Lake Kipawa - Critique My Plan of Attack

[chris.brock]

 

I don't doubt you know what you're doing and that you catch plenty of fall eyes up there Akrisoner. It's the same scenario around the dams in the Kawarthas. The eyes enter rivers and come up to the dams in the fall too. Their motivation is feeding though, not spawning.

[OhioFisherman]

The fall feed, they are looking for food and wander.

[AKRISONER]

I don't doubt you know what you're doing and that you catch plenty of fall eyes up there Akrisoner. It's the same scenario around the dams in the Kawarthas. The eyes enter rivers and come up to the dams in the fall too. Their motivation is feeding though, not spawning.

 

makes sense, now i get it.

[Sinker]

 

makes sense, now i get it.

Let me expalain it for you a little better so maybe you will understand. It may help you will fall walleyes.

 

If the fall, the water temps drop. When the surface water gets colder than the water at the bottom of the lake, (water is densest at 4 degrees celsius), the lakes turn over. The surface water sinks to the bottom, and the bottom water comes to the top, hence the term "turnover". Usually when a lake first turns over, fish are kinda scattered, and can really be anywhere. During the day the sun shines, and warms up the shallows, where baitfish congregate. The walleyes, (and most other fish too) find the warm water, and bait, and get their feed bag on. The warmest water is close to shore, shallow bays etc....where walleye may spawn in the spring as well. A shallow muddy bay with the wind blowing into it is always a great spot....you get the idea.

 

Same thing happens in the spring. Ice comes off, water is cold, the shallows warm first, fish move in....etc.

 

I hope that helps a little.

 

I understand you are fishing the same spots you would in spring, but spawning has nothing to do with it.

 

S.

[AKRISONER]

funny enough, im not fishing shallow...but im not fishing deep...we are on fish that are migrating into a larger basin where they seem to live their lives over the winter and eventually spawn.

 

Being on Gbay, they definitely move off of the big lake at this time of year...progressively the bigger ones move in the closer and closer we get to the spawn...hence the size consistency is incredible once february hits.

[Sterling]

AKRISONER vs Mister G fishing face-off?

 

So we returned yesterday from our trip and man, was the fishing ever tough. We managed a dozen walleye throughout the trip. Weather didn't help at all. We didn't fish Wednesday and couldn't get out for prime time on Tuesday. Weather forecast was messed up - calling for 3km/hr winds when really it was 20+ all day.

 

I'm putting all details of the trip here so that others may learn from it.

 

Trip dates October 14-19th.

 

I used my trusty temperature probe to check layer profiles. In most areas the profile went like this;

 

0ft - 55.2 (sheltered areas - 57)

5ft - 54.9

10ft - 54.9

15ft - 54.9

20ft - 54.9

25ft - 54.5

30ft - 50.0

35ft - 48.3

40ft - 47.5

45ft - 46.8

50ft - 46.6

55ft - 46.4

60ft - 46.2

 

So there's a pretty clear thermocline at the 30ft mark. I think it's definitely possible that turnover has started in some area. On a couple occasions my depth finder was showing the thermocline and it was fluctuating in depth, usually between 20-40ft. In some areas (usually mid-lake) it curved all the way to surface, I'm kicking myself for not snapshotting this, but it was pretty cool.

 

For fun I took some time to make note of lake trout behavior, they were stuck at 30ft and bottom. Rarely in between.

 

In terms of spots, as I quickly learned, the south-central arm holds very few fish. I don't really have an explanation for this - maybe it's just too far from spawning areas? We did catch a bunch of fish here but they were dinks. Either way, if you're on this lake, try to launch in the South-East arm and fish there (for walleye, anyway).

 

All fish were caught in 20-30 FoW. We tried REALLY hard to fish shallow, deep, etc. Nothing yielded fish but jigging. I was using a plain drop-shot setup and the wife was usually bouncing a jig off bottom. Fishing mid-day was a waste of time. Evening bite or bust!

 

Best spots were "2" and the north side of the big island to the left of "3". And by "best" I mean least crappy.

 

We did hit some spots that members here PM'ed me - I won't share them obviously, but consider that they're not in the South-Central arm.

 

Unfortunately it's impossible to find leeches at this time of year, at least in the Temiscaming area. If you need bait, grab it in North Bay before heading out. I was able to snag 3 dozen worms from Pro Nature which cleaned them right out.

 

Somewhat related - Navionics has this lake charted almost perfectly. I set my depth to -2ft (the lake was recently drained) and the depth shown on Navionics almost always matched what the depth finder showed. It was even more accurate than the maps provided at the cottage.

Edited October 20, 2016 by Sterling

[AKRISONER]

at least you found a few fish...you are a bit further north than where I typically fish, but if i was fishing id be in 15-20 on the drop shot as well. Glad you at least got a few.

[Joeytier]

The area where you were staying, what you call the south central arm I assume, is an excellent area in spring and summer, for walleye and lake trout both.