Kipawa Lodge trip report 06/24-06/29

[yakeye]

Arrived at the Kipawa ramps Monday evening, got swarmed by the flies (never seen them this bad) trying to get the boat loaded and in the water, got into camp, too late to fish, due to shifter problems, got the problem fixed Tuesday morning, and out to fish, first day we caught 81 walleye, most were under the slot and one was 22", kept a few for dinner.  The next three days we some had some rain and storms, but still caught plenty of eyes, again, most were under the slot, but I think we had 4 or 5 over, and largest eye being 24" and a  28"pike that my buddies daughter caught, and the flies were still very bad  .  we caught over 250 between 4 people for the week, some people in camp said fishing was slow, they were trolling and jigging with worms, we caught all of our fish, anchored up with a simple hook and a leech, in areas with current, had a very good trip, even though the flies were bad.  It was nice to get back up there, will be counting the days down til next year.

Doug.

[Hodgey1]

Sounds like a successful trip in spite of the shifter and bug issues. Thanks for the report.

[T-Bone]

Thanks for the report...sounds like a pretty successful trip with each person averaging over 60 'eyes, even more so with the variable weather. And yeah...those flies...no good. All it took was a black fly buzzing into my inner ear one year and that was the end of going up when black flies were around.

[Greg]

Sounds like a successful fishing trip with those numbers!  Congrats!

To bad about the bugs but it seems that is the theme everywhere this year.  Hopefully a heat wave hits there soon and kills off a few swarms!!!

Greg. (11 days)

[Jay Thomas]

First day we caught 81 walleye, most were under the slot and one was 22", kept a few for dinner.  The next three days we some had some rain and storms, but still caught plenty of eyes, again, most were under the slot, but I think we had 4 or 5 over, and largest eye being 24" and a  28"pike Doug.

Thanks for your trip report. It's always great to read about the experiences of other fishermen on Lake Kipawa.

I noted with interest that you made two references in your trip report that most of the walleye you caught were under the slot. Could you please clarify for me whether your statements meant most walleye you caught were 21 inches or less or most walleye you caught were less than 14.6 inches?

When I Googled slot limit, I got the following:

A slot-length limit prevents anglers from keeping fish within a certain size range. For example, if the slot length limit for bass is 13-18 inches, bass between 13 and 18 inches long must be returned to the water.

Based on that definition, perhaps there is no walleye slot on Lake Kipawa. Rather, there are walleye harvest limits for Lake Kipawa (minimum length of 14.6 inches and maximum length of 20.8 inches). Consequently, I'm confused as to how to interpret your comment that most walleye you caught were under the slot. I would appreciate your input. Thanks.

I'm keenly interested in whether the protective harvest limits are having positive impacts.

Jay

[T-Bone]

Based on that definition, perhaps there is no walleye slot on Lake Kipawa. Rather, there are walleye harvest limits for Lake Kipawa (minimum length of 14.6 inches and maximum length of 20.8 inches). Consequently, I'm confused as to how to interpret your comment that most walleye you caught were under the slot.

Now...let's be careful here. We all know there is a walleye slot on Kipawa...to suggest otherwise is reckless. I'm confident what he meant was that a lot of the fish were "below" the minimum length in the slot and could NOT be harvested if they wanted to; and in my estimation, the slot is working as we've seen larger fish in general over the last two years.

*** edited to add the word NOT as it wholly changes things    ***

[NortonJoe]

@T-Bone, I definitely agree the "slot limit" seems to  be working.  The fishing has definitely improved!

[RoK]

@T-Bone, I definitely agree the "slot limit" seems to  be working.  The fishing has definitely improved!

agree- when the slot was first introduced, most of our fish were just under the slot (less than the minimum) and the majority in the slot were close to the minimum with few in the upper range of the slot and very few over the slot. Each year since has improved in average size and this spring majority of fish were in the mid to upper range of slot and more over slot than ever with minority under slot.

[yakeye]

Jay thomas, I think the regs. list the slot limit between 37cm-53cm, meaning that you are allowed to keep fish between 37cm-53cm, so any fish we kept were between 15"-21" and most of the fish were smaller than 15", sorry for the confusion.

Doug.

[whaler15]

i was just up on long weekend and most of the 30 or so fish we caught were right in the middle of slot ,only a couple smaller and 1 bigger,mostly blue phase also.Trolling catches bigger fish