Bass affecting Walleye population?

[smitty55]

I've often wondered about this. Logically I can't see how the increased competition for some of the same forage base can't affect the Walleye population, depending on how much overlap there is I guess. Perch for sure. Regardless, it's a new aggressive, schooling and prolific species that has been introduced into a pretty big watershed. It's going to have an effect on the ecosystem as a whole, no doubt. Bottom line is that they're now in Kipawa for good. Usually mother nature takes care of things in the long run and hopefully things will balance out.
A few of weeks ago I  saw a post about the bass in Kipawa by someone on another site who had been going up to the north end for many years and she said the Walleye fishing had gone downhill so much in the last few years that they were seriously considering going somewhere else.
As for native netting, they've always done that, so there's nothing new there.

So from what I can gather from the odd post here and there, lets say the bass first showed up in Y2K for sake of argument. So TBL outpost  to Corbeau for example is around 20 miles. TBL to Laniel is a good 25 miles.  So where ever they started from it looks like a good mile per year progress. Sunnyside to Alwaki is 2 miles, another 7 or so to Edwards Narrows. Smallies don't mind current, they could work their way up Turtle Chute even.
On a bright note they are fun to catch, and out of deep, cold water environments they tend to be much better eating with no worms. And for those not into Lakers it can provide some good midday pursuits.
The more I think about it now, I think the Pike population could well flourish too with a brand new forage base to feed on. Big Pike in summer prefer deep cool water structure  and they will quickly learn to target these roaming schools of smallies. So that could be a positive.

Cheers

[crackers42]

T-Bone hit the nail on the head (as much as we like to think we are all skilled anglers) some good years and some bad years (And sometimes bad years are strung together).

Netting has been present on the lake (more on the southern and eastern end) for years but nothing like Nippissing.

Average size has gone up since the slot limit and also quantities over the past 5 years. 

I think one needs to concentrate more on fluctuating water levels, temperature patterns along with thermoclines, and heat waves never seen in the past.  If you track this information you will understand your catch results a little closer.

Also, current possession limits will not hurt this fisher but as T-Bone said how fish does one really need to have a feast.

[Hodgey1]

I don't know S from shine-ola about the ecology of the lake and the impact that keeping fish to eat has on it, but I would hope the Ministry would.  From my limited knowledge standpoint, I think, it seems they do with the slot and creel limits.  Take me for example, last year I was on lake Kipawa for 14 days and took home a total of 12 fish "my legal creel limit". That equates to me removing .66 fish per day from Kipawa. I could be very wrong, but that's not a slaughter or excessive act.  The excess is being kept in check with the Ministry's laws. I have always partly justify my hunting and fishing with the fact that I field dress, clean and process, smoke/cook and eat all of my own game, including bear, elk, deer and fish. My mother told me at a very young age "you kill it, you eat it" when I killed my first squirrel.

A couple of years ago I was on beach vacation with my cousin from the big city, she had been out all day and came back to the house to find that while she was gone, I'd been out surf fishing and had caught some fish, brought them back and fried them up for lunch. She looked at me with total astonishment and said "you can do that?". Point being, I think having at least a small relationship with where our food actually comes from "Not Magically at the store" and how it is dispatched is a good thing in my simple mind.

Getting back to the subject at hand, my guess is, there no way that the introduction of a new species into the lake, that it can't have impact on the others. Both possibly for good and for the bad.

[T-Bone]

My mother told me at a very young age "you kill it, you eat it" when I killed my first squirrel.

Well that explains a lot... 

Creel limits...I'll give you creel limits in a couple weeks.... 

[RHYBAK]

One observation that I must share.
During my week  every spot we went to produced a Bass or two.
We filtered out those bass and the rest of the time , we were catching Walleye.
It's not like the spots are over run with bass (yet).

We brought home 16 really nice Bass in our week .
Just a fraction of the amount of walleye we caught.

Another observation was that all of the bass still had eggs in them.
Are they spawning properly.
In the entire week, we only saw three or four Bass that were way to small to keep.
I guess we should have fed them to the Gulls.

Are they considered an invasive species on Kipawa?
Should we be kill the ones we don't want.

[puckster_guy]

Are they considered an invasive species on Kipawa?
Should we be kill the ones we don't want.

I think so. Keep your limit in bass and toss back the walleye except for a meal or two.

[Hodgey1]

Well that explains a lot... 

Yupper