months. Pickles are growing like crazy and I definitely need to start picking sweet corn before the racoons get it all!  So much to do, so little time.