Nipigon Trip coming up, any pointers?

Short notice trip with a buddy that is going to School in Thunder Bay. He has all the details planned out as far as camping boat and what not. Sounds like we are launching up near the Jackfish and hopefully take that in one day. Any pointers as far as lures or presentations for the other parts of the lake. I have heard about the Omanikub? area as being good for Eyes early on like this. I have a decent amount of jigs, plastics, and cranks. We have a few days to get after it so hoping for some active fish up that way. – QB

I came back recently from a lake right between Nipigon and lac sueal, water temp 60°, walleyes were digging anything blue and white. Experimented with blade baits and brought not as many fish, but all were bigger 20-24″. Pink and white bfnt paddle tails also brought a lot of fish to the boat. BB the sharp ledges off flats 16-20′, and river inlets held as many small males as you’d want to catch. Couple of the days were nice and sunny and suprised couldn’t find many fish shallower say 5-10′. Did snag a perch with a crankbait in 7′ which was a shocker for the group since they been going 20yrs without seeing a single one.

Walleyes and pike were stuffed with a silvery minnow, very dark black top with shiner sides, many had them in their belly and sticking out their throats still when we caught them. I’ll be bringing up some more natural colored baits to mimic those next time, perhaps the bigguns prefer a more natural presentation where most all my tackle was a bright mix. Good luck!!

I use spoons mainly for pike: Doctors and Pixies are two of my favorites. Chartreuse is a great color for any lure up there but Orange or lime and some days neutral colors but usually bright colors are best. Mepps #5 spinners are another great option. One year spinnerbaits were the go to lure. I do very well on walleyes with flicker shads. Plastics work great once you find a pod. Trolling for Lakers I like a variety of dipsey divers to get the lure away from the boat and down. Spoons again or larger thin rappalas. J-plugs area a secret weapon I like. Good luck I will be up this Friday for a week so maybe we will run into each other on the pond. Not very likely but maybe!

Reading nhamm’s response reminded me. Johnson silver minnows are also deadly on big pike on Nip. Not the huge size either: 1/2 oz. is usually the best size. Sometimes gold is deadly but usually silver is best. The colored ones are cheap and end up being silver once the coating comes off. I still use them but buyer beware.

One more bit of info: Nipigon has its own special set of regs so read up because it is patrolled pretty heavy for such a large body of water and usually they have a Canadian mounted policeman on board. You don’t want them to start asking questions because they are bad _ss. No gang hooks. Just one. For instance if you pull a rap out of your box remove the front and middle hook and you are legal. Also they are very strict on barbless so pinch them down good not half _ss because they will check for full barbless. I have found it is best to go with 1 large hook. It makes it easier to handle when you get into 100 fish days. Nothing worse than wondering how long it will take you to get to a hospital 30 miles out in the lake and another 3 hour drive to get to town. Another rule is no live fish on board. If you keep a fish don’t keep it in your live well with water filled. I cant stress it enough read the Nipigon regs

Thanks much, I think we will plan to fish a lot of jig and plastic as well as said spoons like you had said. Clarify on the ganghook thing for me if you would. – QB

You can have 1 treble, at the most on any lure. This will include the ones on your poles in your boat. Not the ones in your box or laying around in the boat. Also no live or dead bait. I like the regs for this lake. Its worth the extra effort. Special place, special lake. Enjoy your trip. Handle those big girls with care, I rarely use a net. You just need to be careful. I am more scared of the little snottys than the big girls. If you like fishing plastics, try them on the pike

I hear ya, I just conversed some more with my friend tonight and yes we plan to fish some large spoons as well as toss some super sized swimbaits to see if we cant turn a few big pike that way. I know I have a few oversize bluefox bucktails I plan to give a try