Opener

Howd the opener go for everyone ?

Caught 10 yesterday - mixed bag of walleye, pike and bass. Working the minnows in the south shore.

Nice! Did you or others find lots of floating debris while boating due to the high waters ?

Nice

I went out for only a couple hours in my kayak. Got 9 walleye, no keepers but several were just a couple cm short. Also got a nice pike and a bunch of smallmouth bass. Minnows seemed to work best. Fished along the south shore. Lots of debris floating around, I even towed a rather large deadhead back to shore. MNRF were out checking but not a lot of boats out.

Good for you ZzzAngler.
Waters too cold for me to venture out in my kayak yet...surface temp still just 9-10C off the main lake on the south shore. My adjustable boat lift (and dock for that matter) is unusable because of lake water levels...soo unless I want to just beach it on shore, it will be awhile before I even attempt to launch my boat.
There was virtually no boat traffic in our area of the lake all weekend...weather, I'm sure had something to do with it...but there's not many usable docks above water to moor a boat to.
Several camp operators near us have said a few reservations cancelled this weekend based on news media reports of flooding and high water levels on Nipissing.
I hope this doesn't affect their bookings going further into the summer. Not a great start to the spring on the lake.
The only silver lining to the higher, cooler water levels could be better fishing conditions throughout the summer...IMO. The most recent higher water year, about 10 years ago...was an exceptional fishing year for our group.
Just not sure, yet, when I'll be able to get out on the lake regularly.

Isn't it a bit odd when guys are catching 10 - 20 Walleye, yet no keepers? Where are the keepers hiding? By the law of averages, it seem a little odd to me, but, maybe I'm off in that.
Just wondering,
We planning a trip in July, but wonder if there are better Walleye destinations.

Definitely pretty odd

Very limited fishing for us. East wind, cold, rain... caught 4 from shore Sat night. 2 keepers. I was surprised we caught anything. Conditions certainly not ideal. Water is very high (obviously) but also very dark. Picked 10 dozen nightcrawlers though.. they will come in handy July/Aug.

Friday night would have been the night to put fish in the boat before the weather hit but all we could do was get lines ready and look at the lake.

Thanks Grumpa. Water at my place is also too high to put out our dock and boat lift. That’s why I just wheel my kayak down to the water and launch it from my shoreline. It’s actually easier with the high water level. I’m sure there are plenty of keepers out there but I couldn’t venture too far from home in the kayak to some of my usual spots because of distance and waves. I thought I did pretty good considering I was fishing within sight of my home and only out a couple hours 😁

not very many over the slot size , but we crushed them !!!
alot of solid fish in the 15 - 17" range , minnows worked well but plastics were the real winner this weekend
the weather could have been a little better but a solid opening weekend !!

With water levels and wind being a factor,no launching the boat(launches closed) and trying to respect others in much worse situation from flooding than myself,we didn't even put the 14 foot aluminum in the water.We shore fished and caught bass,perch,bass and pike....pretty much catfishapalooza.At least we wet some lines and drank,ate and laughed...a bunch of fun for the opener anyways,

Fishing, drinking, eating and laughing... that’s a win in my books.

So far so good since opener... Got 16 waleye 1 keeper but she went back to swim another day ..4 smallies allso returned ..8 cat fish...3 pike nothing to right home about ..lol ...2 perch ..and 1 sunfish ...not to bad of a start to the season in my books ..all on jigs and minnows. It will only get better that was only in 3 of my spots ...off shore.

Nice job everyone!