The Perch bite on Winnie continues to be good on the west side of the lake.
Our guests this weekend did pretty well on the west side of the lake. There are still fish hanging in the 22-30 foot depths between Raven’s Point and Mallard Point. They did especially well in the Raven’s Rocks area.
Zoomers is still giving up a lot of fish. The key is to use light tackle and drill alot of holes along the break. Keep moving until you find active fish and stay away from the crowds.
They continue to bite very light, so paying attention is critical. Much of the time, you don’t even realize there is a fish on the end of the line.
The Walleye bite is mainly happening in the low light hours of the day. Moxies hole, Perch Bar and several of the mid-lake humps are giving up fish in 18-26 FOW.
While the cold front this weekend slowed things down a little bit, the people who are working at finding the active fish had very good luck.
As always, good fishing and be sure to post any questions or comments.
Jeff
The key is to use light tackle and drill alot of holes along the break.
you talk about fishing along the “break”, what do you mean? Should I be looking at the lake map and fishing the areas that drop off into deeper water?
We will be headed North on Thursday, so any information would be great.
Thanks,
JP
I had the pleasure of staying at Tamarack this past weekend. Jeff runs a great operation. I was pleasantly pleased to see how he has worked hard to keep his cabins in good conditions. I also found his rates to be very competitive. If you are looking for a place to stay on Winnie, I highly advise looking at Tamarack.
In regards to the bite:
I can’t really add much more than Jeff provided. I think there was a great disparity between the “haves” and the “have nots” this past weekend. In speaking with the CO’s and my on ice chatter revealed there were a lot of guys struggling. The good news is the fish are there and the fish will bite. I think the cold front was our biggest barrier.
I made a lot of moves and did a lot of hole hopping, but spent too much time coaxing sniffers. I found aggressive jigging did a good job calling fish in, but it took a real subtle approach to get bites. Minnows under a float worked better than a jigging spoon with a minnow head.
We found overall Rainy River shiner worked best under the float. We tried mayfly larvae, which worked pretty well at times but most of the time on par with other approaches.
A group that was staying at Tamarack was using a very unorthodox presentation that seemed to produce well. I didn’t approach them to get details and my observation left me stumped.
Bowhuntr24 and I put 18 on the ice on Friday and 16 on Saturday.
Sully
Mayfly larva? Always wondered where to get a fly which resembled this, I have hooked the larve which were spit out on the ice with some luck, especially when it is slow. Do you have something in mind that you would substitute? We maybe giving Tamarak a shout for next year.
Mayfly larva did the trick when the bite seemed to slow in an area, to change things up seemed to work well. We found the mayfly larva at Lucky’s bait in Grand Rapids. The gal that ran the place was very informative with all the area lakes and really predicted exactly what we found in the bite this weekend. Almost all the perch this weekend were spitting up the larva when on the ice. I guess you learn something new everyday.
We were also informed you could find the larva at Denny’s Resort on the south side. I was very pleased with the bait at Lucky’s. It’s my new bait stop.
Sully
Can you explain this “unorthodox” technique a bit? I’m kinda curious. Some would call handlining unorthodox….
I wouldn’t call handlining unorthodox, but rather a creative presentation to have in one’s quiver.
This is what I saw from a distance:
Three foot heavy action ice rods with about a 12″ cylinder (I will assume it was a weight) with a two foot dropper below it leading to a hook. The rods were constantly under load.
A heavy jigging spoon such as a Kastmaster with a dropper, that I can understand, but I don’t know what the deal was with the huge weight. The perch were purging these larva constantly so maybe the weight did a good job of banging bottom and stirring up the larva which was a good attractant. That was my only theory.
I’m very curious to hear someone else try to explain this to me.
Sully
Sounds like something similar to the rig described in the “Crappie Droppers” article in the current/recent in-fish.
Sounds like I need to catch up on my reading. I’ve been trying to get my rods made for the year and then catch up on my reading. I will read that article tonight.
Thanks for the heads up Jason.
Sully
It was your notion of thumping the bottom with a heavy weight that made the connection for me. One of the issues in the article was using the weight to puff up a bunch of bottom debris and get some fish into the area. Then, the rod was kept under load to help detect light biters.
Can someone tell me where Lucky’s Bait is at in Grand Rapids, need to get someone there who is coming from the other direction (East)
Lucky Bait is on the North side of 2 between Grand Rapids and Deer River I believe. If I remember they have a pretty large sign. They weren’t hanger rods were they? Just something to get the bait back down faster?
Looks like it was 3.5 miles west of Grand Rapids. Check out the website.
Lucky Bait
Sully
I don’t know what a hanger rod is.
If I had to guess, I would say the weight was around 3 ounces. It would get the bait down there quicker, but that seems excessive.
Maybe Jeff at Tamarack knew would they were doing and will reveal the “secret”.
Sully
That’s all a hanger rod does is get the bait back down quicker. I have never used them or seen them used but a guy I fish with on Winnie tells me they were quite popular a number of years ago.