Jumbo Perch on Lake Winnie have been a little finicky during the last couple of weeks. The unstable weather seems to be keeping a lot of fish looking rather than biting. However….
The west side of the lake between Zoomers and Mallard is holding a lot of fish. Stay on the move and away from the crowds and you will get some really nice Perch. Gold Swedish Pimples with a fathead have been working good. We’ve also had good luck with anything that glows. 26 – 30 feet of water. Be sure to stir up the bottom on your initial drop as this draws the fish in.
Other locations that have been active are the old river channel in Tamarack Bay and the 30 foot main lake break between Richards Town Site and what used to be Judd’s resort.
Once you have located fish, a subtle approach seems to work best. The bite is often very light so you need to pay close attention. There are a lot of “sniffers” out there, don’t spend too much time on them, move to another location. With the cold weather this past weekend, moving around was difficult. Many people just waited out the unwilling fish and picked off the ones that were willing to bite. In this case, patience paid off but usually did not produce limits of fish.
As always, questions and comments are welcome.
Good Fishing!
Jeff
I’m guessing a good spring bobber would help a person out?
I’ve never used an underwater camera up there. Is anyone useing them with any luck? Maybe at that depth it’s too dark anyway.
See PM
A good spring bobber is very helpful. Many people are using cameras, but a lot of them get very frustrated watching all the fish that don’t bite.
I been there and done that! I don’t know what’s worse, not seeing any fish or seeing them snub your bait!
Jeff, why is it in the winter that we only hear about the perch bite on Winnie. Where to all the eyes go?
We’ve seen the Winter Walleye bite get much better than it ever was in the past. The 2001 year class of fish is the biggest year class ever recorded on lake winnie. Those fish really started getting people interested in the Winter Walleye’s on Winnie. However, the lake is known for it’s Jumbo’s through the ice and that’s what a lot of people come here for. If you were to come specifically for Walleyes, I think you could have some pretty good luck.
I don’t know that the fish actually disappear in the Winter, I think you just don’t hear as much about them because of the focus people have on the Perch.
Anyway, that’s my theory.
We were up on winni a few weeks ago with a group of about 20. Some had camera’s, but didn’t do any better.
The spring bobber on the St. Croix Legend was great. An expensive little bugger, but you can adjust the sensitivity and it really made a difference on the light biters.