The ice conditions continue to hang in there. As of this weekend we have 11-12 inches of ice.

ATV and snowmobile travel is what each angler is doing at this point. The most difficult part to the day is getting on the ice. We have been using the birches landing on the East shore and the shore ice is broken up. We have had to use the ramps from the trailer to get across, but after that the ice conditions are very good.

The fishing is very good, with are first sign of magnum perch showing up this weekend. We caught numbers of both walleyes and perch. Again we are concentrating on the smallest mid-lake humps. IF your not seeing action almost immediately, keep moving. The humps are producing all day.

Ice conditions have rapidly went south on us this week. In fact the mid lake cracks have opened up making the mid lake structure impossible to get to. If your planning on heading to Winnie, please use extreme caution.

I was on Winnie on 12/9 and the ice condition were good to great with 9″ covering most of the main body of Winnie. We traveled most of the lake by 4-wheeler. With the warm weather be careful if heading up anytime soon.

The fishing was nothing short of spectacular. We concentrated the efforts on the mid-lake humps. Look for most of the smallest humps to be holding the best numbers. A jigging spoon tipped with a minnowhead did the trick for us throughout the day.

Night fishing on winnie would be similiar to playing tennis with hockey skates. Not many people do it. I have tried it and you can find some fish, its not like Mille Lacs or other bodies that are successful.

In the end, if you willing, the fish might be willing.

Good Luck!

Arnie,

I’ll be on the water around 445 am and back to Bowens to pick up my customers at 800 am.

Looks like we might have a wet weekend, but it wouldn’t be opening weekend without rain or snow.

We are running channel 1 on the marine radio, see ya out there

I agree look to the deep humps on the Northend! Let us know how it goes over on bowstring.

Excellent,

The forcast looks great and least warm! Bens Bait has millions of perfect sized silver shiners. The water temps in are the upper 40’s to lower 50’s. The walleyes should be more then hungry.

Have fun, maybe will see ya out there

James,

It should be done in the next week or so. The crankin bite should be in full swing by the time you plan on coming up.

Good Luck.

Winnie continues to shine again this week. Most of the best action is coming from the mid-lakes humps. Jumping from hump to hump or bar to bar will keep the bite more consistent if it slows. Finding a hump that is holding good numbers is taking sometime most days.

The leeches behind a Lindy rig with a 7-10 foot snell is making for the best action, but the crawler bite is working from time to time or should I say hump to hump. The water depth is ranging from 24-32 foot pending on the piece of strucute and where the fish are holding on that structure.

We are at the middle to tail end of the mayfly hatch, so the bite will continue to build and look for a shorleine bite as the walleyes look for the young of the year.

We have seen more slot fish at this point this year then in any year that I have logged. So if your looking for some larger fish to go with those eaters, Winnie is producing both.

Its the quiet before the storm. Well it is good to be back and ready to start fishing. So with that being said, here is the latest report from Winni.

Water temps are above normal, on Saturday they were pushing 50 degrees with some areas warmer, and some cooler. Water levels are about 3 inches below normal, which is much higher then we have seen over the last couple of years on opener.
The male silver shiners are running right now. Ever bait shop in the area should have plenty of bait. Look for those typical early season areas to be outstanding this openeing weekend. I Will find the East shore of Tamarack bay early and then as the boat traffic continues to build I will start searching either the Northshore or the Tamarack point area.

So where does everone else plan on starting? It should be a great opener, the forcast looks great at this point. Sunshine and walleyes jumping in the boat, now that is going to be hard to beat.

See ya out there!

Scott,
I have not had much action this winter. Ice conditions on Winnie and many of the area lakes are bad. Slush and deep snow is making travel terrible. The perch action on WInnie is slow at best, I have only been on Winnie once, and we were chasing walleyes with even them tough to find.
RED lake continues to be the only bite spot to this point.

Tom,
Its amazing how dinner ends with kids nine months later. It must be something is the fish up here. Have you been fishing? I am finally going to get out and I’m thinking Red lake is going to be the trip.

Cold wet springs with ice covered lakes would be a guess.

Congrats to you as well!

Yes the crappies are still around. This last week I have heard numbers of good reports coming from both Hillmans and Rogers. 18-20 inches of ice is about the norm. The best bite seems to be coming from 2 PM until dark. Again those glow red jigs seem to be a good choice.

Hi All!

Yes we finally had are little one join us. Jerzie McKenna Colter was born on 12/30/04. All is well with baby and Mom. If all goes well I will be back chasing those fish real soon.
So now I have two daughters as fishing partners, life is great!

Thanks for the emails. We had a long night last night, but still no Baby. The start of sleepless nights I think is here, but what a great time to loose some sleep. I will keep ya informed.

Brian,
Winnie has been slow for the last two weeks or so. We are still finding the most activity along the weeds, mainly on the East shore from highbanks to musky bay. If the water temps start to cool we should see things come around, I hope. Jig and minnow continues to be the best option.

Brian,
I guess you could call this a very well kept secret of Winnie. There are a few guys that I guide with that chase them with fairly good success each year. I do not chase the Muskies at this point. But I would think if one guy could catch 5- 50 inchers in a season, the numbers must be OK. It may not have the true numbers like Leech and Cass, but I think it’s worth it since the sure pressure is not like Leech and Cass.

Well thats great. Those big fish make for some fun days. As the temps continue to drop, or I should say when the start to drop, we should see very good numbers of the nice fish. Thanks for letting us know about your trip….where did you end up catching these big ones? Where you jigging them up?

Yes the Winnie is no Mille LAcs as far as numbers of boats go, yes the spring can be busy but once the early season anglers are gone, she can be pretty bare out there.
Yes the musky guy is speaking the truth….he personally has caught 5 over 50 inches this year, and I have heard of at least 4-5 more at or over that mark.
For anyone that has not had the opportunity to fish Winnie, it surely has been an awesome fishery this last and with the slot limit being in place, getting better each year.

MPfish,
Did you find some fish this weekend?

Wow! Now that is a great post Brian. I thank you for the day and for the kind words. The bite remained the same thru this weekend. We should start to see a fall migration before to long. But with the water temps up and down this last week or so, those walleyes are not sure what direction to go. Take care and thanks again…

The weeds have been the place to be over the last few weeks. There are some fish holding out on some of the mid-lake structures but it has been inconsistent as to which stucrture the fish will be on each day. With the overnight temps cooling again this week I would think the shoreline bite will show itself very well. We have the last Winnie Walleye Tourney this weekend, maybe we will see ya out there…

Gilly,
The bite remains consistently good. Sugar Bar upto MAllard point on the West shore has some good numbers of pike, jumbo perch and walleyes. We have found the best bite to be on jigs and minnows in or near the weed egdes and worms and leeches for those deeper fish off of Sugar.
Wind is impostant with the shallow fish, but if your concentrating on the West shore most of the spots that you metioned have been good the last week or so. Good luck..

From day to night we have been on the run just about each minute of the day and to top it off, we have been delayed in our total remode of our house making it impossible to get to the computer.
Its been over a month since the power was shut off at the house, but it will get turned back on taody, I Hope, and I will be posting the upto date reports by Friday evening.
But the Fishing has been nothing short of awesome over the last month. Some days with these serious cold fronts coming through have been much more trying.
Winnie continues to shine with that 2001 class being a large part of each days catch. As of late the fish seem to be scattered from the weeds to the shoreline deeper flats and even out on the mid-lake structure. Jigs and minnows are working most days but this has found a more multi-specie catch.
Pokegama is where I have spent over 75% of my time in the last couple weeks to a month and it is where the big bites are coming from more consistently. The night bite has been a bit off as far as consistent catches are concerned, but most nights out with some patients and a run and gun method we have been getting bit. I do have some nice photo’s that I will try to post of some of the larger walleyes and bass that have come to the boat so far this night season. We have not hit the 30″ mark but we have some very healthy 26-29 inchers.
Sorry for the lack of reports this last month or so, but it should be full steam ahead from here on out.

Any specific color combination working better than another. I have always found the black and silver to be best.

We are starting to see good numbers of suspended fish out amoung the mid-lake humps and bars. So the time is right for those Salmo minnows or perch cranks.

Jack,
I have moved on and have taken a pile of pics since that incident. Thank you for the response, it may come in handy for someone in the future. This was a learning experience in my book. The big fish now is just a memory.

Nodaks phone number is 1-800-752-2758.

Jason,
Bowen Lodge is the perfect place for the family. There is always something to do outside of the fantastic fishing that Winnie/Cutfoot is offering. You will be very happy with this choice and so will the family. Take care and enjoy.