With the recent cool down the bite has really picked up. Over the last few days I had the opportunity to Fish with Bob and Richard and Oh was the perch and Walleye fishing nothing short of SPECTACULAR. Due to the pretty cold temps, my camera didn’t want to cooperate, so sorry for no pics with this report.
We started fishing for perch mainly on the South end of the lake, near musky bay, in much shallower water then what we normally do this time of the year. We were fishing in 18 foot of water, basically off of the shoreline structure where the bottom transitioned from sand to gravel. The perch we there in all sizes, but by presenting larger Northalnd Buckshot rattle spoons tipped with large fathead minnow heads, we were able to convince numbers of 11-12 inch perch into biting.
THen as we got are fill of those magnum Winnie perch it was time to move on and see what we could find for walleyes. We would make a move out into the mid-lake structure, and within an hour after setting up on a small hump, the walleyes starting eating are baits. The best offering of the day was a 1/4 oz chartruese Buckshot rattle spoon tipped with a minnow head. The walleye bite has been strong for the last few days, and it is a day bite, which is pretty unusual for Winnie. Most of the fish that were seeing are those 14 inch eaters, but we have seen a few slot fish each day. It is a great time to get out there if your looking for action, as most anglers are finding numbers just about anywhere that they drill holes.
With ice condition just about perfect, one can enter the lake about anywhere. We are seeing veryy little snow on the lakes and 20-22 inches of great ice. So if your looking for some awesome perch and walleye fishing…Its happening on Winnie right now.
Nice report Sean!
hows it going sean i will visiting Big Winnie from feb 19- 22 along with 11 other newcomers as this will be our first trip and we are going out of Tamarack lodge i have a map basically just a depth map but out in front of tamarack looks fairly flat about five feet and was wondering if you would be so kind as to share any knowledge of where we should go from there and if there are any pressure ridges to watch for thanks in advance for any info.
keep those lines tight
Chromalone,
Welcome to In-Depthangling. The middle of February can be some fantastic fishing. Its hard to say exactly where you will need to go to find the best numbers, but one can bet that there will be some fish in Tamarack bay from the flats of Bowens down into the eastern corner. There is the riverchannel the comes from the North down into where your going to be staying, alot of times the perch fishing can be good along the channel in 20-30 feet.
If those areas are not producing much of the main lake will have numbers of anglers fishing in the better spots. Mainly the main lake is split into the Northend basin and the south end structure. Both areas hold good numbers. Your best bet would be fishing that Northend Basin. Most times we will be fishing 25-32 feet when fishing the North Basin.
As for pressure ridges, yep each year we see them. As of right now there is a ridge that runs from the bowens flats to the point of tamarack. I would be extremely careful on your traveling in Tamarack bay. Be sure to ask before you begin your traveling. As we get closer to your outing, keep an eye on the reports as I try to update the report at least weekly. The fishing has been pretty good so far, and as we head down the home stretch, it normally gets better..normally is key though.
Again welcome to the site and if you have more questions, please let me know.
Nice to meet you Sean. Keep the good reports coming.