Smith Bay Outfitters July 21 thru 28

[T]

Another great trip to Smith Bay outfitters is in the books.  Grant and Lyn are great hosts.  This year there were 4 of us, my son and two of my best friends.  I was especially excited this year to try my new boat out on Kipawa.  I have always fished with the standard outfitter boats. Our trip up was uneventful  We did the normal stops, Duty free, Webbers, Pronature and IGA for lots of cold ones.

   Fishing was excellent this year. Here is a quick look at our week.  We actually tried to keep an actual count.

Sat: 62 walleye
Sun: 75 walleye
Mon: 100 walleye, 2 bass and a pike
Tues: 68 walleye, 1 pike and a bass
Weds: 94 walleye, 2 bass and a lake trout
Thurs: 55 walleye, a white fish, a lake trout and a bass
Fri: 85 walleye and a pike.

All our fish were caught jigging a 1/8 jig and half a night crawler except for 1 lake trout and 1 pike. They were caught trolling hot and tots.  The color of the jig did seem to matter on some days.  Pink was a great color on overcast days.  Bright colors were great in low light conditions.  Fishing was better in the mornings except for Friday.  My son and I caught 40 walleye in a little over an hour Friday evening.  We would have fished longer, but we had to pack. We did not catch any really big walleyes, but most of our fish were between 15 and 18 inches. 

The weather was pretty good.  We had 1 day of heavy rain and wind.  1 night of thunderstorms.  We only had 1 day of hot weather. 

To the person or persons who took my bouy off the hump, that was a pretty low.

We had a very long drive home.  I missed calculated our gas mileage and had to go into town to get some.  Of course, there was a festival going on and traffic was nuts.  Then we stopped and ate at the first Enroute on 400.  We ate at Tim Hortons.  It took us a hour to get served and eat.  Plus they screwed up our order.  We werent the only ones either.  Then comes the traffic on the QEW.  Wow, it was bad.  As we were getting to the Niagra bridges, we started to hear a thumping noise.  We pulled over in all that traffic, only to find my left rear tire was about to fall off.  We tightened up the lugs,and broke one off.  My mechanic will hear of this.  He just put new brakes on last week.  Customs at the Peace Bridge, was backed up  into Canada.  Another hour and a half lost.  The rest of the trip was uneventful, but it took a total of 15 hours and 15 mins. 


Of course, we cant wait to go next year.

[Jay Thomas]

499 walleye in a week for 4 guys on Kipawa is pretty outstanding fishing. Congrats! Sorry to hear about your troubles returning home.

Jay

[BigChief]

Great report.

What depths were you catching the 'eyes in this time of year?

[RHYBAK]

Thanks for the report.
One question

Was the whitefish an actual whitefish or a Fallfish?
How big was it?
What depth was it caught at?

[T]

We were catching most of our walleye in 20 to 24 feet of water along edges or drop offs.  However, we caught some as deep as 28 foot and shallow as 13 feet. 


Yes, Rhybak.  It was a white fish. It was 23 inches.  I caught it in 30 feet water a long a sharp drop off.  It surprised me that it was so shallow, but the lake trout I caught was in a similar area. I believe the storms that came through were pushing the fish up onto the sharp drop offs.

[RHYBAK]

We were catching most of our walleye in 20 to 24 feet of water along edges or drop offs.  However, we caught some as deep as 28 foot and shallow as 13 feet. 


Yes, Rhybak.  It was a white fish. It was 23 inches.  I caught it in 30 feet water a long a sharp drop off.  It surprised me that it was so shallow, but the lake trout I caught was in a similar area. I believe the storms that came through were pushing the fish up onto the sharp drop offs.

thank you
nice to hear about a whitefish