Finally some Fish

 

Beautiful 9 1/2 inch bluegill

OK, it's not been a very good start of summer.  Coupled that with being retired, quite honestly I am not sure where I found the time to get everything done before.  It seems like I get nothing done now, maybe I am just getting lazy, maybe less motivated, I sit back and think that when working everything got done on a regular basis.  This would be including fishing.  The last 6 weeks have been brutal regarding the hot and dry weather.  I did make it out to Mille Lacs in June but only caught 2 fish in the boat, a nice smallmouth and a sickly looking walleye.  Compare that to the last couple of years where we would catch 25 - 40 walleyes, I don't know, maybe just losing the touch.  Personally think that we went too early as the bug hatch was in full bloom but again that just sounds like a great excuse...one of many I have these days.  The garden is starting to look good and just a few days ago we had a much needed 3.2 inches of rain at the house.  Still not enough to get the river back to a navigable level, but it's something to work on.  Finally my friend Bill Lundeen must have sensed my frustration and invited me to fish with him on Thursday.  The catch would be that we use my truck, his was in the shop.  Looking back that should always be the case when we use his boat.  Meeting at his place on Mille Lacs we drove to what Bill calls the orphanage and hooked up his older Lund 16 foot boat with a 70 hp Johnson.  I really like fishing out of that boat, however as I get older it seems that backing down the boat ramp becomes a challenge these days.  Thank the Lord Bill has patience!!  We headed about 45 minutes away to a "secret" lake to try for panfish.   Fishing for bluegills and crappies is something I love to do but seldom target.  Well my first keeper bluegill was a huge 9 1/2 inch fish caught on a Flu Flu jig with a piece of Gulp 7 feet under a slip bobber.  The lake was crystal clear so we fished the weed edges in about 9 - 12 feet of water.  It was a blast, with ultralight tackle these fish put on a memorable fight for sure.  Half the time my assumption was that a bass had struck the bait.  This lake has special regulations of only 5 fish per angler and we stopped short of 10 but it sure was exciting, and a perfect day after the rain.

Bill with his nice Bluegill

After 3 hours of great panfishing we loaded the boat up and headed for a designated trout lake nearby.  Using 3/4 to 1 ounce bell sinkers we rigged up a small spinner, gulp combination and started trolling the deeper water, assuming we were down 20 - 40 feet.  This lake was an old iron mine pit in the early 1900's and is quite deep.  With steep sides, often over 30 feet deep at 20 feet from shore, the Minnesota DNR regularly stocks rainbow trout in these lakes around the area.  What was nice about this lake is one can launch a regular boat rather than hauling a canoe down to the lake, much easier for me!  Another interesting feature is the water is super clear, the Lake Finder app states about 30 foot clarity.  We trolled for about 2 hours with the electric trolling motor and I swore something hit my bait but in the end we caught nothing but a relaxing afternoon on a beautiful lake.  It is interesting as there a a number of open pit mines that when in use continually had to have the water pumped out of them to prevent flooding.  The Cuyuna Iron Range is on the southwest end of a rich vein of iron ore that stretched from just east of Brainerd Minnesota, up through the Mesabi (Eveleth, Hibbing, Virginia, MN) and under Lake Superior before ending in Ontario.  Because the iron ore was so rich and accessible, the Cuyuna area was easy to mine at the time.  It is certainly interesting to study the history of the area and it's mining past.  When the mines became depleted the pumping stopped and eventually these pits filled up with spring water making them exceptionally clear, cold, and deep.  In some cases these old mines are often over 300 feet deep.  Of course as the mines became devoid of their rich iron ore, the mining simply moved northeast and followed the rich vein of iron ore.  Thinking of our inability to really understand how deep we are fishing I am going to propose to Bill that we try using lead core line for the next trip.  Having Suffix 832 Advanced Lead Core line, it sinks like 7 foot per color.  Lead Core lines are color coded every 30 feet, so if you want to fish 35 feet down simply let out 5 colors of line (150 feet) and you control the depth much more accurately.  I'll have to see what he thinks of that idea.  

Among other things this covid crap has really put a damper on our Lac Seul fishing.  It was closed all of last year and we should have already been there twice this year.  Talk of opening on August 21st is simply that, talk.  Even if they open it it's doubtful that some camps lack the ability to find people to work for a month, there are a lot of issues to be solved.  Lac Seul has been the highlight of my summer fishing adventures and admittedly not being able to go has taken some wind out of my sails.  Bruce and I have flown a few places for lunch, but  that's about it.  Mille Lacs has been closed for a couple of weeks now, as I said the river is extremely low, but eventually things will get back into the swing of things.   Hopefully I will have a positive report soon into the future and won't take so long!

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!

Back From Lac Seul, Part 1

Bruce with a nice walleye

Our second trip to Lac Seul this year came about a week early. Water levels were about a foot higher than in May, so we cruised through the rags without an issue however fishing was considerably different than a month ago.  My good friend Paul Wenaas was on his way back from Lac Seul the morning we left and was fortunate to have him call us when he arrived at International Falls, MN and we were in Cloquet, MN.  The report..........slow, little wind and cloud cover made for difficult fishing and their best day was their last day when it clouded over and the wind picked up.  The other thing Paul talked about was the difficulty in trying to figure out the best dept for the fish.  He felt their best success was in the 8 - 15 foot of water, pretty shallow for this time of year.  I guess the late spring has messed things up somewhat.  On this trip we had our host Bruce along with his son Michael and their guests Dave and his 10 year old son Alex.  Dave does some work for Michael and Bruce so was invited up.  Then of course their was Pete and myself.  Our plan was to get up at a reasonable hour on Saturday morning, drive to Sioux Lookout and meet Bruce, who was planning on flying his Cessna 182 to the Sioux Lookout Airport and we would pick him up and he could ride into camp with us.  Well the weather proved interesting and although it would only take about 2 hours and 40 minutes to fly from Crystal Airport to Sioux Lookout, there were thunderstorms from the Twin Cities all the way to Lac Seul.  Luckily there was a window of opportunity between fronts and he successfully slipped between them.  In the meantime Pete and I were trying to judge the right timing as we spent at least 40 minutes in line to cross into Canada at International Falls.  Tasked with buying groceries we spent a half hour at the Safeway in Dryden before deciding to have something for lunch.  Although the skies looked fine above us, the horizons all around us looked dark and intimidating.  Arriving at Sioux Lookout we stopped at the bait store that our Camp is headquartered to get a few things, the owner Vicki asked if we were going to camp and if we could bring some minnows to camp, which we have done many times.  She needed about 45 minutes so we decided to head to the airport, about 5 miles away and wait for Bruce.  Parking the boat next to the fence where Bruce parked his plane the last time, Pete went in to check and see if anyone had an ETA for Bruce's arrival.  Sure enough the guy stated, "Just talked to him, he'll be here in less than 10 minutes!"  Absolutely amazing timing, drive 11 hours, stop for gas, food, delayed at the border, and come within 10 minutes of meeting him, Pretty good if you ask me!  Bruce landed and he tied down his plane while we transferred his stuff to the truck and in 20 minutes we were back at the Ojibwa Baits to pick up the minnows for camp as well as some for ourselves, as I tend to like to have some larger minnows for the big walleyes!

A Beaver Stopped by to See Our Fish Catching Techniques

At the landing Bruce finally got to spend some time in my boat.  Actually he fished with Pete and I the entire time while Michael had Dave and Alex in Bruce's boat.  I'm sure it was interesting for him, as it is when I fish with someone in their boat.  One get's used to being in control and when you are sitting on the passenger side, you can only offer an opinion and hopefully it's a good one!  Never the less on our first day of fishing, Sunday, the weather was overcast and enough wind to keep it interesting.  One of Bruce's favorite spots was Wapesi Bay, northwest of camp.  We did alright but as Paul stated, it was somewhat difficult to nail down exactly what depth the fish were at, especially when the water temperature was already in the lower 70's.We did get a number of nice fish including the one Bruce is holding in the top picture.  I would not say the fish were exceptionally fat but like a month ago, a good proportion of the walleyes we caught were over the 22 inch length.  After fishing our typical hot spots in Wapesi we headed for the area in which the Wapesi River flows into the lake.  The river cascades down a sizable rapids before entering the lake and it creates about a 100 yard stretch of current that was full of walleyes and a few northerns.  Because of the current it was quite easy to catch them on plastic as more of the fish are grabbing anything that looks like it could be eaten as it passes by in the current.  It is one of my favorite ways to catch fish, keep the bait moving and off the bottom and smash, one never knows what's at the end of your line.  I am still waiting for additional pictures to be sent to me!  Fishing the Wapesi River got our boat count up to 77 walleyes for the day, a far cry from the 158 we caught in one day a month ago, it was still fun and provided enough action to keep things interesting for sure.  The above picture was a very large beaver that swam across the river behind us.  As it sat near the shore, and between the 2 dead tree stumps in the water, I quickly took this picture, pretty interesting. 

We again saw a few bears on this trip, one by the road on the way up and one on the shore just a quarter mile north of camp, which isn't usually a good thing for the bear.  Unfortunately I'll finish that story next week.  The lawn needed cutting real bad and the garden needs to be worked on this week, the boat is a mess, never any rest for the wicked!

Lac Seul Part 2

Nice walleye

Finally getting caught up on the time and the big plus is having something to write about, this weeks post finishes the report on last weeks trip to Lac Seul with Bruce.  Believe it or not I did get some nice walleyes yet my attempt to try and fish similar structures that we fished during the last trip to Fisherman's Cove did not work out very well.  With only 3 days to fish and the anxiety of trying to fish where you know there are fish.........doesn't make for a very good formula for going out simply to explore!  In other words, it's almost impossible to leave biting walleyes no matter what the size.  Coming into camp I marked a few mid lake humps, not too far from camp yet we never made it to them. Fishing the west side last month the mid lake humps were loaded with nice walleyes, and I would say that the average was quite a bit larger than we find at camp.  In August about 75% of the fish we caught were over 22 inches but I would say that our average around Chamberlain Narrows is around 75% of the fish under 16 inches.  Generally the numbers make up for the size and numbers we get.  It rained quite a bit on Wednesday, our first day fishing yet we got on a point that was super productive and our total for the day was about 68 walleyes.  Thursday we went to Tuk Bay, my all time favorite spot and the bit was quite a bit slower.  Of course the rain had moved on and high pressure, bluebird skies greeted us as we anchored on Dan's point and started catching fish.  As the day wore on the bite diminished to the point where we could catch a walleye to save our butts.  Moving up the channel our first stop was a point I had discovered a year ago and we did very well on it last June.  I have it marked with a waypoint called Dave's Luck Would Have It Point!  The first thing I look for when fishing an area is whether or not the fish finders are marking any fish.  If the walleye's are there, the will show up on the sonar clear as a bell.  We were marking fish like crazy and admittedly it was as many fish as I have seen yet they were not in the mood to attack our minnow presentations.  We tried all sorts of things, different colors, different jig sizes and weights, big minnows, small minnows, plastic........you name it we threw it at the walleyes but it was a fruitless time in the old Ranger as nothing worked.  Oh well at least we were still in Canada.

Huge sauger that I caught!

Friday turned out to be on of the best days experienced on Lac Seul.  Ken had commented that we should try large minnows in the 40 feet of water in front of the cabin as the big females are moving into the deeper areas to feed on cisco's.  Luckily I had bought 3 dozen large minnows at the bait shop, consisting of large rainbow shiners and some big sucker minnows.  Dropping in 40 feet, it took a while for the 1/4 oz jig to reach the bottom but it got there.  The Lowrance has a glassed in transducer which essentially gives you readings that are about 1/3 the diameter of the depth of the water.  In 40 feet we could see about a 14 foot circle of whatever is on the bottom and it was easy to spot my jig and minnow on the screen. Unfortunately we didn't mark any fish and finally both Craig and I caught something each, two 15.5" walleyes.  Uffda, although Craigs went back down just fine, mine wasn't so fortunate as it's swim bladder was extended and it would probably end up as eagle food later.  After retrieving it we put it into the fish bag, the first of 12 walleyes we needed to take home our limits. We headed north to the unnamed point just as you turn west from Chamberlain Narrows, about a mile from camp.  There we set the anchor on the trolling motor and the action began almost immediately.  It was about 10:00 in the morning and by 11:00 we had around 30 walleyes.  We were pulling in doubles and the occasional triple but the walleyes kept coming.  Craig was pulling them in left and right and although the action slowed, changing the XM radio channel from Fox to Willy's Roadhouse made a significant difference as the bite took off again.  We had about 70 walleyes on the counter/clicker when Bruce showed up and their report was not that good.  Although the bite did slow up somewhat towards the end, it picked up about 3:00 and by Cocktail Hour (4:00PM) we had 103 walleyes on the counter, quite a day considering we hadn't left and area no more than 50 feet by 100 feet, all day.  I did catch a pretty small sauger as pictured, about 6 inches.  It is amazing the size of minnows a small fish like this will attack.  Never the less it counts as a fish caught!

Pete Caught a Number of Nice Walleyes like this

Four O'clock marked the end of our last day in camp, it's always a sad time to go but it's about the right amount of time.  The last day of fishing means Steak night as we use this day to equalize our 4 fish limit we each bring home to enjoy later.  This year we had boneless tenderloins marinated in Tabasco sauce, Frank's Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce, and Hot Picante Salsa.  2 hours of soaking in that mixture does wonders for the flavor!  While the steaks marinated I cleaned the 19 fish that filled out the limits we needed to stay legal.  Volunteering to be the fish cleaning guy, I happily do this every night.  We put the steaks on the grill and 2 bottles of wine later it was done, off to bed to get up early and clear camp.  It was a blast having Craig Biegert with this trip.  I understand that he had Chemo this Thursday however according to my friends he could not stop talking about the great time he had and all the fish he caught, especially on the last day.  I would have him in my boat any day.  One interesting observation, both Pete and I helped Craig bait his jig and also helped him remove and release any fish.  One time I was putting his minnow back on his jig when I noticed something very unusual.  We generally put the hook through the minnow's mouth, out through the gill plate, then rotate the jig and insert the hook tip through the back.  This keeps the minnow securely hooked to the jig and prevents losing a lot of minnows if the fish just grabs it.  Grabbing his jig to resecure the minnow I noticed that he had it what I would call.....assbackwards!  Generally I hold the minnow with my left hand using my right to thread it through the right side of the minnow.  He had it through the left side of the minnow.  What the heck, this seemed strange until it dawned on me, Pete is left handed and probably hooks his minnows the opposite I do, holds the minnow in his left hand.  It gave me another reason to make a stink about something admittedly I had to laugh at myself! As you see in the picture the backwards minnow method is effective as Pete did get a number of fish in the 25 inch class.

The fish house is basically put back together again as I have to admit that the Salem Ice Cabin looks pretty nice.  There are still some new plastic plugs to be inserted in the frame, a good job for this weekend. The Rangertrail Trailer has to get brought to Nick and get the step welded and braced up as I missed my steps when getting in and out of the boat.  I might get to go back up to Lac Seul to help Bruce close the cabin however it's a matter of timing as next week I am in Chicago.  Hopefully the annual trout fishing expedition with Bill can still take place this month.  Deer hunting is only 4 weeks away as time continues to fly at a record pace!

Quiet Week

Holcombe's dock, looking up River

Well this last weekend was pretty quiet as Mille Lacs is shut down and the trip to Lac Seul is fresh in the bullseye for the next trip. That's OK as there is plenty to do around the house, grass to be mowed, garden to be weeded, stuff to be cleaned, it never ends!  I did take the opportunity to get down to the River and fish off my neighbors dock on Saturday night, a place where I have always enjoyed to relax and besides, I have gotten some nice fish off the dock in the past.  The strategy is simple and it's pretty easy to fish, just load up a hook with a couple of nightcrawlers and toss it out.  It is not very deep out from the dock, maybe 5 feet however the river basically forms a shelf where the fish come up into this shallow flat to feed.  Most of the current is on the other side of the river so it's a nice relaxing place to soak a crawler.  After getting set up this boat came towards me, I am really careful to say "an old man" because it is starting to hit home, yet this guy was probably in his 70's and had a jon boat just like mine with a 25hp Suzuki tiller on the back.  He asked if he could pull up to the dock and of course I obliged him.  Careful not to interfere with my line, he pulled up and asked if I owned the property. Nope, but the guy that does, Brian, is a really good guy and I am sure you can talk to him anytime. He commented how nice his light looked from across the river and only wanted permission to take a picture.  Well, we talked for almost 45 minutes, everything from the river to his boat, his Suzuki motor, my boats, and what I was fishing for!  It was a lot of fun as most of you know that I like to talk o people!  After he went back I checked the line and the entire glob of crawlers was stripped off the hook.  The river is full of small catfish and maybe that's what happened as I didn't see any of the classic Tap Tap.  Oh well I loaded the hook back up and casted it out but it soon was dark and whatever had stripped me did it again without even a tell tale sign of it's presence.  I did get a picture looking up river as it was a nice evening, few mosquito's and the fish were elusive at best.

Eric with a nice Largemouth

This week the Mille Lacs saga will continue to play out as we will see if our DNR will open fishing back up for walleyes on July 27th as the original plan had stated.  There are so many variables to this that I am afraid the Minnesota DNR is playing it too cautious, but as I have stated many times, I try not to come across too political.  If it does open on the 27th it will be for Catch and Release only, something I am fine with, however the use of live bait is still in limbo until next week so we'll see. This is usually the time of year my friend Chuck Teasley comes up from the St. Louis area and we fish Mille Lacs.  Looks like I won't know anything until next week sometime!  So there are others catching fish, including my friend Eric Hayes who was fishing with his son Carter.  As you can see the bluffs in the background, they are on the Mississippi River down by LaCrosse.  Eric is a damn good "River Rat" and someday I need to get down there and do two things....Fish with him and teach him how to smile!  I suspect Carter took this picture and is not very likely to ride his dad on the finer points of fish photography.  Either way it's a nice Largemouth Bass and certainly puts to shame anything I caught last weekend, which was only a picture of the river.   It does however get me thinking about maybe doing some bass fishing around the area as it is a fish that is present in most lakes around here.   Speaking of the Mississippi River it is  time for my friend Kevin to have their annual Catfish Tournament down by Trempealeau with his guys from the Sheriff's Department.  It reminds me of my late brother-in-laws sheephead (freshwater drum) tournament that they had every year.  Eric (the guy  pictured) and I fished that during on of the last years that my brother-in-law, Mike Rombalski was still with us.  Eric and I teamed up in his boat and we did pretty good, I thought as we had about 20 sheephead coming close to 30 pounds of fish. The other veterans of the contest had cut off blue barrels for their fish and we were pretty humbled by the 100# weights of the guys who had started this!  All the sheephead were eventually fed to the pigs and we finished the tourney at the local establishments around Trempealeau, Wisconsin.  I only wish that I would have had a chance to participate early, at least we could have gotten some quality practice time in!

Barb's nice Reindeer Lake grayling

Last but not least, I am including a picture that my good friend Bruce Wiley sent of his sister Barb holding a nice grayling she caught at Reindeer Lake in northern Canada. Bard is a retired commercial airline pilot who first worked flying guest to the northern areas of Canada in a DC-3. Later she piloted for Northwest Airlines and more recently Delta.  Her and Bruce have a float plane and she decided to visit the old lodges she had flown to over 30 years ago, flying there with her husband in their Cessna 172.  Seems like I need to convince Bruce that we need to do this one time!  Anyway it's nice to see people you know having a good time fishing and that is a very nice grayling.  One year in Alaska my brother Steve and Cousin Greg decided to walk  up to Crescent Lake on the Kenai Peninsula, a glacier feed lake 7 miles from the road.  It was interesting for sure as I wasn't sure I was going to make it but we got there after a 3 hour hike, uphill.  We were a funny bunch as we heard you should make noise in case a bear was around, so we were singing all the way up.  I am sure if there were any bear, they were long gone after hearing us!  The stream coming out of the lake is where the trail followed and at where it exited the lake was some current and a ton of small grayling.  This one Barb is holding was somewhere around 15 inches but the ones we were getting were more like 6 inches.  Never the less they were a very beautiful fish and at least I can say that I have caught one!  Getting ready for my next trip to Canada, to Fisherman's Cove with my cousin Paul and brother Steve.  I am anxious to fish the other end of Lac Seul to see if it is any different.

Fishing At Last!

Nice walleye

Well, despite all the issues that have been dealt with in the last few weeks, we finally made it back to Lac Seul for 3 days of non stop walleye fishing.  My friend and neighbor Pete Sipe was gracious enough to drive making it a pretty relaxing trip for me, as well he took some great pictures.  Getting up at 4:30 last Saturday Morning we were hooked up and on the road around 5:30.  I barely had a chance to make sure everything on the boat was fine but we took off anyway with our first stop in Orr Minnesota to fill up the truck and boat, as well to have breakfast at the T Pattenn Cafe, usually our breakfast spot in the past.  A quick topping off the gas in International Falls then across the border.  This time, as usual we did not have any issues and after a few questions about my Chinese Visa that was in my passport, the gentleman let us on our way.  We made it to Dryden where a quick stop at the Safeway to pick up onions and potatoes before heading up to Sioux Lookout's Ojibway Baits to pick up some larger minnows then off to the Deception Bay landing.  It started to rain pretty good so Pete and I put up the new Bimini top on the boat, WOW, is that nice.  It was raining quite hard and we were nice and comfortable in our new protection against the weather.  It was impressive that we could drive 30 mph and except for some rain coming through where the windshield meets the top, it was quite comfortable, I should have had this years ago!  Our first day's fishing was in one of Bruce's favorite locations, Wapesi Bay.  Pictured is a nice 22 inch walleye that definitely went back into the water.  For the day Pete and I ended up with 46 walleyes caught and released except enough for supper as we never like to load up on walleyes too early in the trip.  On Monday Bruce asked me where I would like to go and of course my favorite place to fish in Lac Seul is Tuk Bay.  I have some fabulous spots to fish and have named them, Pete's Point, Dan's Hole, Dave's Luck Would Have It Point, and Baboon Ass Point. They are a sure bet as I have had my absolute best days of fishing in Tuk, and his trip was no exception as Pete and I ended up with 95 walleyes for the day.  We could have stayed for another 5 but we were always careful how the other boats would feel about our success of passing 100 fish for the day.  We try to be considerate, ya know.

Sunset looking north at Chamberlain Narrows

Tuesday was our last day of fishing and the group decided to explore some new areas that were marked with trails into the bays by my friend Paul Wenaas.  They were straight south of camp and we did get some nice fish, it certainly wasn't on fire. Bruce's family was coming in that evening so he left about 2:00 in the afternoon after dropping off his son Michael in our boat.  Because we were basically straight east of Tuk, I decided that would be a great place to finish the day and our trip. Coming out of the channel into the main bigger water I had to cross a wake that was in front of us so I turned the steering into the wave to cut it a a 45 degree angle.  Unfortunately there was no response to my turning and we hit the wave almost parallel and at 30 MPH it almost threw me out of the boat.  Now this is a good time to remind everyone why it's important to wear your life vest and to make sure your cutoff tether  is properly connected every time you are under power.  I have stated this before that for the last 6 years or so I wear my automatic inflatable life vest 100% of the time and hook up the tether.  I am getting to old to expect myself to tread water for any length of time and even though I have had this boat for 2 years now, I am still learning the nuances of running a wheel boat after running tillers for the last 35 years. I have no desire to be thrown out of the boat then watch the dreaded "Circle of Death" take me out. We barely made it to a point in Tuk where we fished the day before and ended up with 78 walleyes for the day.  It is absolutely beautiful at camp so I decided to post a sunset picture.

So, just my luck, the power steering went out on my Evinrude outboard and because it is the latest technology, there is no quick fix to provide emergency steering.  We limped back to camp as I could steer it a little, turn the wheel fast and after about 5 revolutions it would make it's way in the direction you wanted to go.  Once in camp we were able to call my dealer Frankie to see if there were any options, nope it appears as though the power steering fluid leaked out somehow.  With 37 miles to go in the morning we took off very carefully controlling our speed and slowing down when we met another boat and it's wake.  It felt as though the longer we used it the worse it got and by the time we got to the landing, it was almost impossible to get the boat aligned with the trailer and loaded however, we managed!  On the way home I called Frankie's and although it was too late by the time we drove by the exit to get there, I got up early and dropped it off on Thursday.  Friday morning they called me and said that Joe had got it fixed, geez I was expecting at least a week!  I think they are about a tired of seeing my boat as much as I am not seeing it!  Talking to Joe, Frankie's son who by the way, is absolutely amazing and treats me like I am his best customer, we discussed what went wrong.  Apparently Evinrude had a recall on the caps that hold the power steering fluid and the last time I was in they changed them out to the new ones.  He stated that he was really surprised that my new cap had cracked and leaked fluid, the first one of the "new" replacements out there.  Either way I am going to send a note to Evinrude.  The good news is I have my boat and pending any bad weather I am going to try to get up to Mille Lacs before July 7th when it closes to walleye fishing for 3 weeks.....that's a whole new post for later!

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!!!

Wow, Time Gets Compressed

40 inch Northern!

My trip to Lac Seul occurred during the time I usually post last week and I was thinking about doing it from the camp as there is Internet, slow, but it's there.  Unfortunately one gets busy eating fish and savoring the time with your friends, and we are a bunch of old farts and are in bed by 10:00, uffda!! Nevertheless, it's pretty hard to complain about the time one spends with your friends in such a wonderful place to fish, Lac Seul. I have to admit that I have been very fortunate to be included in the group that I go with, my neighbor Pete Sipe and his consideration of my love of fishing.  Bruce, who is our fearless leader has taken some direction from me and improved his electronics and anchoring technologies significantly..........all without one complaint of me spending too much of his money! Lac Seul fishing is always great however some days are better than others.  September lake levels tend to be the highest of the year which allows one to get around much safer than in May.  The fall fishing can be relatively challenging as compared to the May opener or even in June as the fish ten to be deeper and more finicky.  Of course the baitfish are more than plentiful and mature making for easy meals for the fish and it requires some more finesse to catch them.  This time of year we usually have 3 main areas to fish, Tuk bay, Wapesi Bay, or the main lake reef areas south of Chamberlain Narrows area.  Bruce has a fondness for Wapesi so we went there on Wednesday.  This was the first day of blue skies in a while as it rained the day before.  Typically the weather following a rainy period is a rising barometer and it make it tough for the bite however it wasn't too bad.  One of the advantages of the high water period is getting into places that can be tough and this day was no exception as we made our way back to where the Wapesi River flows into the lake.  It was absolutely beautiful back there with the rushing water, current that extended back into the bay and some pretty good fishing.  I really wanted to catch a fish on a shad rap and casting in the current break areas I caught my first walleye on a crankbait in Lac Seul.  We did really well with walleyes of all sizes from 6" to 24".  When the jig and minnow combinations stop short, I like to try plastic and using a Cabela's bubblegum/chartreuse 3 inch curly tailed grub, a nice 40 inch northern pike hit it.  Luckily it was hooked in the side of it's mouth and there was little worry of the pike's teeth cutting the line.  Dan netted the fish and a few pictures later we released it.  I have caught many nice pike on Lac Seul but this one was quite fat and probably weighed in at 18#'s as it was pretty heavy to hold.  

24 inch Walleye in Tuk

The bite tended to be good for the first half hour of anywhere we went then it quickly shut down.  We spend a few hours at the river mouth because it was very pretty, the sound of the rushing water was nice, and it was simply very scenic back there.  However eventually we moved back into the main bay and fished a number of points and caught more fish, at least enough for supper before returning to camp!  The next day was for me as we returned to Tuk Bay, one of my favorite spots.  Although we did catch quite a few fish in Wapesi, my confidence level for Tuk is much higher, some call it a personal problem!  I bought a push button counter to keep track of the fish caught and Wednesday was around 50 however I felt we could blow that away in TuK.   We accomplished this by catching over 70 walleyes that day.  I personally thought the walleyes were larger as well however in the past they were more turquoise in color.  There is a channel that goes up straight north of the main bay and has a number of small points that are walleye magnetic.  It's fun to go point hopping until you run into them.  The point we fished last June that was so good did provide a repeat performance but the next one down from it certainly proved successful.  Again one of the ways to catch fish once they stop hitting minnows is to try artificial and get the fish to react to a trigger bite, one where they simply cannot resist to strike something audacious swimming by!  I bought some jig heads with willow leaf spinner blades connected on the bottom of the lure and they worked very good but for some reason I lost them right away, oh well!  The first 2 days were certainly fun and we still had 1 full day of fishing left.

Light Brown Raccoon

I did get home in time to head to the Green Bay Packer/Minnesota Viking's first home game in their new stadium.  It was pretty awesome Except that Green Bay lost, what can you do.  Certainly the Viking's looked a lot better than they have in the past years so it should make this year's season very interesting!  My wife has been complaining that the raccoons are making a smorgasbord out of our bird feeders on our back patio, so it was time to put out a live trap. Well this morning I had a brown/tan colored critter in the trap, I've never seen this color phase before and I have caught a lot of raccoons over the years.  They almost look friendly enough to pick up but I can assure you this is not the case.  I tend to drive them over to Elm Creek Park reserve and let them go, hopefully far enough away from the house that they won't find their way back, maybe 7 miles. Anyway it was  interesting to see this creature this morning.  I tell you, they sure do stink!

Uffda!!

First fish of the Day

Seems like the older I get the more challenging it is to get everything done!  Last weekends long Labor Day holiday found me trying to get caught up on a number of things.  It has been raining alot in August, the garden looks terribly neglected, the grass needs mowing every 4th day and to add insult to injury, the days are getting shorter to boot!  This was the last weekend to legally fiah walleyes on Mille Lacs but the strong south winds that persisted during these days all but took the incentive to fight that battle away.  Because of the sorry state of the garden, Saturday found me driving to Cambridge to meet a person selling cucumbers and dill for making refrigerator pickles.  I still us Bernie Konters old Fall Fest Pickle recipe from years ago, have doctored it up a bit but they are still very good.  Sunday the wife and I headed south to the Farm Fest in Fountain City, Wisconsin and it is always very interesting.  They do old time threshing using a threshing machine and a steam powered tractor, pretty interesting.  That pretty well took all day so this left fishing to Labor Day on Monday.  Amongst other things the grass needed to be mowed so it was decided that my neighbor Tom Olson and I would head down on the Mississippi River behind the house and see if we couldn't find some walleyes in the current breaks.  Besides I had just put in new boat seats into the jon boat so it would be a good chance to test them out.  We headed out about 4:30 that afternoon and hit the first eddy pool just up river and on the other side.  I started with a jig and some rubber with a half a crawler while Tom chose to throw a brightly colored #7 Shad Rap.  On our first drift while bouncing the bottom I nailed a nice 16 inch smallie on the jig.  Hoping it was a walleye, I guess i'll take whatever hits.  I figured bouncing a jig would be the best way to entice one but in the river one never knows what will hit your bait, especially when it's tipped with a crawler.  The river is still very high for this time of year as we are at least 7 inches over normal rainfall for the year.  I feel that the fish tend to be scattered more when the water is high yet there are still a number of spots that tend to produce.

Tom's 18 inch Smallie

There is an area just on the downstream side of Cloquet Island that tends to be pretty good.  It has a  deep hole and a defined current break that makes it easy to fish.  I tend to like to bottom fish that area but searching for walleyes had me dragging the jig on the bottom.  It was a little more loaded with snags and because I was using a braided line was able to retrieve my jig along with a number of tree branches that were scattered on the bottom.  In the meantime Tom kept throwing his Shad Rap and one cast into the area where the side channel met the main channel he nailed a beautiful 18 inch smallmouth that really put on a show.  I really couldn't believe that it hit from the area that he was casting but what the heck!  About the only thing I got was a small channel catfish and a bunch of timber.  We finished the day back at the first spot we fished where I decided to soak some nightcrawlers while he stayed casting,  All I ended up with were 5 very small channel cats, about 5 - 8 inches in length.  Tom did get a few more smallmouth and I think for the day we ended up with a total of 6 smallies and 6 very small catfish.  I was surprised I didn't get anything more interesting than the small catfish but that's the way it went as I was expecting at least a larger carp or redhorse.  Oh well, after a small light rain shower we headed back to Blair's landing before it got too dark.  I am not sure if this would be my last trip on the river this year as fall is coming fast and the rain is predicted to keep the river high.  Maybe a trip upstream from Monticello would be in the cards.  I also have my annual trout fishing trip with Bill Lundeen coming up. So much to do, so little time! Still the river fishing is a fun time and doesn't require such a long commitment as going to Mille Lacs or some other lake.  As well, it reminds me of the fishing I used to do with my friend Kevin, fishing the back channels of the Mississippi or simply fishing the Buffalo River that flowed through Eleva.  Doing the jon boat really keeps things simpler than the production needed of bringing my Ranger out, driving somewhere, removing the cover and launching, loading up, replacing the cover, and driving home....does it sound like I am getting lazy? Nope but do enjoy the chance to throttle things down a little bit!

Salsa!!

Well I have been canning my salsa these days as it's pretty good.  One of the thing is that I don't take short cuts and spend a lot of time processing the final product.  I would have to say it pays off as I have done 15 quarts so far.  With a lot of tomatoes, onions, and peppers it's a shame to see them go to waste so somewhere I find the time to make a few batches.  It is a special treat in the middle of ice fishing season to have my salsa in the ice cabin on Red Lake in January. I tride pints at one time but it seemed as though I would always empty it fast and then need another jar but now it is hard to finish a quart but I can tell you, it's a lot faster canning quarts!  Tuesday will finally come as I head up to Lac Seul with my friends Bruce, Pete, Dan, and Wayne.  This is a trip that I really look forward to and I am so lucky that this will be my 3rd trip this year.  It's nice that Bruce lets me keep some of my stuff up there so I don't have to haul a sleeping bag, pillow and other essentials. Dan is towing my boat up there which is nice.  Interesting as my 2015 Boat definitely has more miles on Lac Seul than it does Mille Lacs, a sign of how things have changed in the last few years.  I am getting pretty good at navigating Lac Seul and have all the trails on my Lowrance down to the point where I am pretty self sufficient.  Still, I carry a spare prop with me and I pray to the Lord I'll never have to use it.  This time of year the water is at it's highest level so it doesn't mean there isn't any hazards, but those area's that are marginal in May are now covered by an additional 4 feet of water.   The weather forecast shows highs in the lower 60's and lows in the 40's, it will be nice after the hot and humid August we've had in Minneapolis. Because I leave Tuesday and back on Saturday I may not have a post next week.  They do have internet and maybe I will post something from there.  I return on Saturday the 17th and have been invited to the Vikings home opener in their new stadium where they are playing the Packers.  Bruce rearranged our trip so I could make this and I am really excited to be with my friends who are treating me to this experiment.  At least one of them is a Packer fan like me!

Big Fish on Lac Seul

John Schley and his 30" walleye

As stated last week my brother Steve and I got a last minute invite from Bruce to head to Lac Seul to fish the last 3 days of his time at the cabin.  We decided to drive up to Sioux Lookout on Tuesday, stay overnight at the Best Western, then meet Bruce at the Deception Bay Landing at 6:30, Wednesday morning and follow him out to the outpost cabin.  Steve drove up from Onalaska, Wisconsin and picked me up at 9:30, we hooked my boat to his truck and were off. Deciding to buy a couple bottles of Crown Royal at the Duty Free Shop in International Falls, MN, we got to the border and answered all of the questions directly and politely.  When asked how much liquor we had, I stated 1 case of beer, 1 bottle of wine, and 2 bottles of Crown,  the officer handed back our passports, smiled and said, have a nice day!  Definitely things were looking up at that point. We arrived at Sioux Lookout at 6:30, checked into the hotel, then walked across the street for a burger and Budweiser, $12 Canadian.  After 9 hours it was nice to get out and walk around. Wednesday morning arrived right on time and we headed back to the bait shop for a parking sticker, some large minnows, and a hat for my friend Glen.  Arriving just in time, Bruce was there waiting for us as we loaded everything in and headed north by water.   Bruce was there to drop some guys off and pick up his father-in-law and brother-in-law, John and Greg Schley from the Garrison, MN area. There were 2 things that needed fixing before we left, first none of my electronics would turn on and secondly Bruce is trails on his had disappeared.  Pulling a panel off I must have had a bad connection as a few wiggles and everything fired up and stayed that way throughout the trip.  Luckily I had downloaded Bruce's previous data to a SD card and had it with me.  I put it into his HDS and uploaded the information, he was back in business.  Having the old and correct routes is important to safely get back to camp and we were both happy everything was working good.  It takes about an hour to get to camp and as usual, Bruce had arranged a safe dockage for my boat. Once unloaded we headed out to Tuk Bay and started really hitting the walleyes. Unfortunately the storms rolled in as it is nice to have the Sirius/XM/Weather module so we could track the lightening that we saw to the west.  Barely making it back to camp, it is a 10 mile boat ride and it started to rain as we docked.  After and hour it cleared up so we headed back to Tuk, fished a while before the same scenario repeated itself and we headed back in at around 3:00.  Deciding to fish a little closer to camp we headed north and fished the point on the north end of Chamberlain Narrows, it happened again

Selfie of my 24 incher

and we were forced in.  Enough is enough so we decided to stick around as it was about time for cocktail hour and supper.  Thursday morning arrived and we decided to take John with us in my boat as we headed to Wapesi Bay.  We got plenty of fish there but admittedly it was pretty cold, maybe in the mid 40's, Bruce claimed it's never been that cold this time of the year.  Of course we were not dressed for this weather so it was nice to put on the rain gear, at least it kept the wind off.  We did pretty well in Wapesi, not a record day but it was fun to have John in the boat, someone different and being 83, Steve and I really catered to him.  We had fried walleye on Wednesday night and again on Thursday, and had steak on Friday night.  This allowed us to properly manage our possession limits of fish to stay legal and be able to bring some home.  Friday we decided that Tuk was a better option for fish and as we headed out John asked if he could go with us again....of course.  He was a pleasure to have in the boat and at his age did really well.  We made sure that he always had a sharp jig, a minnow on the hook, and was comfortable.  He was rewarded with a beautiful walleye, 30 inches, the biggest walleye ever to grace my boat!!  I don't know if that was his biggest walleye ever but it is a once in a lifetime fish and it definitely gave us some bragging rights, after all who was guiding him!!  I had bought some clickers to tally how many fish we really catch and at 1:00 we had over 60 fish for the 4 hours we had been out but as usual, the bite tends to slow down around noon.  Our goal was to get 100 fish in the boat so we headed north from where we were as I scanned the points for active fish on my depthfinder.  We noticed some about a mile up from where we started and activated the anchor. Immediately we began catching fish and by 4:00 we had caught an additional 43 walleyes to give our grand total of 103 caught in the 7 hours we were out.  Not bad as people say they get 100 fish a day but that is not necessarily and audited number.  We worked hard for that total and looking back it was a pretty special day, John got his 30 incher plus contributed his share of the 103 walleyes caught, the weather was nice, and we had enough fish so everyone could bring home their limit, perfect if you ask me.  It was a pleasure to help John and I can only hope that I will be fishing at that age.

Friday night was Steak night and it's usually my responsibility to prepare and cook them.   Bruce complained that the ribeyes are too big so this time I brought a whole tenderloin and cut them accordingly.  With my usual Tabasco Sauce/Buffalo wing sauce marinade they turned out perfect as everyone really likes them.  We even had a chuck of meat left over that we gave Sam, the camp guy that gets us minnows and helps with everything.  He thought that was pretty good.  I also met some interesting guys, as I arrive in camp I saw some boats with a WS license, from Wisconsin.  Asking where they were from they said Eau Claire and I fired back Eleva.  Here it was Denny Zacko and his sons and grandsons, they go every year.  I went over to talk with the and we had a good discussion about boats, Eau Claire, and my Evinrude G2 motor.  Also next door to us in a cabin was a gentlemen with his 4 boys, they were from Northern Illinois.  Bob, his twin boys Cary and Ben, younger son Adam and their older brother, it was nice to see the younger generation and a family enjoying them selves.  Saturday morning was our day to head out and we left camp by 7:00.  It was glass smooth and John decided why change now and hopped in the boat with Steve and I for the 1 hour, 15 minute ride back.  We loaded the boat up and headed south for the 8.5 hour ride back to civilization.  My brother Steve agreed to pull my boat with his truck and he did pretty well averaging 12 miles to the gallon.  My truck gets about 10.5 in the same scenario.  I am sure Mille Lacs is still hot so maybe this weekend.  It's also time to think about fishing the river as I need to get the Jon Boat out and running soon.

Fishing with Glen!

Glen's first fish, 26 inches

Thursday afternoon I invited my friend Glen Collins, a work associate from Chicago, to go fishing on Mille Lacs Lake for walleye.  Glen is a good long time friend as I have known him for more than 25 years.  He is a fixture in the transformer industry and I have fished with him during one of our meeting in Jacksonville, FL.  Glen had some appointments in the area and I figured it was a good idea to take him up to Mille Lacs as the big fish were biting.  He took care of his appointments in the morning and by 1:00 he showed up at work.  We drove to my pole shed, hooked the boat up and headed north with our first stop at Lundeen's to get bait and a license.  I had bait left over from Sunday's trip and the weather was looking beautiful so we got what we needed from Bill's and headed for the landing.  The water was dead calm with an occasional ripple area but for the most part no wind.  Wanting to try the flats again I headed right to Sherman's and my dilemma with my new boat becomes obvious.  With my previous tiller boats it was easy to follow the break line at the top of the flats, where the big walleyes hang out.  Now it's really hard to do that, I simply create a route on the map then have my front trolling motor follow it up and down the contours on the map portion of the chart on the depthfinder however it is difficult to make adjustments.  I am sure at some point I will figure it out but for now it is what it is! I rigged up a couple of poles with spinner/crawler rigs and set them in the rod holders, not a bad way to fish.  I tie my own spinner rigs and use TruTurn hooks.  If a walleye hits the rig the hooks simply turn and they hook themselves quite easily.  When the rods are in the holders, if a walleye hits the rod buckles over and is generally hooked quite well.  It wasn't about 15 minutes after we started that one of the rods was bent over, I grabbed it and gave it to Glen...after all he was my guest.  This fish was a real fighter and after a courageous battle, Glen finally got it to the boat where I netted this beautiful 26 inch walleye.  A few pictures and we let her back into the water as she bolted away.   What I like about the Tru Turns also is the fish are generally hooked in the front of the jaw making for a safe successful release possible.  As you can see in the picture, it was pretty calm, as compared to last weeks outing, a nice change of pace for sure!

Glen's 2nd fish, a 27 incher

Replacing the crawler and resetting it wasn't long before Glen's rod was bent over and he had a nice fish on.  It fun fishing the calm and deep water as you can generally see the fish as it is getting near the boat.  It was another really nice fish and actually looked bigger than the first one he caught.  After netting the walleye and measuring it, this one topped 27 inches, another dandy walleye.  I was trying to get him to hold the fish right however I don't like to keep them out of the water too long so this pose will have to do.  It still is an impressive fish for sure.  We spent another hour on Sherman's and got another nice walleye however I decided to try something else that we do on Mille Lacs, Bobber fish.  My rods were all set up for 23 feet of water to we went back to where we were last Sunday and tried some bobbering there. We did get a couple of smaller walleyes and it was good to show Glen this different type of fishing.  We did miss a number of fish as maybe we were using too big a leech for the size of fish that we were hitting.  After an hour it was time to go as Glen asked about the Rock Hump to the east.  With the calm water and warm temperatures it was nice to just cruise for a while so we headed to Spirit Island.  As we rounded the island Glen was taken back by the half dozen or so white pelicans hanging around the rocks.  Being used to Florida, it is uncommon to see pelicans this far north, or so he thought.  He took a few pictures to send and we turned south to Anderson Reef to cast for smallies.  That wasn't too productive for sure.  After about 30 minutes of that we headed back to Indian Point to troll the long reef that extends out into the lake.  It was getting late anyway and it would be smart to be back close to the landing so I rigged 2 rods with shad raps and we trolled.  It was a good chance to try and see how the kicker worked in conjunction with using the front trolling motor to steer the boat.  This seems to be the acceptable way to do this but for me everything's a learning experience with this boat.  Some of my friends say that I will figure it out but as stated in the past, going from a tiller to a wheel has it's challenges.  Anyway I was able to stay in the "magic" 6 foot depth and man did something slam my shad rap.  It hit hard and was obviously a nice fish so I handed the rod to Glen while I got organized.  A couple minutes later I netted a nice plump 22 inch walleye, which was really nice to see.  I had assumed that this fish was a big Smallmouth bass but it didn't jump at all.  We let it go and continued on where I nailed 2 smaller smallies, in the 14 inch range.  It was 8:30 so we decided to head out, another very successful day on Mille Lacs.  Glen was very satisfied and I was happy that he had a good time as it get's hard to schedule things that work out great.  We are talking about chartering a grouper fishing trip during our TTA meetings at the first of December in Florida.  Glen's cousin Tim has a nice place on Marco Island we can stay so I am definitely going to figure that one out!

Last Monday I met with my friend Bruce Wiley for a discussion about a few things as he was heading up to Lac Seul on Friday.  Because a few guys were leaving early and he was staying till Saturday, July 2nd, he invited me to come up and fish Wed thru Friday (June 28 - July 1) and leave with him on Saturday.  He said I could bring someone so I called my brother Steve knowing full well he would not let this opportunity go unfilled.  Our plans are to head up on Tuesday and stay overnight, meeting Bruce at the landing at 7:30 on Wednesday morning, We should be in camp by 10:00 and fishing by 10:30 so hopefully I will have some great pictures next week.  My friend Paul Wenaas just got back and sent me some areas he thought would be good for bigger fish.  I have been getting ready all weekend and am excited to take advantage of Bruce's hospitality for sure.  Steve is going to pull my boat up and I plan on taking the time to get reacquainted with my GoPro Camera system.  Funny but this will be the 3rd trip to Lac Seul with my boat and interesting enough, most of the hours on the boat will be from there, not that I am complaining!!!  I have a list of stuff to bring including Large Curd Cottage Cheese, which Ken and Brenda, the camp owners love.

Back from Lac Seul

Typical walleye, 18 - 22 inches

Last Monday, May 23rd, I left with my neighbor Pete Sipe and a new guy, John Loeffler to meet Bruce at Lac Seul Outposts on Lac Seul.  The last 2 years I had the luxury of flying up however this year we decided to take my boat and dispense with the flying.  The drive really isn't too bad, about 470 miles to the Deception Bay boat landing where we launch the boats and head out to the outpost camp, 36 miles by water.  Because of the strong US Dollar we decided it was easier to shop in Canada for both out food and refreshments.  Unfortunately because Monday the 23rd was a National Holiday, Victoria Day, a celebration of England's Queen Victoria, prior to Canada's independence from Britain, Lots of stores were closed.  It is somewhat like our Memorial Day here in the US as it signals the start of Summer.  Although the grocery stores were open till 6:00 pm, the Government run liquor stores, LCBO were closed and we were relegated to whatever was left over at camp.  Luckily there always seems to be plenty and I had included a few bottles from home that helped!  We did stop at the Ojibway Outfitters Bait shop in Sioux Lookout to get our parking permit and a couple dozen really large (3-5 inch) rainbow minnows which hopefully would attract larger walleyes.  After leaving home at around 5:00 AM we finally reached the landing at 3:30.  It was interesting as we were stopped by the police just outside of Sioux Lookout, it was a holiday and they were looking for drivers drinking and driving. We told the officer that we were heading for Lac Seul and he mentioned that he was fishing there yesterday.  I asked him if he went through the Rags, a short cut to the outpost but with the low water levels it was questionable if one could get a boat through.  He said......."No problem, went through there yesterday with our pontoon!"  I thanked him and appreciated his time and work as well as the tip on the Rags.  You see, bypassing the Rags means going around another 8 miles which means more gas.  We idled through the Rags as my depth finder showed 1 1/2 feet at it's shallowest.  One good thing is that it is a muck bottom and not rock so even if you hit the bottom with the propeller, little damage will be done.  It was interesting as I didn't kick up an mud or sand going through.  Lac Seul can be very challenging to drive and this would be my first time solo from the landing to camp.  The map I have has the houseboat routes and I have the trails from Bruce's old GPS as well, Pete isn't shy to add his 2 cents on which way to go. Nevertheless it's somewhat nerve racking to be cruising in 40 feet of water then all of a sudden the bottom comes up to 5 feet and back down to 40 in an instant. Even though our routes are tested and true, it gives one a bit of pause to think about what you just went over.   Oh well, we made it to the outpost successfully without an incident!

Another gorgeous Lac Seul Sunset

One of the nice things about going with Bruce is meeting new friends. This was my 6th trip to the video! Either way camp and each trip in itself is quite an adventure.  This year I met a new guy, John Loeffler, friends of the rest of the crew however new to me.  He was quite an interesting guy, was retired at a relatively young age and he had pretty much the same personality as I have, which made for some amazing moments!  John and Pete fished in my boat which always presents a problem because I can be quite anal in my care of the boat, for instance, everyone has to wash the sand off their shoes before entering, no feet on the gunnels, stuff like that.  Well luckily both my crew members understood, or should I say know that they are going to fish in comfort so no use rocking the boat! Now fish slime is another issue and is welcome because in the end it washes off with water. Speaking of fish slime, I did catch John in one of his more graceful moments in the boat, spreading fish slime all over the place.  Check out this Youtube Link of that exciting moment!  Like last spring because of the low water, just north of the camp is a sand bar sticking out into the channel.  I had done quite well last year catching a walleye every cast however this time I only caught 2 and they were quite small. It's a great advantage point to watch the sun go down and this time was no exception.

We fished 3 main areas, across the channel, Tom's Point, and we tried going south to Tuk bay.  The best was around camp as the water was 60 degrees and the spawn had been over with for a number of weeks.  Fishing wasn't as good as it was in previous years yet my estimates were I had caught over 200 walleyes for the 3 days we were fishing, not bad.  We really didn't land any big walleyes with the largest about 24.5 inches, never the less we caught plenty of those 21 - 24 inch fish and they were all plump and healthy.  I had gotten some good tips from my friend Paul Wenaas, who fishes that area quite a bit yet the low water really spooked us from going into some of those back bays that he had clearly marked.  Maybe next year.  The original plan was to stay until Saturday yet somewhere the wires got crossed and we headed home on Friday morning.  Beggars can't be choosers and I simply just appreciate the opportunity to fish with the boys.  We ate fish Monday night, Tuesday, and Thursday with my famous Steak a la Kienitz on Wednesday.  Anticipating that we were going to stay another day it was a scramble on Thursday, catch enough fish to take home but make sure everything in camp got cooked.  Because I enjoy filleting the fish, I cleaned 28 walleyes on Thursday afternoon, enough for each of us to take 4 fish home.  One has to leave the skin on and package them 1 fish to a bag.  I definitely look forward to getting back up there again as Lac Seul is fishing paradise less than 10 hours away!

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.