Winnie Walleyes……where are the big ones???

Sean it seems like you are the go to guy on this site like Steve and Dustin are on the FTR site but if anyone has any tips that would be great.
I have been fishing Winnie my whole life, we always have great success in the spring and do well the rest of the year but we can’t seem to catch bigger fish consistantly. I am going to be up there May 14th -18th camping in Cutfoot and 23rd-26th maybe camping maybe staying at the cabin in Longville and driving up.
Last year over that same period we did manage to catch and release a few over 24″, I know the big ones are around but where?? Typically we fish the north end and Big CutFoot and we primarily jig fish. Last year I tried some spinners and cranks on boards as well with pretty limited success. Any tips you have on where and how to catch a few good ones for pictures would be greatly appreciated.
If you were out during that time last year you may have heard me chatting on the VHF with a couple local guys one has a cabin on Highbanks(retired dentist)…anyways…I go by Buckshot or John-boy.
Thanks
John

I will be up there this year from the 17th to the 20th. We go up there this time of year every year. In years past people in our group have boated quite a few 25″ to 27″ fish. Like you, we stay in Cutfoot and fish mainly the north end of the lake. Last year we caught a 25″ and a couple 26″ fish on a rock pile on the north end. I have also seen many nice fish pulled from the Gap. Most of the bigger fish in the Gap have come from Lindy rigs if I remember right. I know that trolling cranks in the shallow produces well in the fall, maybe you want to try that. Good luck and I’ll see you out there. What channel are people usually on up there?

I am usually on channel 19. Where do you stay when you go??

Buckshot,
IT seems that most of the time we are after numbers of fish early in the season and we do catch a fair amount of 24-27 inch fish along the shorelines. I would say that most of the bigger fish quickly move to the deeper water structure or there summertime hideouts. If you are looking for strickly bigger fish I would suggest fishing deeper structure. The South end of the lake normaly produces more numbers of bigger fish early, mainly the main bars like Bena, Moses and Horseshoe. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to try hitting the deeper water along those same shorelines that you normally fish. One area that normally produces better numbers of big fish on the North End is the river channel that runs from the gap to plughat point. There are planty of nice deep holding areas for the larger fish and when the bite moves to the tamarack area, we tend to find bigger fish. With all the traffic Winnie has during the spring it seems the larger fish scare easier and move to the deeper water until low light conditions or after dark. I rarely chase size on Winnie, but those that do, are chasing fish much deeper and normally pulling rigs with crawlers.

Hope this helps, Good Luck and See ya or Maybe hear ya on the Water.

Thanks Sean. That is kind of what I figured and I was going to try some new things. It is just strange that on Mille Lacs you can catch a 15 incher and turn around and bang a 28 and go back and forth on the same spot and that just doesn’t seem to happen in Winnie….unless the wind is blowing like a son of a gun and even then the big ones are fewer.

It will happen soon like Milacs because of the slot on Winnie we are starting to see more and more big fish in the early season compared to years before. One thing that you want to note is that Winnie is absolutely loaded with baitfish, it seems that no matter if your deep or shallow, there is plenty of baitfish to hold good numbers and it seems that the bigger fish tend go where there is less competetion for the same amount of food. Once you find a general location to where the big fish are located, IE deep rocks, this pattern will hold on the rest of the lake most days. The time that your here I would highly suggest the River channel out near Tamarack Point.