Summer Slammin'

With Canada Day 2011 in the books, that means we're solidly in the summer stretch of the 2011 season.  You know it's summer when the walleye are in the main lake basin, big muskies are on the prowl, lake trout are in 70-feet, the cabbage weeds are at the surface and water temps  are over 70F.

There's been big changes in walleye location over the last couple of weeks on Lac Seul. Most importantly, they have arrived in large numbers on their summer haunts in and around the main lake basin.  Reefs, humps and islands in the big water are holding fish.  Looking back, the last couple weeks have been some of the best walleye fishing of the year.  High volume days and big fish too.   

I had a great time with Wendy and her husband, Rob, from Winnipeg.  As usual, lady luck came through and Wendy landed two 28-inch walleye. 

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Clayton Johnson from Illinois shows off a nice walleye while his nephew, Gage, unhooks another one in the background. 

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Tim Rowley from Acton, Ontario took his buddies money two days in a row. 

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Happy guests at Moosehorn Lodge! 

The best depths on the main lake basin structure has been 18-24 feet.  Vertical jigging with 1/4 oz Lindy Jigs has been catching all the fish.  Hot colours are glow, chartreuse, orange and pink.  I really like the googly eyes on these jigs and also how there's never any paint covering the line tie! 

Not to be overlooked is the weed walleye bite that is also happening on Lac Seul right now.  Drop a jig and minnow in 8-12 feet in front of a weedline and see if you can count to 10 before getting a bite.  For the most part there are high numbers of fish in the 14-18 inch range in the weeds, but don't be surprised if a trophy makes an appearance as well.   

The muskies continue to hit the Beckman net as well.   Had a chance to fish with Brett Ericson from Thorne Bros.  last week.  Thorne Bros. is the premier muskie shop in the US and they also specialize in custom rod building, ice fishing and much more.  

We had a 1 hour window where were we moved 5 muskies and caught 2 of them, including my first of the season.   A 46-inch fish that ate a top-raider. 

Fast forward a week and I had the chance to fish with a couple good buddies as well as my wife for an evening hunt.  It was a picture perfect night for muskies and Dave 'iced the cake' with this chunky 49.5-incher.  Congrats Dave on your PB muskie!!  This fish ate a double 10 bucktail on the figure-8.

I had a chance to fish lake trout last week on Big Vermilion Lake for an afternoon with Rich and Matt from Chicago.  These guys are a laugh a minute and we had a fun afternoon jigging up lakers out of 70-feet.  

Double header for Matt and myself. 

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Rich with an over-slot lake trout. 

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Matt with a dark grey laker. 

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Looking ahead, more hot summertime action on Lac Seul.  I'm looking forward to chasing more walleye, trout and monster muskies.  Also looking forward to getting out for walleye on the deep summertime humps on Minnitaki.  Minnitaki is another walleye factory in our system of lakes here in Sioux Lookout.  Too often it lives in the shadow of Lac Seul, but every year some of the best days of the season happen on Minnitaki.   

Cheers everyone, and good fishing.