Back from Nippising

[Scott S]

Just back from our annual trip with my brothers. I got this beauty on a nippising jig in between the islands in callander bay.It weighed 7lbs and was 27" long.Fishing wasn't nearly as good as other years. We caught a bunch of 8 to 10 inchers, had a hard time getting keepers. We have been going to nippising for over 10 years and haven't had this type of fishing. What do you think is causing this?

Thanks Scooter

[Joeytier]

Nice fish! The lake definitely seems to be in a state of change, with historically consistent areas running dry and new areas starting to be productive.

[manitoubass2]

beauty

[JimC]

Very nice Walleye, Scooter ... Congrats in order for sure. I only fish Nip a couple times a year, and that 27" length is my personal best.

 

As for what's happening overall ... that's a good question. My buddies and I go up every year around this time, and the last three years (prior to this) have been brutal, save for one good day two years ago when we boated 4 over slot fish, and two border line ones. We were there again last week, and after an amazing start on Sunday, with four 'hogs' 24.5 - 26in. and another 16 or so ... most around 18-22, but a few underslot keepers (14-15in), we thought we'd have a record breaker (for us) kinda week; however, similar to two years ago, the action dropped off on Monday, but we did manage a few more, then the wind howled unbelievable for two and a half days, most of which we couldn't even get out. Got a few more on the Friday and called it a week. Not bad overall with 30+ Walleye, and 50+ angry Pike ... never had such fighters consistently.

btw, we fish the other end of the Lake out of Verner ... Cache Bay area.

 

So enough about MY 'fishing report' what I have noticed is that the Perch are depleted (where we fish). We mostly use worm harnesses, and in years past ... say 5-8 years ago, we could easily go through a flat (40 doz) crawlers during the week, due to those pesky, but critically important, Perch sucking them off our spinners. I think we saw maybe a dozen perch of any size all week. What we DID see, and continue to see over the last several years are Large flocks of Cormorants, working the areas where we had caught so many perch in the past. To me, that is the biggest threat to the Lake's normal game fish, being that so much of it is shallow, and these darn large sea-faring birds can easily get to the bottom and devastate the baitfish. Eventually they will have to move on, or starve, but I think the toll on the fishery will become clear in the years ahead. Just my two cents worth.

 

Guess I should post a pic too, so ya don't think I was Bull'ing about our Walleye adventure.

Edited June 10, 2011 by aplumma
no #@$%$#$ing

[Lip-ripper]

Nice fish guys! That's a decent spot you were fishing too, I know it well!

[Carp]

Sweet wally !!!

 

Thanks for sharing.

[love2fishhave2work]

I fish the Callander Bay area every year around this time and would agree that the last two years have been different but I put it on mother nature vs anything else. For about a 5 year period the fishing was fantastic. Then last year the warm water and lower water moved the fish to a different location and a much earlier bite which we off course missed when we arrived for our annual trip. This year was much better but still not the same as the years before and we were also catching many more walleye in the slot and quite a few very small fish but limited number of good size keepers. Numbers were also down from prior years but again, it has been a very cold spring and it simply had not warmed enough yet and the bite was just beginning. Perhaps those 2 year class fish have not moved in yet. Tough to really get a guage on what is going on in only spending 4 days in the area each year. The one thing for sure is the number of small fish cought suggests a very good couple years to come.

[Scott S]

I fish the Callander Bay area every year around this time and would agree that the last two years have been different but I put it on mother nature vs anything else. For about a 5 year period the fishing was fantastic. Then last year the warm water and lower water moved the fish to a different location and a much earlier bite which we off course missed when we arrived for our annual trip. This year was much better but still not the same as the years before and we were also catching many more walleye in the slot and quite a few very small fish but limited number of good size keepers. Numbers were also down from prior years but again, it has been a very cold spring and it simply had not warmed enough yet and the bite was just beginning. Perhaps those 2 year class fish have not moved in yet. Tough to really get a guage on what is going on in only spending 4 days in the area each year. The one thing for sure is the number of small fish cought suggests a very good couple years to come.

I have to agree with you on that, 4 days of fishing isn't enough. I was worried that the fishery may be in trouble and this is my favorite place to fish.Hopefully the wheather get's turned around I'm back up there with my family the first week in July.

Thanks Scooter

[Muskieman]

Nice Walleye!

 

But, I'm not even gonna try to answer your question.

 

Randy

[fish1812]

nice fish scooter and jim, we have def had some great weeks fishing cache bay in the past, but as both of you said even with the slot is has dropped off considerably jim brought up an interesting point with the cormorants, and i think it is probably a bit from column A and then a lot from column umm B, but like randy said

[Mike01]

Great eye! That tends to be a pretty productive area this time of year.

 

And as previously said...a little of column A, and a little of column B

[Nipfisher]

Scooter, thta is a great spot in C. Bay. I believe the most success had last year in that spot was with a bottom bouncer and a slow death hook with a crawler. Got to be going very slow 1 mph or even less and they will suck it in.

 

AGAIN my buddies were out on Fri and Sat nights and brought in their limits of 8 keepers. When the bite is on here it is not difficult to find the fish. Just have to keep your worms moving on the sandy bottom. The bite will slow down in a week or so then we will fish deeper areas and the humps out in the middle of the lake. Bass and muskie open later this month so the pressure on the walleye will let up a bit.

[Scott S]

Scooter, thta is a great spot in C. Bay. I believe the most success had last year in that spot was with a bottom bouncer and a slow death hook with a crawler. Got to be going very slow 1 mph or even less and they will suck it in.

 

AGAIN my buddies were out on Fri and Sat nights and brought in their limits of 8 keepers. When the bite is on here it is not difficult to find the fish. Just have to keep your worms moving on the sandy bottom. The bite will slow down in a week or so then we will fish deeper areas and the humps out in the middle of the lake. Bass and muskie open later this month so the pressure on the walleye will let up a bit.

So do you go out to the main part of the lake or do you stay in the bay.I mostly fish the bay.

Kinda of scared with all those rock soals popping up everywhere.

Thanks Scooter

[Mike01]

Starting this week I'll be concentrating most of my efforts on the humps and shoals in the southeast area of the lake. GPS is key to finding them, some are marked but most of the good spots are small areas the come from 35-40 up to 20 or so.

 

If you are traveling in the main lake almost all dangerous areas are marked. If you don't have gps it might be worth while getting a hydrographic map of that sector.