Lake Winnibigoshish, MN Fishing Report

At 23 Degree at 4:00 AM on this opener of 2004 it would be a problem that likely led to a very unsuccessful onepening day for many. Cold temeratures mixed with a steady wind that increased throughout the day caused for many unlucky anglers this year on Winnie. We had very good results considering the day. We managed to find a nice group of eater walleyes along with a number of slot fish to make for a pretty good opener. Here is the first slot fish of the year for me, it was a 25" that was in need of some food, she was very slender.

The at dawn bite was no better then slow for us. THe fish were extremly spread out making for a get one here and one there for each spot that we tried. Around 10:00 AM we headed to Tamarack point to find a fairly large school of fish working the river channel in 9-12 feet of water with an occasional fish coming from as deep as 14 feet. Keying in on small points that dipped out into the river channel worked best for us. Sticking with the 1/16 oz Lindy MaxGap jig tipped with a chub or small shiner was what we used to get these fish to bite. Jig color was not as important as size. THe key to the technique was the lack of motion used with the jigs. A small up and down motion followed by 10-20 seconds of dragging seemed to outproduce all other jigging methods today. Here is another slot fish caught by Bob. Great fish Bob.

I think that most anglers were either fishing to fast today or to shallow. With the water temps in the mid to upper forties the fish were sluggish to say the least. THe bite is only going to get better as the shiners move shallow and that water temps warms up. With the winds switching directions again tonight, I will likely try fishing the North shore, but the fish at Tamarack will likely hold in this area for weeks on end.