Beauty of Lake Kipawa Quebec + 1 fish!

[scuro2]

The weather was wild this time around...not so good for fishing but great for photography.

I never caught one large enough for the laker slot and I didn't even bother measuring any of them. I'd say biggest was about 20iches. The only fish picture I have is this fish on my 3rd outing to prove I had caught fish. Roughly on average a fish per 2-3 hours...pretty slow.

The rest of pics are of sunsets or cloud formations. Enjoy

[/url]

My wife came up for the second week.

We ran into a heat wave. Fires are still burning in the area.

Hope you enjoyed the pics.

[Joeytier]

Pretty tough to find keepers with the new slot.  Back in June they stocked 14 000 yearling lakers.  The improved management of their fall drawdown, stocking, and a bigger slot will make Kipawa an amazing lake trout fishery.

[smitty55]

6 hours ago, Joeytier said:

Pretty tough to find keepers with the new slot.  Back in June they stocked 14 000 yearling lakers.  The improved management of their fall drawdown, stocking, and a bigger slot will make Kipawa an amazing lake trout fishery.

Joey I'm not sure where you got that info. Here's a quote from a member of the Kipawa forum who was up mid June.

" When we launched the Quebec ministry was at the dock stocking the lake.. my buddy struck up a conversation with the employee as my buddy spent some time working for the MNR hatcheries in Ontario. The ministry worker told us they were stocking 50,000 lake trout that day, and another 60,000 the next day... yes that's 110,000 LAKE TROUT!!!! No wonder the fishing is soooo good for them!!

Scuro I know you're on that site. These lads did pretty good on the Greys for the little time they were there. Here's the thread. http://kipawafishingforum.net/index.php?topic=941.0

 

Cheers

[misfish]

Great photos.

 

[floater]

Nice pics. Best Sunset shots we ever got were in Northern Quebec. I'm glad you posted this as I was planning a week up in Zec Kipawa and I was wondering how the warm temps were affecting the fishing. Looks like it's salmon fishing now

[scuro2]

28 minutes ago, floater said:

I'm glad you posted this as I was planning a week up in Zec Kipawa and I was wondering how the warm temps were affecting the fishing. Looks like it's salmon fishing now

I'd never say Kipawa is a great Lake trout fishery but usually you could dial it in and catch a few per outing. Keepers at about 26 inches?...usually you could catch one a week.

This time was tougher. No consistency in catching and getting skunked happened about every third or forth outing. That was unusual. We had the massive pollen dump...you can actually see about a 3 inch line on the rocks of pollen as the lake lowered. Then some unsettled weather and then the heat. I'll take stability any time...give me consistent conditions.

Floater, one thing you may have to contend with is poor air quality as the forest fires in Ontario are still burning. Kipawa got soaked when that last storm front went through.

[Joeytier]

11 hours ago, smitty55 said:

Joey I'm not sure where you got that info. Here's a quote from a member of the Kipawa forum who was up mid June.

" When we launched the Quebec ministry was at the dock stocking the lake.. my buddy struck up a conversation with the employee as my buddy spent some time working for the MNR hatcheries in Ontario. The ministry worker told us they were stocking 50,000 lake trout that day, and another 60,000 the next day... yes that's 110,000 LAKE TROUT!!!! No wonder the fishing is soooo good for them!!

Scuro I know you're on that site. These lads did pretty good on the Greys for the little time they were there. Here's the thread. http://kipawafishingforum.net/index.php?topic=941.0

 

Cheers

Very cool.  A friend of mine was watching them put a batch of 14 000 in at the docks.  I guess that was just one of many.

[Joeytier]

1 hour ago, floater said:

Nice pics. Best Sunset shots we ever got were in Northern Quebec. I'm glad you posted this as I was planning a week up in Zec Kipawa and I was wondering how the warm temps were affecting the fishing. Looks like it's salmon fishing now

Lakes are all in excess of 75-76 degrees on the surface now, ive seen 79-80 in some spots last week.  I wouldn't trout fish for a few weeks.

[floater]

I was looking at one of the further east lakes in Zec Restigo or Kipawa. Looking for pike or pickerel. With the fires though i'm gonna stay on Lake O and hope for a derby winning fish:) Do you have to pay the daily fishing rate on Lake Kipawa as well?

[Moosebunk]

Never had any interest in this fishery... partly because walleye are walleye everywhere and laker fishing can be better elsewhere. However, the report surely catches the interest being that it looks like a quieter Temagami.  If it's mostly small fish and they're putting in a tonne of small fish every year, it'll take a long while I'd think to have a quality trophy fish fishery. One thing Chris for bigger fish, you should be jigging. Your odds will be better.  Move faster, watch the graph, drop on arcs. If the water temps are high, they should be low and more packed.

[floater]

Great advice Moosebunk. Do you jig with braided line when going that deep? I tried jigging with mono and I can't feel a thing.

[smitty55]

Love the pics Scuro, specially that sunset one. My first thought was looking north from Thompson island toward Corbeau, but I couldn't make out the little island in the pic. Where did you stay? Did you fish for Walleye much?

That's a real shame about the Laker fishing, certainly not the norm. However, unsettled weather and specially that heavy pollen dump would certainly have an effect.  Even then, only one fish at 20" is real bummer. Like you I'm not happy  at all about the 65cm minimum size for trout, in fact I haven't been back there since. It was always our main reason for visiting Kipawa and we used to really enjoy our feeds of fresh trout fillets after the morning fish. Regardless, I envy you getting two weeks in up there. Every time I went there for a week the thing I wanted most was to stay for another.

Floater there is no daily fishing rate on Kipawa. You'd need to be in the zec for that. Also I wouldn't worry at all about warm water. First week of August was always my favorite time to go. If anything the fishing is more stable for Lakers and Walleye, as the thermocline is well setup and the Walleye are well established into their summer haunts. Plus the swimming is great and best of all no skitters and black flies.

Drew, yea it's similar to Temagami, but much more secluded, tranquil, intimate even, and there's just something about that waterway and it's character that Temagami can't touch. It's hard to explain, there's like this magic touch that seeps into you and keeps drawing you back. Ask Scuro, he's done his fair share of traveling to fish and he just went back there for two weeks. The watershed just screams explore too if you look at maps, full of islands and narrows, it takes many years to learn it well, a big reason why I love trolling for Greys. Its how I toured the lake over the years and learned all the different runs and hot spots and even found some good Walleye structure too along the way.

For trout it's certainly not a trophy fishery, that's never been my goal there, but it's always been a good fish. Carl at Alwaki had his 22lb on the wall behind the bar.  But being just over 4-5 hrs away from Ottawa, it was like paradise being so close. I had one in the boat over 10, and it won the biggest of the week at the Corbeau Lodge weekly derby for my partner. Same year I got my PB Walleye, over 11lbs. Lol my 14ft tinny took the whole thing.

As for Walleye are Walleye, yea maybe but  Kipawa Walleye seem special.hehe...  Again I don't know anywhere within a 5 hour easy drive for a vacation where you can have shots at 40+ fish evenings anchored and sipping a pint. Big ones are there too though I find best to target at night.

Bunk I'll leave with this. For a close drive family vacation for your clan I can guaranty you a memorable experience. Either Alwaki at 14 miles or Kipawa Lodge at just over 20 will be more than you could want. Cheers

 

 

[lunkerbasshunter]

amazing pics from a great area of Quebec

[scuro2]

Exactly...Temagami say 50 years ago? You are not going there to catch big fish although it does happen....it is just that laid back lifestyle and a huge body of water to explore. You can go hours without seeing a boat. I don't fish for walleye unless I have too....tried it briefly before the kids came to make sure we woudl catch. Leeches were the ticket. We were down Laniel way...got to fish around Strawberry island and past the "Farm" almost down to Hay "river".

The price was right, we have friends up there so a little fishing in the evening and in the morning if I went to bed at a decent hour. There was stuff to do. So yeah...jigging may be next time especially if the fishing gets no better. On this trip I had no big expectations so was simply happy to boat on this fine peace of real estate and take it all in. Bunk, not every trip is a big fish trip, eh?

I'd also recommend Kipawa Lodge...the cooking is fabulous. Took my wife who had been stressed out by her father's cancer. She breathed.

[Moosebunk]

On 7/16/2018 at 9:00 PM, scuro2 said:

 On this trip I had no big expectations so was simply happy to boat on this fine peace of real estate and take it all in. Bunk, not every trip is a big fish trip, eh?

No... you're right. Sometimes it's just a prized fish trip... or even getting the targeted fish, trip.  Can't say for me it's ever a boating trip tho.  hehe! 

On 7/16/2018 at 1:30 AM, smitty55 said:

Drew, yea it's similar to Temagami, but much more secluded, tranquil, intimate even, and there's just something about that waterway and it's character that Temagami can't touch. It's hard to explain, there's like this magic touch that seeps into you and keeps drawing you back. Ask Scuro, he's done his fair share of traveling to fish and he just went back there for two weeks. The watershed just screams explore too if you look at maps, full of islands and narrows, it takes many years to learn it well, a big reason why I love trolling for Greys. Its how I toured the lake over the years and learned all the different runs and hot spots and even found some good Walleye structure too along the way.

For trout it's certainly not a trophy fishery, that's never been my goal there, but it's always been a good fish. Carl at Alwaki had his 22lb on the wall behind the bar.  But being just over 4-5 hrs away from Ottawa, it was like paradise being so close. I had one in the boat over 10, and it won the biggest of the week at the Corbeau Lodge weekly derby for my partner. Same year I got my PB Walleye, over 11lbs. Lol my 14ft tinny took the whole thing.

As for Walleye are Walleye, yea maybe but  Kipawa Walleye seem special.hehe...  Again I don't know anywhere within a 5 hour easy drive for a vacation where you can have shots at 40+ fish evenings anchored and sipping a pint. Big ones are there too though I find best to target at night.

Bunk I'll leave with this. For a close drive family vacation for your clan I can guaranty you a memorable experience. Either Alwaki at 14 miles or Kipawa Lodge at just over 20 will be more than you could want. Cheers

You do make it sound interesting, Chris does too.  The fishing appears (always seems to appear) to be a bit of challenge on that lake, making it much like Temagami in that way too. And I like that lake! So no reason it wouldn't be the same with Kipawa.  Sounds as if there might be the odd big eye and maybe even laker still kicking around as well. Do like the hunt for big fish, even better when it's secluded on a nice lake. Bren could be into this for a short excursion... if only the time to do it.

On 7/14/2018 at 4:46 PM, floater said:

Do you jig with braided line when going that deep? I tried jigging with mono and I can't feel a thing.

Always braid, with a floro leader.  Generally for most inland lakes, 15lb braid with a 10-12lb floro leader.

[floater]

Thanks Moosebunk