Good Eatin'

[Mjen]

Thought maybe it was time to share a great Crappie recipe. We travel to Lac Seul once a year each August for the best Walleye fishing in the world and and I end up being the cook. Eating fish every night for a week gives you a chance to experiment with other methods of cooking fish besides the standard frying. I came up with this and everyone who has tried it claims it is incredible. I have found it works especially well with Crappies.

Fry up some onions and garlic in olive oil. That smell alone gets everyone excited. Then lay your boneless fillets in a single layer on the onions and season with salt and pepper and some lime or lemon juice. I add capers on that but you could use olives also. Now here is the strange part, take your favorite jar of spaghetti sauce from the grocery and pour it over the whole thing. Need a big skillet and don't use cast iron (the tomato sauce wrecks it). Bring it back to a low simmer and cover. Cook till the fillets are done. Chop the fish up with your spatula and pour it over pasta.

I use "Vodka Sauce" but any Marinara Sauce will do. Add some Parmasean and eat up. The nice thing is you can get by with less fish per person. My kids get sick of all the fish I cook but they like this one.

[Pikester]

Interesting, I may have to try that. Thanks

[KidWalleye]

I have heard of recipes like this one but haven't tried one yet. Hopefully with one weekend left I can get a few wally's for the pan.

[Steve Ellsworth]

Mjen-Your recipe sounds intriguing. I will definitely try your unusual recipe. I was also wondering about your Lac Seul fishing in the Fall. We go to Lac Seul in June and have great walleye fishing. When do you go in August, and where do you fish out of. We fish out of Sioux Lookout and fish the Grassy lake area.

[Mjen]

We go the 1st week in August and stay at Makwa Lodge, which is run by the First Nation Tribe. You leave Souix Lookout and drive through Hudson and onto a landing only guests of the Tribe are allowed to use. From there it is a short boat ride to the Lodge. Most of our fishing is around Pine Point, which is east of the Lodge but we also travel west. It was hard to estimate the numbers of fish we caught so we brought a counter one year just so we could keep track. We averaged over 200 Walleyes a day. Each year we reserve our spot again as they are always booked. We've been going every year since 1991. I know the Grassy Island area but by August it is mostly a Northern area. Have you tried for the Muskies?

[Coldwater Crappie Guy]

I have been to Mahkwa lodge for the last 8 years in a row! What a great fishery! We go at the end of June and have had a great time also! Let me know if you need any more hot spots to fish on that end of the lake!

[Steve Ellsworth]

Mjen-I am very curious about Makaw Lodge. Are there ever openings at Makaw Lodge, or do they have a waiting list? How far do you travel to get your walleyes around Pine Point? What is the average size of your walleyes? How large are the biggest walleyes?

I have been going to Lac Seul for 14 years. We have caught some [email protected] 10-12# walleyes every year but one. However, catching 200 walleyes per day is very impressive. If you have any more information about Makaw Lodge, please send me an e-mail. Thanks for your information!!

[Mjen]

You can do a search for Mahkwa Lodge on the internet and get lots of contact info. We travel about 20-30 miles east or west of the lodge. We have found only one spot where the walleyes all seem to be over 20". It is a small lake connected to the main reservoir west of the Lodge. Sorry, if I gave you the name my buddies would kill me. Other then that any logical walleye spot holds fish around there. We fish points, rock piles, and submerged reefs. The reefs we have found over the years by watching the depthfinder when running and then marking with the GPS. When coming on a new spot we first look for the fish and only fish where we mark big numbers, you know, the spot on the spot. Then we use jigs with leeches (cheaper and easier to keep up there) and fish them vertical without moving much. If it is dead calm we switch to spinner rigs and bottom bouncers with crawlers or leeches. Usually get bigger fish this method but not as fast due to snags and you need a big spot to run because we move faster. I think it is the vertical jigging that gives us our big numbers. We usually have bets on about how many fish you can get on one leech. If it is really windy we throw crankbaits into the rock piles up shallow. That can be a frenzy sometimes. I'd say our average size is only about 17- 18". The one thing we have missed is really big walleyes. Our biggest usually comes in around 28". Every year we also get some monster pike, often hanging on to a small walleye.

[Skitterpop]

I tried your recipe Mjen with some bluegill fillets yesterday. That was some of the best pasta that I have ever eaten. I even impressed my wife and her sister. Now they think I can cook . Thanks a bunch for the new dish. I was getting tired of eating fried fish. Skitterpop