FISHING REPORT MAY 24 - 29

Pretty busy week here at SRL.....

I know that most of our guests fish mainly on the Seine, but that doesn't mean we don't have a lot of other lakes to choose from. In this past week, aside from the Seine Chain Lakes - Calm, Banning, Chub, Little McCauley & Perch, our guests also could be found fishing Bold Lake, Dovetail Lake, Joe Lake, Miranda Lake, Niven Lake, Big McCauley Lake, Factor Lake, Warner Lake and Lerome Lake. And that doesn't come near the total of other options they could have chosen. As well we had one day last week when we saw a good variety of fish species all in one day: pike, smallmouth, walleye, perch, crappie, lake trout & splake. Pretty cool. And it's only May 28!

Anyway, things are ramping up. The Kruger / Kotil group just left and had another great year...they caught some nice fish - lots of action. Good numbers of walleye - some big pike and some really good lake trout days.They worked the Seine & a few remote lakes.

Dean K with a nice May pike

As the pic above indicates, it seems that the big pike have emerged from their annual "funk" I wrote about last week. Saw several in the high 20" range last week, quite a few between 30"-39"...still waiting for a 40" + inches this month, but it shouldn't be long as their activity has heated up. 

The Stults group are just finishing up - first time here. They explored a lot of the system and seemed to do well with pike. Gave us a great "poor man's lobster" recipe for pike. Looking forward to trying it.

The Schaeffhauser / Richards group is in camp. The guys (& girl) have already done really well - on some remote lakes plus had some great walleye action ob=n the Seine - not very far from the lodge!

Walleye seem to be a bit scattered, heading to their summer holes....already deeper that last weekend. Bass slowly moving towards the banks....gonna be a great smallmouth year again! Water temps seem to be 57-63 or so.

Picking up the first of a couple new Souris River canoe tomorrow, and a another Lund Fury / Honda boat upgrade package early next week.

Water is low, but came up again the last couple of days. The good news about the low water is that the narrows are quite fishable - unlike May / June the last couple of years with the high water & fast current.

Raining now....I better post before I lose the internet!

Quent

MAY 2015 UPDATE

We're a week in since the walleye opener last weekend and getting pretty busy. Wrapping up some of the spring renovations and welcoming anglers from all over.

Last weekend - opening of the walleye season - was a challenge for weather. Opening day - Saturday - was pretty nice. Everyone in camp had walleye for dinner - fishing was good. Wyatt was up for the weekend and did very well with some of his friends. Lori, Kiana, Tegan & I got out Saturday evening and did very well with the 'eyes. Good action and, after seeing a number of smaller ones in the beginning, got into some really nice ones. All very close to the camp.

The weather over the next couple of days was nasty - cold, tons of rain and even a few inches of snow. It cut into some fishing time, although the folks that went out in the worst of the weather did do well. The past 4 or 5 days have been beautiful weather wise, but I'm hearing that the 'eyes are biting very lightly....gotta stay focussed to make sure you feel those hits. Lots of smaller pike being caught - seems like the big ones are in their post spawn lethargy the last couple of days....getting reports of follow ups by some monsters, but not biting. Of course that should change in the very near future. In the meantime, we suggest experimenting with the tackle and the presentation. I had a good talk with a well known trophy pike guy a while back about this period where the big pike are in a bit of a funk, and he experiences it regularly. He developed a piece of tackle that he swears brings them out of this. Haven't tried it yet, but soon!

The bass are already impressive....already have seen a lot of 19" - 20".....they're slowly working towards the banks....it's going to be another great smallmouth year here.

Had the Tackett group in last week for the first time, and they were a big help reporting a lot of the above stuff to us as we were pretty busy on land at the camp. Great meeting you guys! Brian Young was in from Colorado - another first time Seine Chain guy - and did really good. Great chatting with you about all kinds of stuff. Check out some of the pics Brian took on our Facebook page - including a really neat rainbow we saw on the water. Watch for many more - he'll be sending some really nice shots once he's home - including some amazing northern lights from last week.

The Hollander group from MN is in and doing terrific with the lake trout - thanks very much for giving us a taste Brian!

The Kotil / Krueger group is back in camp for their annual trip and already have been doing well with the 'eyes on the Seine and on some remote lakes.

Put our first canoe group in on Friday, and we're taking delivery of some new, awesome, Souris River kevlar canoes this week!

As well, will be adding another Lund Fury "upgrade" boat to the fleet this week.....the popularity of the upgrade package has been amazing!

Like I mentioned, wrapping up some reno's we've been working on as once June comes, there's no way we can keep doing them. Prepping the two big cabins for siding.....so right now they look kinds "bare" lol - but are still almost like new inside.

All our terrific friends from Atikokan have been helping as always - Spilchuks, Halasz', Warkentin's, Howie (with Mark W) with the mechanical & welding work....Ridings have chipped in too. There's no way we could be this far along without all of you!

Will try & keep the posts regular this year!

2013 & 2014

Hello to everyone! Like most of our guests, we're in the middle of a vicious winter that just won't let go. I won't get too involved in winter talk, as I think everyone has had enough of it.

A few things going on this winter though:

Last month (January 2014) a guy (not from this camp unfortunately) caught a 43" lake trout ice fishing. An awesome fish. Near record class. They caught the action on video and the video has gone viral. Don't want to say exactly where he was, but let's just say that many of our anglers are familiar with that area (and likely watching that video in envy)! Very cool & congrats to that lucky angler!

We, with the help of friends, started the renovations of Cabin 1 last fall. That's the small framed cabin overlooking the lake between the larger cabins. We're guessing it is about 70 + years old. Quite a history....the former owners (pre-1967) used it as their residence, and prior to that it's been said that for a brief period it served as a Quetico ranger station. It was always a favorite over the years for many of our guests, but although structurally it was good (except for the foundation & floor joists)was needing some TLC. Well, it's been raised 4' and has new footings and a new floor - nice & solid. We have it pretty much gutted down to the studs and are about to start the rebuild. For all intents and purposes, it'll be a brand new cabin come May. It'll be a nice 2- 3 person cabin with a beautiful lake view. Most everything - including windows & doors - will be new. Going to work on it this afternoon and will post some pics of the progress.

Just started designing a new "lodge" that we hope will be open for 2015. It's going to be nice - great lakeview, deck. Planning on a pool table and some other rec stuff. Looking forward to many good times in it - including winter action.

We're happy to report that 2013 was our busiest in the 47 or so seaons our family has had the camp. Thanks to every one of our guests!

It was certainly a different kind of year.....some observations:

Latest ice out we've ever seen. We weren't getting boats in until May 11 (usually it's the end of April) - and we're usually a week earlier than other lakes due to being on a river system.

Then we rolled into extreme water conditions. The first half of the summer was higher than I've ever seen, the second half was the lowest I've seen since around 1978. Fall rain brought it back to around average before freeze up.

The walleye were overall very good. They continued the system trend of the last few years where the average size is going up each year. There were many times throughout 2013 that the wallaye fishing on the Seine was the best I've ever seen. Seems like a lot of the fish that came out of some of the big spawns we've seen over the last 10 years or so are growning up giving better sizes and even bigger spawns.

The bass continue to amaze. Great numbers and sizes....good variety of sizes too,smaller ones, lots of 16" - 18",  but we're seeing more and more 20"+. We saw a lot in the 20" - 21" this year and a number even larger. With many of our smallmouth anglers practicing catch & release, there's no reason to think that 2014 will be any different.

Still lots of smaller pike, but we did have quite a few 30" - 35" this year and quite a few that broke 40". Although it always happens, I think there were 'way more reports of aggresve (ie crazy) pike attacking other fish as people reeled them in. All species too....including other pike.

Crappie are continuing to show up in the system, although are still pretty elusive for our anglers. The first bunch we saw this year were in the bellies of pike. Gene R. from MN seems to be the one guy who can figure them out and land some.

Perch were caught here and there all summer - the guys from W VA, got into a bunch of nice ones right by the camp. We also saw more whitefish caught than in recent years.

Off system lakes were very productive....had some great walleye and bass action on a few of them.....plus some good pike. The waters with the lake trout gave our guests some excellent laker fishing. Looking forward to expanding into some new and seldomlyfished waters in 2014!

Likely the best biting species of the year though was the mosquito! I think that some periods were the worst for the critters that I've ever seen. And we didn't have an exclusive on them - I heard reports from all over N Ontario that it was the worst year for bugs in a long time. Here's hoping that's one bite that doesn't rival 2013 this year!

Great time at the All Canada Show in Chicago last month, and Lori will be at the Progressive Insurance St Louis Boat Show for 5 days starting February 26. Please come out and say "hi!".

Late May Update

Just a quick update here (have done more on our Facebook page and Twitter - you can log on to those pages from our websites)....

As posted on FB & Twitter a week or two ago, temps on the chain were between 55 - 59...then a couple days later they spiked up to 59 to 64. This of course was causing some anxiety in our bass anglers booked in June hoping to catch the peak topwater when the smallies are right up on shore. Well, we have had a whack of rain in the last 5 or 6 days and as of yesterday the temps ranged from 58 - 61 - actually down a bit!

Despite the piles of rain, water levels on the chain have been consistent. Not low, but not as high as we'd expect with all the rain. I assume the Calm Lake Dam is wide open. Getting loads more rain today and the next two days so we'll see what happens.

Smallies are being caught between 3' - 8'. The Gentry group found them around islands yeterday, but not many on the shore. The Scholls caught some really nice ones (18", 19" etc) off the shores today though - albeit in 4' - 8'. They're  getting there. Should be an interesting week!

The Hollander group was in early as usual and did fantastic with trout in mid Apri.

lThe Kniffen group came in early May and did a lot of fly fishing on the chain. Landed some nice smallies and smaller pike - they found that the bigger ones had already gone deeper (the spawned 3 weeks early this year. they did tie into some bigger pike on McCauley lake though.

The Armstead group did very well last week....nice 'eyes, bass & pike. Did lots with Lindy Rigs and Hot n' Tots. Was great to see them do so well their first time on our system.

A few groups in camp this week and is going to be a very busy June....will keep you all posted. As mentioned the Scholl's are all in and are doing great as always. Did great yesterday with all species downstream, and today with some nasty weather, stuck close to camp and brought in a terrific stringer of walleyes and caught some great smallies. I believe they were using Lindys and minnows.....

Anyway - gotta go.....will talk soon!!

2012 STUFF

Hey.....it's getting awfully close to fishing season....figure I better do a quick update.... First - I apologize for not updating sooner - but I haven't been entirely quiet. I've posted some stuff to our Facebook page (Branch's Seine River Lodge) as well as our Twitter account (@seineriverlodge). Please "like" or follow" us or whatever. And please post / tweet etc comments, questions etc.

 Well - quickly - 2011 was a great year. Fishing overall was very good. Walleye populations were high and I really think the smallies and lots of huge smallies. Had one guest who has fished the chain for over 20 years say that July 2011 was his overall best for big fish of all species.

 New stuff? Well, crappie are hitting the Atikokan area in a big way. Nice ones too - seen lots 12" - 15" from guys ice fishing. They're about 10 miles upstream right now, and general consensus is that they'll be on the Seine Chain very soon (if not already). Some concern as to the effect they'll have on the walleye, although there seem to be some lakes around that have both good walleye crappie fishing. Many lakes saw smallies overtake 'eyes but we're lucky - they both seem to flourish on our system. Have the Milow group planning to do some crappie fishing in June and will monitor it and, if it seems good (which we believe it will), we will be promoting crappie along with all our other species in 2013!

 New stuff for 2012....Well, we're in the process of renovating all the cabins - some a little freshen up, some (cabin #3) with portions gutted. Every cabin will see at least some new windows. Freshening up the office and seriously looking at starting another new cabin sometime this year. Just bought a bunch of new couches, plus getting a handful of new docks....plus going to be buying some new boats and motors etc etc.

And.....the weather in March has been fantastic! The last few days have been in the mid seventies. The snow is pretty much all gone and the lake is opening up very quickly. If it keeps like this it'll be open by April. We're loving it as it has given us a head start on the yard work etc. BUT - I know that this warm spring and early break up sounds alarms for all you fisher folk out there. Usually, our ice is out the end of April - give or take a day or two. If conditions are fairly normal, spawns happen "on schedule" (for lack of a better term) and fishing - at least through the end of June - is relatively predictable. Then when this happens a wrench is thrown into the whole scenario. Spawns are early and lots of fishermen are not sure what to expect and face the uncertainty of how to fish, where to fish, what to use etc. A lot of people book the same week every years and get a comfort level of what to expect. Anyway - at this point it seems like it will be an early break up - BUT the jury is still out as far as spawns. I've seen very warm springs before - and boldly predicted early spawns, only to see the weather cool down and seem like it will never warm up. One warm spring / early break up year - since spawns are triggered by water temperatures - the spawns wound up being REALLY late and I looked (and felt) like a fool. So - don't panic yet...we still have a bit of time and anything can happen.

 Been an overall milder winter. We did wind up getting quite a bit of snow - likely some of the best snowmobiling conditions around...speaking of which we will be promoting our winter sledding & ice fishing much more. Had a great meeting with Kim Cross from our award winning Atikokan Sno Ho Club last week and looking forward to working with them promoting our world class snowmobiling as well as X Country Skiing and ice fishing. BTW - check out the snowmobiling video on our snowmobiling page to see the awesome trails and scenery this winter:

 http://www.seineriverlodge.com/atikokan-snowmobile-trails-cabin-rentals-for-snowmobiling.htm

 Also - new ways to process fishing licenses this year. The MNR is issuing us a POS machine to process. We'll see how that goes, but one good development is that you can now buy your fishing licenses on line...here's the link:

 https://www1.on.wildlifelicense.com/start.php?lang=1

 Anyway - we're getting ready as I'm sure you all are. It is looking very busy for us this year and we thank you for that. Will post some stuff soon including some of the cabin reno pics....thanks as always to all of our friends for all the help with yard cleanup, rnos and repairs this spring - Richard, Garry, Howie, Darryl, Cora, Darcy....THANKS VERY MUCH!! Talk to ya'll soon!

And so it begins....

Well - actually "began".

Great having a visit with Earl B & Shelley a couple of weeks ago. They did some early May fishing & did well with bass & pike. Earl's thinking of a return in September for any of you who missed him this spring!

The Sproat group is our first in Quetico this year. Dropped the 8 guys off @ Nym Lake a few days ago and we're looking forward to hearing all about their trip next Thursday.

The Hill group is in camp now - the first cabin based anglers of the year. Some great weather earlier this week - beautiful, sunny, highs in the mid to high 70's. Their first day was slow, but they did well with bass the second day - including 3 at 4 lbs+...Further to that, here we are on May 21 and the water temps are ranging from 57 - 65 farenheit!!!Word is the bass are moving towards the spawning beds ....topwater action should be getting better and better each day. Should be an awesome pre-spawn fish this year!

ANd, of course, today is the walleye opener. Lots of people out enjoying the wilderness and endless water we have. Mother Nature isn't really co-operating though - it's raining now & we're expecting 3/4 of an inch by tomorrow a.m.

The water was low for spring up until a few days ago. Now it's about average for this time of year on the chain. For those of you who always ask, the rock in the back bay is just under the water. Current, as expected, is a bit strong.

On the downside, the blackflies have started. Hopefully they'll run their course and finsih earlier than usual.

Anyway, things are looking really good for this season. Looking forward to meeting all the new people and seeing all our old friends. We're in the process of a few cabin renos - nothing major - some new flooring - new bathrooms in cabin 5 & 8.

Anyway - gotta get back to work. Maybe if I get my stuff all done I'll be able to wet a line later.....tough decision though - do I go after some tasty post spawn walleye or see if I can get some topater bass or pike action? Decisions......

Gear That I Love V2:The Red & White Daredevil

Well the snow is melting and the phone is ringing a lot more - I can tell everyone is starting to think about fishing.

I have a lot of friends that only fish walleye. Nothing wrong with that. Walleye are a lot of fun and taste great. I always was more of a multi-species type guy though, and once spring arrived and the first lines can be wet (without a hole in the ice), I often would go after northern pike.

When I was younger I casted off shore a lot. The big pike used to (and still do) spawn in our back bay. These giants would absolutely never go after any kind of bait. They were procreating and that was that. They used to drive me absolutely nuts. I could see them splashing and swimming around like sharks - I`d cast and cast and cast but to no avail - they weren`t interested.

Once they were done though - that`s when the action really started!

I`d spend hours off shore - and later in a boat catching all kinds of pike. Some smaller, but in the spring I also got lots of action from the lunkers as well.

I through all kinds of bait & tackle....Rapalas (were great but the multi prongs were a pain to get out), various Mepps, Mr Twisters, Vibratails, topwater plugs, minnows, Little Joes....but the best hands down was the red and white daredevil.

I developed a lot of my preferences by fishing a ton - often when I should have been in school. I like and use all kinds of bait and tackle, but the R&W daredevil was (is) it for me for pike fishing - my favorite (along with the Heddon Dying Flutter - but we`ll get into that in another post).

I used to be a die hard Eppinger guy - but with a limited budget I soon went to cheaper brands...Lucky Strike et al. I found I had just as much luck but it was a lot easier on the wallet when I invariably lost one on a big pike or a snag.

I got so I liked big spoons - ie 1 ounce and 3.5 inch plus. Easier to cast and also the size I seemed to get the best response from.

And leaders - yep - ya gotta have èm when pike fishing. My personal preference is 9" - I found the 6 inch a little short when in the gullet of a huge pike, and the 12 inch tended to kink on me a lot.

I started guiding on a regular basis when I was about 10 years old. We had (and still have) some great remote lakes for pike fishing and often I`d be leading groups on these often non existent trails - some 2+ miles long - for a day of pike fishing. These guiding experiences taught me a lot and kept me in tackle (and later beer!) through the eighties.

Like I said - the trails were often pretty long and pretty tough. Packing light is essential. I had a small pack...experimented with different gear - telescopic rods etc. For tackle I`d put about a dozen red and white daredevils and leaders into one of my Dad`s tobacco cans....lid on - into the pack and that was it. Ready to go. I`d laugh - so many guys were insistent on lugging these huge tackle boxes full of all kinds of different tackle....and, pretty much all the time all they used was their daredevils.

Looking back I wasn`t that bright. I wouldn`t bring pliers and after unhooking and releasing dozens of pike each day my hands were beat to crap. I experimented with cutting off one or two prongs but it killed the action of the lure. I finally got smart - pinched at least some of the barbs and brought needlenose pliers. I`m a bit of a slow learner!

The daredevil is indeed a pike killer....but it is very effective for walleye as well. I`ve caught quite a few on it. I remember a group of guys who were out fishing èyes after a day of pike fishing. All their rods were rigged with leaders and 1 ounce daredevils (they took my advise!). They had an awesome day pike fishing and were completely exhausted.....too tired to change the tackle they said -they left the daredevils and leaders on and dropped them down and jigged them near an island on the Seine and started pulling in a fair number of really nice walleye. In fact these guys were having a very hard time catching `eyes before this. You just never know....the more I see and experience in fishing the more I really believe that there are no rules.

Of course this all works for me...I swear by my 1 ounce red & white daredevils. I`m a huge believer however in WWFY - whatever works for you. It`s amazing how one thing can work terrific for one person but be completely useless for another.

Mix it up - try different tackle, bait and techniques...don`t get stuck on one thing or idea....you just never know. I really believe that.

But - when I cast for pike in a few weeks (hopefully!) - I`ll likely have a red & white daredevil on the end of my line. As much as I mix it up, I also respect what works for me.

Take care everyone....hope to see you up here this summer! Looking forward to you die hards coming up for early pike & lake trout....keep checking in with me - once the ice is out I`ll let you know! New post coming soon!