have not seen any reports come from Winni, what has been going on? There’s a couple groups of fellow IDO’ers driving up in a few weeks for the last weekend of walleye/pike season, but we are really after the perch. Anything is appreciated, and if any info is good, Woody will buy you a couple beers. 
With the weather being up and down so has the fishing. Some days the bite is really good and the next you got to work for them. That’s fishing though, right? This past weekend we had great action for perch, tullies with some nice walleyes and pike mixed in. I’ve had the best action right at the bottom of the main lake bars in 28-32 of water. Find inside or outside turns, some little features always seems to help anyways.
You rock Nathan! 
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have not seen any reports come from Winni, what has been going on? There’s a couple groups of fellow IDO’ers driving up in a few weeks for the last weekend of walleye/pike season, but we are really after the perch. Anything is appreciated, and if any info is good, Woody will buy you a couple beers.
If all it cost’s me is a couple of beers to get on fish, then I’ll buy away! 
Hey Chomps, we are going to be a couple weeks behind you this year. Going up March 7-10.
Be sure to leave the orange flags out for us!! We’ll mail you the beer.
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Hey Chomps, we are going to be a couple weeks behind you this year. Going up March 7-10.
Be sure to leave the orange flags out for us!! We’ll mail you the beer.
After last year I wouldnt trust those flags….. 
there are some tree branches out on the ice where you will need to head south. Just look for the yellow snow. That’s the weekend we are headed to Bitter Lake in SD
I know some guys that just got back from Bitter Lake in SD. They did pretty good on the perch, lots of 11-12 inchers. I might make a trip there next year……
On another note, nobody really has any info on Winnie. I don’t know how promissing this year is going to be.
Going to have to do more of this
I think my brother is going up this weekend, will keep everyone posted. Woody, I’ll stay in touch as it is getting closer everyday. Bitter is only 3 hours for us, it is truely a remarkable perch factory at the top of the population and size curve. Much like Winni was back 17 years ago. I remember a trip where it never got above 0 degrees and the wind really was driving the snow around. We got stuck out from Highbanks and decided to just drill a few holes and ended up throwing back the pirch that didn’t touch the the 5 gallon pail with both the nose and the tail. So how big is the opening of a 5 gallon bucket? About everybody had a bucket full. Remember it well, the wife was prego with our youngest daughter, thought about skipping the trip, but she insisted that I go. There’s many, many fond memories from our annual trip to Winni, and most don’t involve catching fish.
there was a solid 12-14 inches of snow on the ice prior to yesterday, now add 8-10 on top and it spells trouble for off road truck travel. Plan on having a sled if you don’t want to walk. Fishing report was ok, nothing special, but hope for a warm up to settle the snow. Highbanks had the best road system, I’m sure they will be busy getting them re-opened.
Did you look at Nodak’s road?
no, the fish on that side of the lake had their mouths sewen shut 
Round was pretty decent last year. Lots of 10’s with an occasional slob. So far, I haven’t heard anything about it this year.
Here’s Nodaks page regarding conditions before the snow yesterday. I’m not sure if they even have an extensive road system plowed. Nodaks page
I’m going to head west tomorrow and to check on the bite. Hopefully have a good report to share.
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I’m going to head west tomorrow and to check on the bite. Hopefully have a good report to share.
Any info would be helpful. One week from now Ill be up there and lake conditions are going to put a hamper on getting around.
Lake conditions are going to hamper you getting around. Was out there yesterday a caught some decent perch and a few stinkers. Spent most of the time digging out house and moving it to high ground.
wish us luck, we are off at o-dark thirty to out race the storm we are going to get. Have a text from Woody and he said that the roads needed to be re-opened because they blew shut. I’m sure we will meet up, we are going to use Highbanks road system and hope that we can get on top of a nice batch of fish, we are staying on Portage lake and have plans to use one of their shacks one evening and try to catch a mess of crappies. Stay thirsty my friends!
Good luck Iowegian!!!!!
Good Luck. I have been hearing rumblings of a decent perch bite in about 11 ft. on the west shore. Access at Trappers Rd..
How did it go???
If you don’t have a sled, it will be extra hard to move around and relocate. We found that every move resulted in 4-5 bigger perch. Trouble is by the time I move 2 or 3 times I was bushed! We did better out by Zoomers. We did try the River Bar and Sugar Point on the West side on the Trappers road, not too impressed as the fish were generally smaller and the ratio of small fish to keepers (over 9 inches) was much greater. When sunny we used the gold lures and mostly no meat. Out by Zoomers you can drill on the deeper channels up onto the flats and catch a few every hole, after you catch your 3-4 jumbos move, but as I said, there’s only so much I could take of fighting the snow and slush. The last two days I was fighting a sore knee, and that didn’t help matters at all. I would say the Trappers road system was far better than Highbanks. I met Woody and his buddy for a few beers and some grilled goodies, he was seeing the same thing, and he was south of us out on Zoomers.
DId you leave some markers out there for me?
the first day we pulled out onto the ice, went to turn on the GPS and nothing. Buddy had “new” batteries, so I stuck those in, nothing. Thought I had broken it 
when I fell on a frozen ice drift the night before. Went to the brothers truck and saw a pair of batteries, popped those in, bam! she fired right up. Problem is we were on our way off the lake the last day and I couldn’t mark any of the spots we were at. The area you were at last year is only assessible with snowmobiles, and even at that, there’s more snow blown in and more slush under the snow. The jumbo’s should be moving in there soon though.
We’ve got some ideas. Other lakes as well.
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