The perch and walleye fishing has been going well on Winnibigoshish. With the ice approaching two feet thick, a limited number of pressure ridges, and minimal drifting (prior to the wind on Saturday) travel around the lake has been pretty easy. Over the past two weeks I’ve tried sand, gravel, rocks, and mud. They have all produced perch and walleye, but some areas have produced better than others.
Bena, Center, Moses, and Sugar bars are all producing fish, as well as shoreline related structure and various other humps out on the lake. I save a lot of time by being able to shoot through the ice with my Marcum LXi. I can determine where the top, bottom, and sides of the structure are without drilling extra holes. I have been keying in on shallower water near the top of structure early and late in the day for walleyes and down deeper for perch during the day. Most of my perch have been coming out of 28’-30’ and the walleyes have been coming in from 20’-24’ with a couple walleyes mixed in deeper and some perch mixed in shallower.
We have been using the Glow Devils in various colors. On most days the color hasn’t seemed to matter too much, but on other days one color will definitely out produce others. The most consistent color and size has been the glow/chartreuse/green or the glow/firetiger in the 1/8 oz. size. If you are getting more lookers than takers it’s time to change colors. We have been using small crappie minnows up to larger fatheads. While the cold front was moving in on Saturday minnow heads produced just as many as whole minnows.
A limit of perch and/or a limit of walleyes isn’t uncommon. If you’re not catching fish move. When you move, you don’t necessarily have to move far. Moving twenty-five feet can make the difference of not catching any to going home with a limit. When the weather is nice it makes moving easier, but on Saturday afternoon it sure was nice to be able catch all our fish on one spot. My Polar fish house kept us plenty warm despite the bitterly cold wind chill outside.