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If at first you don't succeed...


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Try...Try again.

Spent the weekend running around Winni trying to find fish. Finally in the eleventh hour we found them. Had a very nice walleye bite with a few nice perch mixed in and really good action until about 6:00, and then things shut down. But the 2-3 hours before then was pretty good, plenty of marks. Spottails, Fatheads, it didn't seem to matter. Setlines and bobbers setups seemed to work the best, one guy had a hot streak with a buckshot spoon.

3 of us released about 4 protected slot fish and lost one really nice something (walleye or pout?), also hit a daytime spot and nabbed 3 pike, with 2 of them for the dinner table.

We stayed on the move all weekend and put in our time. We were the last to leave the parking lot both days. With some cold in the forecast and 6-12" of snowcover, I expect there will be some roads out of the resorts soon. I saw a few places had gotten plowed by Sunday by someone. Until then, there shouldn't be a problem running snowmobiles or 4 wheelers.

Just stay on the move. If you aren't getting fish, try another spot. We hits bars, humps, flats, transitions, everything we could. Used a full tank of gas for a sled and an ATV by the end of the Sunday, and we found the fish just in time.

Good luck, and watch out for huge suckers. We pulled out two big ones in the middle of the walleye bites!

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Da Chise31 Did you pickup the spottails locally up there.I may be coming up in the next couple of weeks and was interested in picking some up.Also does anyone around there sell wigglers.Good to hear you rallied in the ninth grin.gif

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Yeah, Fred's in Deer River had them. They also have wigglers I believe, although I bought a few of them for a different lake on Friday night...Bought those on the little gas station on the west end of Rapids....

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Wiggelers are like a small nymph that you have to hook in the collar/neck and they can be dynamite! Mainly a Wisconsin bait. Have never seen'em in Minnesota since moving here.

Work great for perch, and are a tad spendy in my opinion.

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Wigglers are a mayfly larva that live in muddy or silty areas of lakes. Look during a hatch in the summer and you will see the skins floating on the surface.

Jar Jar

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One thing Ive learned using wigglers is to use them where they live.By this I mean the larva hatch out of the mud and that is where the perch ive caught were biting on them.Others may have had different results but Ive fished with them on sand bottoms and not had near the success as fishing a muddy basin.They are a very fragile bait to use and a little pricey but from time to time may be the best option going..Good Luck Out There.........

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