Lake Winnibigoshish, MN…Fishing Report

The bite remains about the best in the area right now on Winnie. Numbers of people are having success, and it seems that just about each part of the lake is producing at one point or another throughout the day. The fish are still spread out in water depth. Anglers continue to find fish in the 6-8 foot of water, other are finding them in 8-10 feet of water and still some are finding them in 10-15 feet. This is a great sign to me that the lake is extremely healthy and full of walleyes. Sunday I had the opportunity to fish with Brian, Gary and Doug, and we had a wonderful day, even though the conditions were cold and windy we found active fish on the Northshore near Farley crrek down to the big Bushy tree. Most of the walleye that we caught on Sunday came from 12-15 feet of water again. Here is Brians 23 incher.

The morning bite has been slower for us each and every day until Sunday. Even though they were liking the new MAXGAP jigs by Lindy with the Blood thirsty hooks, they did not want them jigged very aggressively unitl mid-day. The areas that have the deepest water near a flat seem to be producing the most consistent action each day for us. We have up the jig weights from 1/16 oz to 1/8 0z and they seem to perfer that larger target. Tipping the jigs with those spot-tail silver shiners is still producing the best. I have played with plastics from time to time and I just have not seen a real big interest in them yet. Once the water warms up a few more degrees I will be using them much more. Here is Gary with his bigeest walleye of the day, it was 19.5 inches. We again are seeing slot fish each day and those 12-16 inchers are making for some great pole bending days right now.

So after Sunday and seeing the Vexilar lite up all day long with schools of Walleyes on the Northshore, Monday we would head back to those same areas to find water and no fish. We worked the Northshore inside and out to show very little for the efforts. We made a short run to Mallard point to find only a few walleyes and the ones we did find weere scattered from 8-15 foot. So I told Roger, Uncle Ben and Cameron that we need to make a long run back to Tamarack point is hopes that we would find that active school. We made the 8 mile track back to the River channel and it was a great move, the walleyes and Jumbo perch were working the channel were the new weed growth had started. The area that we found was a dead giveaway, no there wasn’t a boat in the area, yep that seems unual for Winnie but as we came around the corner and started looking for those fish on the Vexilar I spotted a large group of Seaguls diving into the water near the slat south of Three Sisters. Instantly I told the guys that they had to be picking the bait out the the fish were pushing up and that’s exactly what was happening. They, the fish had a very large school of baitfish pushed up against the edge of the river channel in 8-10 feet of water and we had some of the best fishing of the year for numbers of all sized walleyes and 12-13 inch perch. Here is one of the better walleyes for Ben. Ben thanks for a great trip and a bunch of great stories.

On this day Cameron and Roger tantilized one another and Roger ended up getting the big fish for the day. IT was a very healthy 22 incher. We are starting to find some nice pockets of perch, it seems that the perch are working the same general areas that the walleyes are, but the key to finding the perch is moving a foot or two shallower. I will hopefully be making a trip to Red Lake in the next week or so, but it sure will be difficult to get off of Winnie as the bite continually gets better each day.