Lac Seul Report June 1-6

[muc33]

Well, only 51 weeks till I return to the wonderfull Lac Seul! What a scare in the early days as the mayfly hatch and cool water temps seemed to have our usual hotspots semi shut down!

We boarded our houseboats 17 fishermen strong on Sunday June 1st! Dave and Irene once again gave us great quarters to call home for the next week and we were off. 4 hours later, Taylors Island and we shored up! Sit for a minute but the anxiety was too much, lets fish!!!! The Grand Banks is just a minute away and the boats fled for fish! What, only a handfull of fish from 5 boats??? We weren't too worried, and by the way, GULP... fish eat it!!!

Next day, sunny skies, light breeze, lets hit a honey hole and start this trip off with a bang. Our group is equipped with an assortment of rods and line, plenty of GULP and a few live leaches..... We fine decent structure, rock shelfs, points, mud pockets, and we fish them all, casting, jigging, using live bait, plastics, raps, you name it. Water temps are cooler than usual, low 50's, and the few fish we catch are full of larvae in their mouths. This doesn't equal our normal catch rates.... not even close, but it is only day one. We catch enough to make a good meal of fish, potato salad, and peas!!!!

Tuesday, another location, same result. WOW, we are not finding the fish and now it is getting scary. We fished in three of our normal haunts in bays, in current, on points and around weedbeds, over rocks, you name it. We even drifted marked fish in 30' of water which is very odd for us. Nothing, well 3 fish for 6 guys for the morning. Something is not right. We have lunch, take a nap, and stew in our pitty. The other houseboat returns from one of our spots which is 17 miles up lake.... They caught quite a few! I snapped a few pics of them and thier haul and it takes our boat about 2 shakes to load up and head that way. We get into the spot and WHAMMO, the GULP is getting smashed! We again get enough fish to have a good meal and get some sleep, we came back at sundown and all was good.

June 4th, we have had enough searching, we head back to the same spot taking the sacrifice of distance for the catch... plus it was evident that the water temps of 58 to 61 degrees made a difference! We fish the mouth of a bay this morning and I get a great hit on my custom built St. Croix I built for myself on May 10th. And she was solid... 28 inch on a root beer barrel 4" swimming mullet Gulp alive! here she is and a pic of the release!

Swim Girl Swim

In addition, Steve caught a beauty of a Gator at 39" that is his PB and will adorn the wall at the ManBarn

Here it is!

The next couple days were much better, the hatch was over, we caught more fish, and then on Friday the storm rolled in and we didn't fish until mid afternoon, and stayed closer to Taylor Island and ended up finding some great fish in another small bay nice and dark and hard fighters.

I used a mixture of Gulp Alive and all produced well, the last day I went almost exclusively to a 2" pink swim tail on a green 1/4 ounce jig and boated around 20 fish for the afternoon. It turned out to be a great trip. Started slow, but weather was fairly decent for most days and water temps increased to get the hatch over and turn the bite on. We had a blast and will again be back!!!

Here is our crew!

[Wookiee]

Sweet Report Chad! Looks like you had a good time.

[Shack]

M33,

Another fine report. Man, sounds like good times!

[SCONASOTAN]

Muc, great report. We leave in 2 weeks to that same area. My father-in-law was there the same time as you. With the same report. Fish were not in normal spots and new spots were found. Bad weather this past Friday and Sat. made for tough fishing conditions for his boat. He gets to go 3 times this year so I don't feel too bad for him. taylor island is home base for us and has been for him and his crew for the last 10 years or so. great place to boat and fish. I can't wait and will give soem Gulp "alive" a try . i like to try something new eac time I go. i hope the fish are in more of a summer pattern in 2 weeks because that is our strong suit.

thanks agin for the report

[muc33]

I can honestly say I caught only a dozen fish on live leaches. The rest was on Gulp Alive leaches and pogeys and swimming mullets. If you want some spots let me know.

[SCONASOTAN]

thanks muc,

Sounds like you go up earlier in the season than we normally go so some early season spots would be good. We normally fish near Taylors, so Spider island, out past Macleans and Windy narrows, and Pine Point areas. We always say we're gonna go up to Bear Narrows area but never have the need, but may this year for a change of scenery.

My email is [email protected] Any info. would be great. My father-in-law took me there 6 years ago and I am forever indebted for that. Have gone at least once a year since.

thanks again for getting me more pumped for the trip. My name id Joe by the way

[muc33]

Joe, Go right across from the rock point on Taylors to the West and fish the rock bank, we call it the Grand banks and catch a lot of nice fish right there, it has a very nice shelf from 15 to 25 feet that holds fish.

[SCONASOTAN]

IS this the rock point off Taylors where a lot of people have shore lunch? So the shoreline that was burned and many Eagles hang out on. I will give it a try. We have fished that point on this shoreline when the wind blows in and caught many. But we have never worked the whole shoreline. Thanks.

[SCONASOTAN]

Muc do you fish the first island as you look out of the back your houseboat on Taylors, that all the Andersons and Ojibwas fly by each day. We do well every year on that shelf in front of that island.

[muc33]

Yes, on the south side of that one we do occasionally. But we can always rely on the Grand Banks, just before and west of that. if you follow it west, you could look from your houseboat to the left and follow a long shoreline. The rock shoreline up to that small center island with the two bouy's. we actually drifed the whole rock shelf to the south right next to the bouy's and caught fish right by the green marker.

[Fish Head]

Great report. I'm leaving to the Chamberlain Narrows area on the 21st. I just bought a big bucket of the Gulp alive 4" emerald shiners. I'm interested to see how they perform.

[SCONASOTAN]

fish head

I will be there from the 23-28th. Bear Narrows will be the farthest north we'll probably go but will be aorund the Taylors island area. good luck and have fun. Looks like it will warm up some. Hopefully we'll have some stable weather. i will also have some "Alive" in the arsenal.

[vikingmeatwad]

muc33, if you can send me some spots in that area it would be appreciated. We leave from Deception and go whereever every year.

Thanks

walleyedude at gmail dot com

Thanks for the report and the pictures look great.

[Fish Head]

SCONASOTAN- We always fish north of Bear Narrows, but you never know, we might slide down farther south sometime. If you see 18ft silver/black alumacraft with a 140 suzuki, that would be me. Good luck on your trip!!!

[iffwalleyes]

You just never know what the hot bait will be. Two years ago for my crew on Lac Seul it was all salted minneows and gulp. Last year we couldn't buy a bite on gulp or minneows for that matter they wanted leeches and crawlers. One never knows for sure how much of these you should take as a result past years but I figure it is better that have everything than not have it. I can't wait to get up there I am about one month away from embarking on my journey to Lac Seul.

[SCONASOTAN]

maybe we'll run into to you FishHead. We'll be in a 18ft black/tan Crestliner with 150 Johnson.

Iff, You're definitely right about taking everything and let the fish decide. last year the crawlers definitely outfished the minnows(end of June). But i am betting wtih the cool spring/late ice out that the minnows may take the cake this trip. Still bringing the crawlers and variety of plastics though. Have Fun

Leavin in 10 days!

[Fish Head]

Where do you buy your crawlers up there? I'm thinking of getting some Gulp alive leeches because the leeches I buy up there are soooooooo small that many of them aren't even usable.

[SCONASOTAN]

We buy here in MN. Usually preorder them from Cabin Fever n Victoria with artificial bedding. We don't normally use live leeches. I have the Gulp "Alive" Leeches and regular Gulp ones that worked last year. We buy minnows up there in Sioux Lookout.

[vikingmeatwad]

Hey Muc, let me know if you tried to email me and I missed it.

We be fishing on thursday and can't wait.

Will pick up a flat of crawlers in Ifalls that morning. We usually use fatheads but may try more plastics like Muc has stated this year.

[iffwalleyes]

Leeches you can buy once in canada. They will cost a premium though last year we paid $50 for a 1 lb but it was well spent as that was our best bait last year. Crawlers just bring with you as long as they are in bedding you are golden.