Lake Nipissing in my part of the world closes to ice fishing on March 15th every year and becomes a sanctuary for 2 months to protect the spawn and then reopens for soft water. Still lots of ice (26 inches of black structural ice measured on Friday). My plan was to fish the 14th (Friday) and 15th (Saturday). Friday was beautiful weather and great snowmobiling conditions. Setup without the shelter and fished open air all day - temp was 55F. Bite was average through the course of the day:

Landed 9 walleye - 7 under and 2 over - no slot eyes. This guy was 18.25 inches - so close:



Setup in the sun:



Also managed 10 perch in the 10 to 12 inch range and some smaller guys that were put back:



Got checked by big brother twice and one of the gents seemed very social and hung around chatting for 20 minutes and was picking my brain about tackle and locations. Caught 2 perch while he was there.

Later in the day another gent named John stopped by on an ATV. He introduced himself and said that he recognized my sled and toboggan from past trip reports posted on another local fourm. Apparently i had given him some good advice earlier this year in response to a query he posted and he wanted to thank me. We chatted for about 20 mintes during which time i landed a 14.75 inch walleye.

On Saturday morning i looked at the forecast and it looked very wet. So decided to take the day off and call it a season. Really didn't need anymore fish anyways as it has been a great season.

Recapping the 2025 Nip hardwater season i typically try to get 12 to 15 days on the ice. This year i did 8. The reduction was not because of lack of opportunity but because the fishing was so good this year that i just didn't need to go out with so many in the freezer.

Numbers for the year were this:

- 312 fish landed
- about 50 of those were walleye with 12 slot keepers
- 6 burbot landed including two beasts at 34.5 inches and 35.5 inches
- 6 pike landed all about 18 to 24 inches
- one lonely cisco
- one 4lb smallmouth bass
- balance were perch with about 180 of them ranging from 10 to 13 and 1/8th inches. We have been eating perch non-stop to keep under our possession limits

Few select pics from the season:

Burb:



Slot eye:



Over slot eye:



One of multiple 2025 fish frys:



First outing of 2025:



Perhaps my favorite shot of 2025 when i got some family out:



So until next January signing off the Nip hardwater reports. One trip to Abitibi (This is a remote 350 square mile back lake that is not road accessible in winter - have to snowmobile through the bush 12 miles) planned for April and report will get posted then.

Great report, pictures and fish. It looks like you had a great season. Those were some big burbot.

Looks like a great season. Glad you got to have others enjoy it with you.

Congrats on the awesome 2025 hardwater season. I'll be looking forward to your soft water reports....