Lac Seul Report

[limeyangler]

Hi Y'all

 

well we took off to lac seul early Friday morning....about 5am . Dave and me were really pumped for this...as lac seul is a real fish factory, and although neither of us has fished it much, we have always done pretty well when we do...the walleye fishing in this lake can be spectacular. We were even more pumped because all the local walleye populations seem to have their feedbags on.....so things were looking good . After an uneventful journey we were on the lake by 7am, still almost dark...we would have been out earlier but we got chatting to some hunters who were at the boat launch.

 

 

 

 

NICE EARLY START

 

 

 

 

Dave wanted to try a couple of islands he had been told were good, so we headed off on a 30 min boat ride to our destination. After an hour of trying and not a fish to show for our efforts we headed to a reef we had found on a previous trip. Basically a midwater reef, nice 13-15' shelf extending in a long 25 meter plateau, with a harp drop off to 40' at one end....we were marking fish mostly on the slope at 20-27 FOW. We decide to try the shallow part of the reef too...but that only produced 3 small smb for me.

 

 

 

 

GOT 3 LIKE THIS

 

 

 

 

After about 1/2 an hour...Dave finally landed a walleye...but by Lac Seul standards it was tiny. We fished for anohter whole hour before i finally landed another

fish...much more like the walleye to be found on Lac Seul...a nice 24". Then, despite marking fish on the bottom...we had no more bites for another hour.

 

 

 

 

 

1ST WALLEYE OF THE DAY

 

 

 

 

 

 

2ND FISH WENT FOR MY BAIT

 

 

 

 

 

By this time the wind was up, and it was pouring with rain....SO MUCH FOR THE DARN WEATHER NETWORKS 5 DAY FORCASTS!!!!! (rant over) It poured all day, which did not help with the mood in the boat with the lack of fish, i dont know how dave lasted th whole day, he did not wear his waterproof trousers, his jeans were soaked through, it was only about 6 degrees centigrade, god only knows what the wind chill was...he's crazy!!! Anyway, we lthen embarked on a three or four hour search of fish, deep, shallow, weedlines, sand bars, mud flats, even tried trolling with hardbaits as we had marked suspended fish too. We tried casting swimbaits, x-raps...hell...i think the only method we did not try was downriggers, and would have if we had them. We did catch some fish, a few nice pike, and our limit of walleye, but aparrt from the 24" one early on, thy were all under 16"...some even smaller. The lack of pictures was a result of the pouring rain...did not want the camera getting soaked...not that there was much 'fish porn' to show...lol. We ended heading back to the reef to fish out till sunset...at least we knew there were fish there, and we caught a load of small ones...the biggest fish being a Ling that Dave hooked into just before we left, they put up a good fight, dave was convinced it was a big walleye...he was very dissappointed when he saw it was a Ling.

 

 

 

 

 

DAVE'S LING

 

 

 

 

 

The weather was truly terrible all day, the fishing not much better, almost thought we had a banana hidden in the boat...lol, anyway...we caught fish...its just our expectations were higher and the weather worserer.....tough days fishing...but hey...better than working....just.

[Cudz]

nice fish, especially that 24"

[Leecher]

Great report and pics limeyangler

 

Man considering the weather, you guys had a blast. Congratulation on your 24"er

Super beautiful

Not much better weather wise in my neck of the woods...... rain, rain, hard rain, rain.... just started to subside at around 8:55pm.

 

Thanks for sharing

Leechman

Edited October 27, 2008 by Leechman

[grt1]

You aren't alone in having it tough, up here in Red Lake, the same thing is happening, the bite is definately off, I mark lots of fish but each day it is a struggle to get 4 or 5 to bite, usually,it's not a problem, I'm on Gullrock and like Lac Seul, it is a factory for fish, but it is REALLY slow,and Red Lake is now being referred to as the dead sea by the locals,

 

Who knew walleyes go south like the ducks for the winter?

[limeyangler]

Hey GRT1, nice to hear from ya again...i've not been up to red lake since the fall classic tourney...RED LAKE IS AWESOME FISHING! your a lucky man living up there. I really appreciate your reply, it helps me feel that its not necessarily anything we were doing wrong...lol. I live on Lake Wabigoon...the locals call it the Dead Sea too....and thats all year round....lol.

[GbayGiant]

Nice report and fish, I would say you guys had a good day, you really put in the work anyway from dusk to dawn, they can't be big all the time even in Lac Seul but that 24" is very nice still and a nice mix bag with that nasty Dog fish aka Ling, lol.

 

When you think about it though fishing is getting more popular and growing substanually every year it seems, and with Walleye being number one on the dinner list, more lodges, internet, many different TV shows, ect... it's only a matter of time before the Lakes take a hit and aren't what they use to be, this is happening everywhere but it is what it is.

Edited October 26, 2008 by GbayGiant

[limeyangler]

I know what ya mean GBay....i put more walleye back than i keep...especially on the smaller lakes, put it this way...i like eating fish....but if someone said i could not take fish home to eat...I WOULD STILL GO FISHING! and before anyone starts...lol...thats just me...if ya wanna keep 'em thats good too

[ccmtcanada]

No bananas on your boat and you caught a bunch of fish...sure they weren't big fish, but still better than a skunk!!! Great report...good to see you still out there and doing some catching before they all freeze up!

[corvette1]

great report sometimes you win some the fish wins did you try trolling deep 20to 40feet deep reef runners i tried that in nakina on a fly-in it worked for us cheers

[Joey]

That is a lovely 24"er Limeyangler. Too bad the weather and fish didn't cooperate for this trip. I'm sure you'll catch double next time.

 

Joey