No beginner's luck @ West Arm Nippising

[Raycaster]

Our yearly trip to Nippising took us to the West Arm for the 1st time last weekend and the 3 brother-In-Laws and myself were ready for battle.

 

Arrived Friday afternoon and fished till dark in 2 separate boats without a single nibble. The past years we have always done well reaching our limit or atleast approaching it every day. Our past trips have been spent around Cache Bay fighting the soup but it was always worth it. The West Arm area was more open and given a map with the "spots" we tackled them all.

 

Saturday basically went the same way until we ventured over to the Pine Creek area I believe. We slowly started catching up to some pike but they were all babies under 15". A little disappointing but a start... After a lunch break we were back out in the same area with the same results but also found a healthy 25" pike and a few decent bass.

 

Sunday was the same again and we packed up around 2pm as a vote wasn't really needed to decide to leave early.

 

Fishing Math:

 

2 Boats @ 2 intermediate fisherman X 30 plus hours = 1 pike and 2 Bass

 

A know it's never a guarantee but probably won't head back to that section although even with narrow boat channels it was a lot safer than Nippising's rocks.

 

I'm sure lot's have had great success there but the 4 of us are still in shock from the poor results!

[bucktail]

I have been watching lots of reports from nippising and especially that area, I have been wondering what has happened to the fishery?

It appears it has collapsed entirely and the fishing is incredibly difficult.

If I remember there is a slot in effect but it appears to be getting worse.

Does anyone know if this is being looked at by the Ministry???

There are alot of camps in the area and if this continues I cant see them surviving?

Anyone know whats up with this?

 

Darren

Edited August 3, 2010 by bucktail

[lew]

Alot of folks have reported slower than usual fishing on the West Arm this year (me included) and in my opinion it's just a temporary thing with the very low water levels and the late start to the weeds.

 

Course I'm no expert either....

[nuke]

Spent a week at the end of July at Camp LaPlage, between Cache Bay and Verner. Caught tons of small perch, largies, pike, catfish and sheepshead. Had a great time. Too bad about the low water levels. What the hell happened there?

We've been going ever year for the last two, and will go again for sure.

 

Mike

[lew]

 

Too bad about the low water levels. What the hell happened there?

 

 

The lakes are drained down a few feet in the fall so as not to have any flooding in the spring when the snow melts. Trouble was, Ontario had very little snow last winter, along with a dry spring, so there was no spring runoff to fill the lakes again.

 

A normal snowfall next winter should bring things back to where they should be......hopefully

[kyle7273]

I've also heard many people complaining about the commercial fishery being allowed to take way too much from the lake in recent years.

[Raycaster]

Nuke, I was wondering about Cache Bay and how its doing. Has the low water level effected the weed/marsh growth?

 

Last year we were in Verner and really only ventured half way into Cache Bay because the boat prop was having a brutal time mowing thru.

 

Also met a few rocks off the sister islands that also were unkind to the prop!

 

After reading my original post I hope no one thinks I was complaining about the area specifically. In defence of the West Arm we really didn't know the area and even with the maps were kinda blind out there. I failed to mention (embarrassed) that Saturday I had a beast over 50" follow my spinner to the boat and laugh at us for awhile. That wasn't enough as it decided to head straight to our other boat 40' away to taunt them also!

 

The West Arm was nice but probably back to Verner next year.

[nuke]

Ray, we never ventured into the bay itself. LaPlage has a small chanel you can take that will lead you to Cachebay. This year, the water was too low and the boat probably wouldn't have made it. I'm assuming the weed growth would be high. The pike derby they had this spring in Cachebay, I heard they had the people launch at the Fort in Sturgeon. Randy would know. We mainly fished in front of the cottage or around Bread and Butter Island (wherever we found an spot somewhat free of weeds with more than four feet of water!)

And Lew, thanks for the info, her's hoping for lots of snow and a wet spring!

 

Later

Mike

[bigfish1965]

Don't give up on the West Arm Raycaster. It is a temporary problem with the water as other mentioned.