We are not quite back to a normal summer bite yet, but it is close. This week began the way last week ended – with challenging fishing. Walleye volume was up, but the big fish were few and far between. As the week wrapped up, we found more and more walleyes on both main lake rock and sand and the big ones were finally there as well.
Surprisingly, the weather that broke the tough pattern was big storms, rain, cold fronts, and wind.
The Gulp bite improved as the week progressed. Most of the guides are on big ¾ oz. jigs now when fishing plastics and it is a toss up between the 6 in. Nemesis and the 5 in. crazy legs. At the same time, there were many times when we marked fish down deep that would only respond to finesse presentations. Light jigs and minnows or in some cases, drop shots with minnows were the only way to turn neutral to negative walleyes in 20 – 30 ft. of water.
Walleye volume for the week averaged 35 walleyes over 18 in. per guide sheet per day. What that stat fails to show is that there was a huge difference between Sunday and Friday. The back half of the week was much better walleye fishing. For the week, we caught and released 22 walleyes over 27 in., including 5 – 28s, 1 – 29, and 3 – 30s.
There was some effort made chasing pike this week and the results were mixed. In previous weeks, the pike bite saved many guiding days. There were quite a few more quiet piking results for this time period. For the week, we caught and released 8 over 37 in., including 1 – 38, 1 – 39, and 1 – 40. Big spoons were still top producers. Deep weed edges were still the key location.
The Take Away: Almost all of our groups now are returning guests. Most have been away for 3 years and they are just excited to be back. The guide crew felt the impact of the tough bite more than guests. We were reminded by our guests that it is still fishing. The weather is always a factor and a “tough” day on Lac Seul still crushes compared to walleye fishing anywhere else.
