lack of updates, read between the lines

[the bobber]

i am coming up this thursday for the 19th year on winnie. i have been watching posts for several weeks to get on top of whats going on and it seems that there are fewer updates this year. i check the fishing reports not only on this forum but the resorts in the area, as well as the local guides and baitshops that post fishing reports, and most of them have not been updating regularly. what this tells me, for whatever reason, fishing hasn't been that great.

thanks to jason boser, nodak lodge and highbanks for staying current with reports, even when fishing has only been fair. i remember not too long ago when one resort that is gone now, always reported a "hot bite" even when we had just been up on his roads that weekend and nobody was catching anything. the weather has been tough this winter, and the forecast is calling for steady weather with slowly rising temps. hopefully all the fish have been waiting for us to get there to start biting. we always stay at nodak's and our loyalty to them is returned to us with their best effort to put us on active fish. special note to fellow fm'ers perchjerker and weener, i see you'll also be there the same time, maybe we should trade war stories at the lodge. we are in cabin two maroon suburban with a red/white (bobber colored) car topper on top. our hats also read "jerkperchers" across the back. we might try cutfoot or bowstring for crappies instead of url since it doesn't sound too encouraging, but it was fun while it lasted.

the bobber

[PikeBayCommanche]

Don't be to discouraged. You never know, the bite changes very often right now. They can change every few days. I think that you have a great chance from some of the people I have talked to recently to get on some nice Jumbos and Walleyes in the evenings.

Thats why they call it fishing, you never know how the catching will go.

You will have fun am sure of that and I think that you could do fine on Winne.

If not head to Blackduck or over to Cass and give them a shot.

Good Luck!

[the bobber]

thanks for your response pikebaycomanche. we're certainly not discouraged. in fact, due to the stable forecast, we're anticipating the bite to be better this weekend. combine this with the endless winter storms and tough fishing there should be plenty of fish for us to find. just the ramblings of an anxious angler with 2 days to kill before we get there. over the years we've encountered every imaginable weather condition,even though we always go the same week. in '95 we had 50 degrees and shirtsleeves, the following year the high was -15 with -70 windchills. we've stood on three feet of snow on the ice, and fished when there a foot of water from melting snow on top of the ice. not knowing what to expect is half the adventure. i notice you are from ames IA. my nephew just graduated from ISU, as did my wife's sister and both my father and mother in law. if i still had someone in the area i would try your wine, but for now i'll have to stick with my two buck chuck!

[Weener]

I'm hoping the weather warming up may do the trick. I'm guessing we'll be on the west side somewhere. We usually game plan the night before.

I don't know what days we'll be on Winnie, but I will stop by and say hi if I see you. I'll have my black and tan Explorer and I know who else is driving up. We stay at our hunting shack and usually take the wheelers out.

Good luck.

[HIGHBANKS]

We survived another strike from Mother Nature this past weekend on Sunday into Monday. It hit within a matter of minutes, strong northwesterly winds late in the afternoon on Sunday causing for white out conditions. We closed our access for the day on Monday. With this system on the forefront, the bite was slower on Saturday. The best reports were coming in from Zoomers in 22' of water. Our houses were producing some fish in shallow, but not as consistent as we had been seeing. We've been back out and reopening roads. The upcoming weekend's weather looks pleasant with temps in the mid 20's. We'll keep our fingers crossed that the barometer stabilizes with the weather!!

[Fishn addict]

I've had great luck for the past 3 years now on the north west corner of the lake. The High Banks is the closest and has the best road system out to that area. They do a great job on there road system and are very helpful Rick and Kim run a 1st class operation. I would highly recommend them to anyone. Last weekend there were 6 of us up and kept 55 perch with 75% of them being 10"+ with some 9" mixed in to make a meal for all 6 of us. I have never had trouble getting at least 1 limit of nice perch in that area. We release many 9" and under. Some times you really have to nurse them back to health to get them back down the hole. I fish deep water even when they they say the fish are moving up shallow. I also use a bobber and a minnow (fathead) from 8" to 24" off the bottom. Tried jigging, but a minnow and a bobberwith a plain colored hook has always worked best. Or mabey I just lazy. I don't think Nodak's Road system will get you up to this area but If you have a hard time catching fish out of the south end of the lake head up to High Banks Try fishing around the Zoomers area It's been a good area for me for the past few years.

[PerchJerker]

I am staying in Grand Rapids this week and was hoping to fish Winnie on Tues and Weds ...... didn't go Tues because of the temps, probably going to give it a shot for a while today.

I don't remember our cabin number but it is on the lake side of the road, just west of the access where you drive on. I have a blue F150 crew cab, will probably be pulling a grey and rust-colored trailer.

[A-body]

I've been going up to Winnie 2 or 3 weekends a year for the last 12 or so years. I usually stay at a friends cabin near Longville, so go in at Nodaks. I was up the 25/26 of Jan, and 15/16 Feb. Both weekends had cold and warm fronts, not stable at all. I tried deep, shallow, and points in between, and couldn't buy a bite. I managed a few, but not even enough to make a meal. We moved shallow from 4PM to 7PM, and managed a few walleyes.

Im not sure if it was the weather or not, but I've never had luck as bad as this year. I'll probably try one more time in late March.

Gary

[PerchJerker]

Quick report - I braved the temps today and fished Winnie from noon until 4:00. Definately not prime time but I was concerned about the temps since I had my young son with me. It was a beautiful afternoon, way below zero but no wind at all. We did some fishing outside the house and saw some other guys outside on the ice as well.

I wanted 12 perch for a meal and got that easily, had several throwbacks also. I was really happy with the size, we didn't catch anything under 7-8 inches and had several that were 11" or better. Didn't keep anything smaller than 9.5" The fish I caught today on average were noticably larger than most of the fish I've seen there the last several years. Given the time of day we fished and that I had limited mobility due to the temperature and having my son with, I was pleased with our catch.

The baits we used were standard Winnie fare, small glow gem'n'eyes with fatheads on deadsticks and slip bobbers, and jigging spoons with minnow heads (glow and firetiger). 26-28 fow.

I'm looking forward to the next few days