We are shifting into Fall mode here. Over the course of the past week, 6 of our guide staff fished their last day on Lac Seul for the 2024 season. The boss headed back to Iowa this morning, and we will be a 12-boat guide crew for the rest of the year. With these changes in our staff and scheduling, this week always feels like the shift from summer to fall for us, and this year our schedule book and the seasons matched up.
Fall weather arrived smack dab in the middle of the week. We went from one of the hottest days of the year at the beginning of the week to our coldest day since May by the end of the week. The temp change came with some big wind days – and air temps stayed cool even with southerly wind directions. There was one all day rain that had most of our anglers choosing to skip the afternoon. And to top it all off, we can see leaves changing color on the shores out there. Yep, it’s fall.
Well, that’s what the weather was doing, but when it comes to what the fish were doing we almost need two separate reports. The first half of the week – when it was still summer – the fish behaved just like the report from last week. Our guide staff had to work hard, keep moving, and constantly shift gears. Spots rarely held any concentrations of good fish, and they were never actively biting.
Once the fall weather arrived the walleye made it a little easier on us. It became more common to find good concentrations of fish, but the walleye remained inactive. The subtle bites were often pretty challenging, but boats that hit on the right presentations at the right spot had some really productive days. And as usual at least a few anglers had some success moving fast and using active presentations to trigger those walleye into reaction strikes.
From here through September, we will be averaging less than 10 boats on the water each day. This week some pretty good volume days recently were countered by generally low volume early in the week. We averaged 29 walleyes over 18 inches per guided day, but the highest daily total was 95. For the week we caught and released 27 walleyes over 27 inches, including 8 – 28’s. Looking over the guide sheets, I can only find one afternoon for one boat that actively pursued big pike. That might be the least amount of piking done for any week at SWWL. That’s not a reflection of the what the northern are doing, our anglers this week have just been walleye purists. While walleye fishing, we caught and released 6 Northerns over 37 inches, including 1 – 41, and a 42 incher.
Fall weather is here, and fall fishing is here. Looking back over the daily reports from the guides, it’s clear the trick this week was identifying a spot that held good fish, and then finessing the presentation they would answer to there. It’s good to be able to look back and see that trend. But it’s fall, and that means constant change on Lac Seul – Next week’s going to need a new trick.
