Brad's Kipawa.net Trip Report

We started packing the van up the night before we left in the 90 degree heat and the high humidity and a couple times I questioned if we were insane trying to do this trip with the 4 kids, especially the 10 month old. I had to pack every nook and cranny in the van with baby gear and fishing gear and food and clothing and bedding… You get the picture… I still don't know how I fit what I fit into the van. If we would have been searched at the border it would have taken a long time to put back where it came from. But the trip up went on without any problems. Going to and from Canada we encountered the fewest questions we have ever been asked. It probably didn't hurt that Blake decided to cry on the way back into the U.S. and we figure the customs agent just didn't want to hear anymore crying Traffic was very light on the way up since it was a Thursday night, at times it seemed like we were the only ones on the road. We arrived about 7:30 am and had the gov. dock to ourselves. There is nothing like the sight of Lac Kipawa as you cross over the dam to me… knowing you are finally there. And Kevin like I promised you I had a cold one for you… kinda just tradition, and trying to shake off an all night drive drinking Red Bull and Mountain Dew. My thinking is it helps balance things out...We got the boat in the water and unloaded half the stuff to go over. And we were on our way to the cabin… We got unloaded and made sure there were no unwelcome guests at camp, then Ty, Chloe and I headed back to get the rest of our gear. But… First we headed up to see Jacques and Silvy at the store, for a fishing license and beer. Friday morning consisted of opening up camp. Brush needed weed waked, sky light needed uncovered, pump needed put in water, propane hooked up and fridge started up, beds needed uncovered from all the plastic protecting them from mice nesting in them, putting food away, trying to feed kids, building a boat stop since our boat went right under the dock. Good thing I brought up 15 2x4's ( did I also tell you I had 5 - 60 lb. bags of concrete ) along with everything else, to be able to rig something up…etc. you get the picture… I was thinking the same thing I was thinking a couple nights before when I was loading up the van… Is this all worth the trouble???… even though I am here now? Running low on gas I went down and had a seat in the boat. Tyler was anxious to get to fishing. He throws this on his line… To my disapproval, telling him he isn't going to catch anything on that… especially with a clip on bobber that he got out of his tackle box, and put 2 foot up the line with no bait on… casting and retrieving it??? It couldn't have been but two minutes later when he says he has a fish??? You have bottom I said, no fish would bite that crazy set up you have on… then I hear the splashing, jump up out of the boat, to find he has a little northern on. Go figure??? Shows you what I know. All right I got the itch to fish, so Ty and I head out to see what we can find. I go to grab his pole out of the holder in the back of the boat and hand it to him when the reel gets hung up on my new ultra light rod and reel and… kerplunk!!! straight to the bottom it goes. The depth finder was saying we were in at least 50 feet of water, then 130 and back to 50. Needless to say it was acting up the first few days, so I just left it at camp and fished blind. Never did see that new rod and reel again… and I never even got to wind the reel once up on Kip. Good thing it wasn't one of those St. Croix rods I was looking at… When we got back to camp I was just shaking my head… What a day! I still needed to make use of the 5 bags of concrete I brought up… which I did, trying to get that done before our company would arrive at 7-8 o'clock the next morning. Time for some beer and once I sat down, I was through… at 10 pm that night. Did I ever tell you that wife of mine is great. It is quite an ordeal taking 4 kids up to a camp in Quebec, that has no running water or electric. Basically a tent with a hard roof over it. She really does enjoy it up there, it's just much harder than it use to be when it was just us… Just to make me happy… Isn't she great!!! Saturday morning arrives with no sound of an alarm. So I jumped out of bed to check the clock since it was already light out, hoping our guests to be aren't sitting over at the gov. dock waiting for us. As I make my way over I can see that they are not there. I dock the boat and figure I'd go check in with Jacques… and while I was there decided to get a couple more cases of beer…JUST so we don't run low… plus I might as well enjoy myself while I am waiting… RIGHT??? One beer in, they arrive right on time, and a weeks adventure was about to begin… I got them unloaded over at camp and went back to town with the wife and kids to see if I might run into Oarin and Captain Guy, since I knew he would be in town this morning. Turns out I missed him by about a half an hour. Jacques said he would be back this afternoon to pick up some Wildcat at the store, but we just never crossed paths. I was planning on going to TBL one afternoon to see if I would run into Oarin or Rambler and Ellen and just never got there. Maybe next time… I returned to camp and took Nathan and his boy Gavin, and my Ty down the lake to show them around. So we beached the boat at the sand bar and let the boys run out on the point. Little did we know that when we were gone the girls would have our poles all tangled up and birdnested… Rods and reels fixed… and it is finally time to head off and do some fishing. Water temp was running about 71 degrees f. We trolled the shoreline on the south side of the lake toward the sand bar and got a small walleye on a chartreuse hot-n-tot. close to shore and just west of where people camp on the point going back into McAdams bay. We jigged the sandbar that evening and none of the 8 boats around us caught a thing. We were using jigs and leeches. I had a Blakemore road runner 1/16 oz unskirted jig head on, and the others had white and pink jig heads. Bugs were as light as I ever remember then on Kipawa except for Monday night it had rained all afternoon, and the next evening when it was overcast all day. Got up at 5:30 the next morning and didn't have any luck. We went back again to the sandbar to jig that night and one boat was in the right spot and got about 5 or 6 Walleye, and another boat got one. Ty looked at me and said "Dad this is getting embarrassing!" Can you believe that. Monday morning we went out before 6 am again and this time Nathan got a small lake trout trolling a madflash Hot-n-tot. in about the same spot we got the walleye before. And I picked up another Walleye, on a smaller silver hot-n-tot. We all headed from camp, 7 kids and all for the pedestrian trail towards the Grande Chutes. I had never been there before, but thought it was drivable to near the chutes… just not this trail… We did try for a short ways tree branches scrapping the side of Nathan and Alecia's Yukon and all. Guess we should brush up on our French a little bit… Anyway we backed out the 30 or so feet we made it in and started our trek towards the Grande Chutes which was 7 km away. A light rain had begun falling which definitely helped us from overheating… Anyone think 7 km is pretty far for 6 kids and a 10 month old in a back pack… it was to far that day. But we did manage to walk to Log Jam rapid on the Kipawa river. Truely an amazing place, and these pictures don't do it justice… I can't imagine the river being at normal levels coming through there. It would definitely do some damage to what ever goes over those rocks to the right of the island. Nathan took a quick nap with their youngest daughter Aleigha. With it raining, I decided to give fishing a try. and here are a few of the results… All in all I caught about a half dozen 18-25 inch northerns that afternoon, and a couple walleye. the above one I caught after I went back to get Nathan because I was feeling guilty for having so much fun by myself. Silver hot-n-tot was the hot lure again trolling close to shore. http://s740.photobucket.com/albums/xx43/600milesnorth/?action=view&current=MVI_5612.mp4 Maybe my most impressive catch was this blue and silver hot-n-tot in the mouth of Dorval bay, just after the video above. Next morning we got into some Lakers which was a treat… I had never caught one before on Kipawa. We were trolling near shore again for morning Walleye and stumbled into him. On a Rapala Slash Bait. This one made Gavins trip. On a Rattlin Rapala. Taking the girls fishing… They liked holding the fish up when we got back… Fishing in the spillway of the dam… No luck fishing there for us… We headed to the chocolate factory in Villa-Marie then went to the Grande Chutes… by car this time. Above is the view standing on top of diving rock. Again pictures don't do it justice, it was impressive at low water, I am sure it is doubly impressive at higher levels. (Double Click on the above picture to view a video.) All in all we had a great week… No where near the impressive numbers the likes of Jay and T-bone put up. Averaging about 3 hours a day fishing, and sorry to say not even fishing the last two days much at all, I thought from past experience we shouldn't be disappointed. for me catching around 20 fish, getting to eat fish, and getting to do many other things on Kip, seeing new sites like Grande Chutes, and Log Jam. And being up there with great company makes it all worth while in the end packing up the van in the humid Ohio air. Memories for a life time… especially for a family of 5 from Indiana, who got to see Kipawa for the first time, and pretty sure left with it in there blood… just like the rest of us. Enjoy the rest of the pics… (Double Click on the above picture to view a video.) (Double Click on the above picture to view a video.) (Double Click on the above picture to view a video.) Haley's catch on the last day. CHEERS!!! Brad