trip report for Taggart bay lodge Aug.23-30

[Capt.Guy]

Oarin and myself had another great week fishing Lake Kipawa.Thankfully, the weather was nice the first few days because from Tues. on the fishing became pretty tough. we caught 17 Walleye our first night,the largest being 19 in.the rest ranged from 12-15 in.On Sunday we went exploring for some spots past the narrows that we keep reading about in other posts as being "hot spots". We found and fished the rock by Bear Island and Oarin caught a 16in. Walleye and a small bass.A thank you to Jay Thomas for telling us about some mid lake humps ...we found them  and marked a few but had no luck.We were there on a very sunny day so that's probably why we didn't do well.
Oarin and I rarely venture past the narrows as Taggart Bay itself has so much area to cover ,you can keep busy all week . In fact our biggest fish this week (20 in.) we caught right at the end of deep bay. 5 minutes from our cabin! So, there is excellent fishing very close to camp.
Tuesday started out good ,but by the aft, the wind came from the north and we had whitecaps...we did not get out of  the end of deep bay that evening.just a few small fish was it.
Finding biting Walleye became a challenge for the rest of the week,,,we marked tons of fish around the 30 ft. mark but very few takers...I did not catch a keeper from Tues. night until Fri. aft.thankfully Oarin was on fire using a red hook and a leech under a slip bobber ,while I jigged and slithered using pink and white jigs pretty much.he kept us from being skunked those days. We fished from 19-25 f.o.w. marked a lot deeper but, we had the bite at the aforementioned depth. very tough fishing. Our final tally was 67 Walleye that ranged from 8 in. to 20in.4 Bass the largest being 16 in. and 1 30 in. Northern pike.We have had better years for numbers and size , but we managed to have three fish fries,and brought a few home too. Local weather trumps all....another truism of fishing !
Thanks to Yves, Lise,  the cabin was great as always! the Suzuzki 20 h.p. ran so well we already requested it for next year.And a big thank you to Tom and Linda for advice and the leeches you gave us...ours didn't do well, Hope you liked the cookies Tom !
Can't forget to mention that we enjoyed talking and fishing with Kathy and Mike....you two are the "Pike Masters" hope we meet again next year...and also that my pal Oarin is still the best net man this side of the mighty "Marquis River" even though I could have sworn you were trying to knock my big fish off....that was a close one !!

[john c]

Your trip report makes it very hard to wait until next year for my next trip.  The weather sure makes a big difference in the fish bite.  I guess the hard eye fishing won't chase you away from Kipawa . Glad you all had a fun trip.

John

[rambler]

Hey Mark, Glad you and Gary had a good trip even though the weather did not cooperate. Seems like most of the trips this year struggled with bad weather conditions. I too like the fact that TBL is located in the "safe harbor" of Deep Bay and that there is good fishing close to camp if the weather gets rough. I was suprised how many fish I caught in the Moose Bay area this year. Probably would not have even been fishing there if the weather wasn't so rough. I do like to do through the narrows to explore the rest of the lake, weather permitting. Thats part of the fun! I didn't realize Yves put 20 hp Suzuki's on the camp boats. I thought they were only 15 hp.?? Hopefully in the next year or two, Ellen and I will be on the lake with an Alumacraft w/ a 70 hp.   

[Jay Thomas]

Thanks for your report Mark. As always, it was good to see you and Gary at the Auberge on Friday night (the pizza was good). I used a 15 HP Suzuki at 3 Seasons Camp one year and was impressed with how fast it was. I can only imagine how fast you guys must have zipped around the lake with a 20 HP. In the 16 trips I did to 3 Seasons Camp, I never once ventured through the narrows towards TBL. There's lots of water to explore in Loon Bay, Hay Bay and beyond. Another trip in the books and you and Gary are home safe and sound. It's a great way to spend a week.

Jay