No big walleye

[tylergordon3]

My grandson and I fished the corbeau and sunnyside area of lake Kipawa in late June and caught tons of small fish. Everyone we have talked to claims the same thing. Has anyone had this problem? Does anyone have any idea what has happened to the big walleye?

[puckster_guy]

 I'm getting my share of 2-3 pounders however the bigger ones are tough to find. Jigging turns up mostly little guys. It's a big lake with plenty of places to hide. I understand they're down around 65 feet bellies to the ground. I only got 1 over 5 lbs in the last3 yrs. Dunno where they went. At least they're spawnning successfully.

[NortonJoe]

Fishing Lac Watson in years past sometimes it seemed that all we caught were small fish...this year it was a complete turnaround.

[RHYBAK]

I think the first thing to establish is what is small and what is big.
We fished late June and caught 3 to 6 pound walleye.

Is that big or small??

[Jay Thomas]

Personally, I don't believe that there are that many big walleye (7 pounds plus) swimming around in Lake Kipawa. For many years, Lake Kipawa has experienced substantial fishing pressure in both soft and hard water seasons. On top of that, the long standing minimum length limit of 12 inches has done nothing to protect the walleye fishery. If the new rumored harvest size restrictions (can only harvest walleye from 14 to 21.5 inches) are implemented, the walleye fishery will improve. Wayne reported nice sized walleye catches opening week and good sized walleye are possible during the May Fly hatch each year near the end of Jun (because lots of walleye get concentrated in a small area). On the other side of the coin, many fishing groups have reported catching lots of walleye 9 to 15 inches in length. It's too bad that Fall Walleye Index Netting study results aren't readily available any longer.

Jay

[T-Bone]

In my book 3-6 pound walleye are big...way bigger than what we see up there. Waaaay bigger.

I've caught more walleye on Lake Kipawa than other lakes up around there, but not bigger walleye. Interestingly, recently I've read that Kipawa is a "small walleye factory" or sorts...with the gist of that being it's good for numbers, but not at all good for size. And, IMO, most fishing guests from the US or even metro areas of Canada go that far north to get a trophy fish (if that's why they're there...not for the wilderness). Maybe the window for getting a trophy on Kipawa is mostly closed. If that's the case, it's too bad...

[CaptainCrappie]

With this talk about "big" walleye, I did some approximate calculations from my 18 Kipawa trips.  This probably is pretty close to reality.  The 18 trips add up to about 230 trips from the dock, specifically to target walleye.  This does not include lake trout or Bat Lake northern trips. From memory I can come up with only 11 walleyes 4 lbs. or over which averages out to about one walleye 4 lbs. or up every 21 trips from the dock. So...  the truth is, I don't catch walleye of that size every trip.

Before I made my first Kipawa visit, back in 1997, I called one of the references that Gerry (former 3 Seasons owner) had listed in the camp brochure. The elderly gentleman (mid eighties) lived about 15 miles from me so I welcomed his offer to visit him and discuss the lake.  He had been going up to the lake for 50 years or so and had a zillion pictures which he was very happy to share. The stringers were mind boggling!  I made a total of 3 visits to his home and the first things which caught my eye was the two giant walleyes which were mounted over his fire place.  One weighed 12 lbs. 7 oz. and the "smaller" one weighed 11 lbs 11 oz. He had caught one "slightly over 13" but he released it. He had the picture to prove it. Nine or ten pounders were considered almost common.  One of my questions to him was "has the fishing changed from your first Kipawa visits"  He looked at me a bit strange and said "no doubt about that."  He went on to tell me that when minnows were used as bait, it was nothing to catch a limit of walleyes. He also said "the water was a lot clearer back then. It was like tap water." It's more tannic colored today. Irv Kinch was his name, and now he resides beyond those pearly gates.

It is without question that Kipawa is not what it once was, but since I don't have any other place in the world to compare it to, I'll take it for what it is today and enjoy!

C.C.

[RHYBAK]

Like a wise man once told me
" 5% of the fishermen catch 95% of the fish"

That might be the same for catching big fish in Kipawa.
My friend Steve and I seem to do it every year.
We must be among the 5% club.

I do agree that the lake holds a LOT of small walleye ,but that just shows me that the lake is very healthy and has a great reproductive / survival rate.
BUT...the big fish ARE still to be had.

[Jow]

It's such a huge body of water with thousands of places to hold fish. Shore line after shore line,hundreds of deep holes adjacent to shallow humps. Everywhere we go on kipawa I mark fish. Wether there white fish,lakers,pike,walleye,etc,the sonar 90% of the time has fish arcs on it. I try and get a feel for what the bait fish are doing once we get to the lake,has it been windy,hot,cool and overcast,blue bird sky's. how much current is there,is the dam wide open or three quarters closed. So many factors come into play for something so seemingly simple. But finding where their feed source is IMO is key. My son and I have tried this method a dozen times and almost always has worked...say we are on fish 18 ft of water catching 14in walleye....move around same thing......move to deeper water and voila....bigger fish,not necessarily monsters but diff year class. Must something about the bigger fish let the smaller ones eat first lol. I have heard the stories that the lake isn't what it used to be,not as many big fish being caught. There has to be something to be said about that for sure. I'm of the opinion that there are huge fish in this lake. I can't seem to hook into a 18lb laker and believe me we try,doesn't mean their not there....

[puckster_guy]

hey guys...check this out. A friend e-mailed this to me thought it was interesting....http://trumped.crestliner.com/leaderboard/walleye/

[johnny walleye]

How big is big? Quite a few folks think 8 lbs walleye is a trophy.Some 10 lbs  depends  on  where you fish.
I think it comes down to details, things  like boat control ,bait, water temp and so on,for some of us it's second nature.
I do think the lakes have changed it's not like it use to be when you could troll for miles and stay on a large school of walleye. I was once bless to pull in a 31 inch 10 pounder .since then I have several large fish ,still dream  of pulling it off again some day.

[getthenet]

Sure,we all want to catch large fish,and lots of them.But if thats the only reason you go to Kipawa you're missing out on a whole lot !

[T-Bone]

We get a lot more out of Kipawa than just the fishing...a lot more.

In all reality, I think a lot of it has to do with luck. This isn't to minimize or disparage the maximum effort many of you put out when up there fishing, but I think some of it has to do with crossing paths with Mr. Big Eye at the right moment. Yes, I'd agree that wind, cold fronts, bait choice, technique, and other things factor into success, but probably not as much as we think. My biggest laker up there was caught jigging for walleye. Our biggest pike this year were caught by the same guy in a span of about 5 minutes...surrounded by 5 other fisherman throwing almost exactly the same lure in the same area. The biggest 'eye I've seen caught up there was hooked when the fisherman wasn't even paying attention to what he was doing.

Maybe I've just lost my fervor for putting in hard time on the water, hence my lack of credence to its importance.

There are things you can do to put the odds in your favor (like fishing instead of sitting on shore drinking beers...but balance is necessary...  ), but I really think finding the highest percentage location to hold fish at that time is the most important...after that it's mostly luck.

[fishtildark]

I dont fish Kipawa, I have fished Sasseginega for the last 25 years. We dont get 10 lb ers every year but we have caught a number and it seems that when you catch one, there are probably more that week. One year I caught two, 5 minutes apart. The lake has also given up a 17 lb that can be seen on the Bush country website ( you will know which one when you see it). I believe the bigger they get the more their feeding is done on a gorge and then rest basis so timing plays a big part. Also, have no doubt that with the size of Kipawa there are still alot there but it sounds like there may be alot of natural feed to compete with. No doubt , pressure plays a part and if people harvest those big ones it takes a long time for the replacement to get that big. Interestingly, all the big catches that I know of came on jig/ jig and worm rigs. too lazy to chase crankbaits? Just some of my Friday afternoon need to get out of the office thoughts. Sam

[tylergordon3]

We have fished Kipawa for the past 20 years and have caught some 10 lb fish. We usually fish the taggart bay side of the lake. It seems every year that the fish are getting smaller and less and less people in the camp are catching 27-30" walleye. Ive talked alot of locals and have heard that the netting by the natives have hurt the large walley population. Im just wondering where those 20-25" went??