First time to Winnie…

Looks like I will he heading up for 3 days this week. I have never been up before, but it looks like a structure laden wonderland.

I read about fishing jigs and shinners in shallower water. Are these casted and retrieved or fished vertically? Does fishing occur off shore or closer to the shore line?

I plan on bringing rond for long lining, rigging and jigging.

Please help at getting me started in the right direction. We will be staying in the Cut Foot and working from there.

Was up on Winnie 05-30-10, fished mostly High Banks area and some of the humps, caught some fishing not fast and furious but consitent. If you are coming out of Cutfoot you will have multiple spots close by, the North shore is usually pretty good along with a lot of humps off shore close by. The fish were still on shiners then but I did catch 2 on spinner/crawler combination when we decided to cover some water. If you have GPS/w chip just find a hump work it, if you catch one stay if not move on, there are a bunch out there on the North end. If no GPS just follow the boats they will be out there. Winnie’s bite is very wind driven so fish the wind and you should do fine. Don’t be afraid to cover water until you locate fish.

I just spent 8 days up there and the fishing was very good. 6 of us came home with limits and we ate fish most every day.

Location – Thats the million $ question on the structure laiden lake as you called it. We literally caught fish on 10 different spots during our trip. Whats good one day may not be the case the next. A couple of go to spots include Mallard and Stony point, Tamarack Bay and High Banks. These are all “shore line” or flat type structures. The fish are starting to transition to the mid lake humps. Best advice on these is to fish the humps closets to shore this time of year. Of coarse these are all “big lake” locations. Im not overly familar with Cut Foot, but would recommend wind blown points and shore lines.

Bait – If shiners are still available, get them. Fish shiners or fat heads with 1/8 or 1/16 ounce jig head depending on conditions – the lighter the better. We also has good luck rigging leaches and crawlers as well as catching some on crank baits.

Hope this helps – good luck!

Good luck

Fished Winnie/Cutfoot more than 50 weeks over the last 50 years. Check out what is happening on Cutfoot when you buy bait – we always caught the biggest/most eyes in Cutfoot. If you’re fishing the humps, don’t be surprised if a big northern grabs your bait (or a hooked walleye as you fight it) especially as you turn at the end of bars. At times the walleyes are stacked at the opening before going from Cutfoot into the channel to Winnie. Stealth mode is essential for that shallow flat.

Was up there last August and trolled leadcore with shad raps 12 to 18′ in winnie to 15 to 20′ in cutfoot of water and got alot of walleye, but most of them were to big to keep. Switched to trolling spinners & minnow/leech and caught more eaters. Wish I could go back this year.

Thanks for the information. This will get me going.