Lake Winnibigoshish Fishing Reports

[MAdDuckiceroads]

braved the cold yesterday and went out to the humps. lots of fish on the graph but only pulled up one eye. there was 12.25'' of good solid ice. hopefully this week of steady weather will get them biting again

[dakor]

Thank you.

[hib iceman]

is there enough ice to hold a 3/4 ton truck yet????

[buzz1ng]

Why don't you try and let us know. When we dont here back from you, that will be answer enough......

[MAdDuckiceroads]

there is very little snow cover out there and the 12+ inches last sunday was good black ice but i would still be careful with a truck that big...

[hib iceman]

I guess I was asking if there is vehicle traffic out there yet?

[bmc]

A buddy of mine was up flying today. He said it was ATV's and snowmo's still on Winnie. I would venture to guess that people will be driving out this weekend.

Brian

[hib iceman]

thanks for the info. i was woundering if i should bring the snowmobile up this weekend of just drive out. do you know what resort to call and find out more info?

[Greg Clusiau]

I'd give High Banks a call.

[buzz1ng]

High Banks Doesnt open until New Years. The resorts on the South Side let people out. Dennys or Nodaks.

[MAdDuckiceroads]

anyone fishing this week yet?

[Greg Clusiau]

I spent yesterday morning on Big Winnie with fishing guide Ryan Peterson of "Ryan Peterson's Guiding". Although slow fishing, we still managed to catch some fish to take home and released one larger one. Some jumbo perch were added to the mix as well.

Ice conditions were excellent, with hardly any snow out there. We drove out with a small Mitsubishi pickup truck and found 13-15" of good ice. We are heading back out there this afternoon with my 1/2 ton Silverado. It's nice to have a little extra room for equipment. Here are a few pics from yesterday.

[Greg Clusiau]

Went back for another session on the south end with Ryan Peterson. It turned out to be a super-slow day but a few smaller walleyes were caught along with a handful of jumbo perch. We fished into the dark, hoping that they would turn on but it wasn't to be. Largest fish of the day was caught by Brett Massingill, who was fishing nearby and caught this nice pike on an ultra-light rig. Fun! Also pictured is Peterson, checking out one of his sleeper houses.

[motley man]

Any more reports from the south end? Where did you drive out of?

[Greg Clusiau]

Went out of Denny's. There is good ice up to the first fishing area, where the drop-off is, just a short ways out. Then there is a small pressure ridge that runs all the way toward High Banks. We crossed it on Saturday but it opened up a bit on Sunday.

[ryan p]

Sunday night the guy staying in one of my sleepers picked up 4. 2 nice ones 21 inch and a 23 he was in 15 fow at the first break others are picking some up in there after dark and a few during the day, other wise the fishing has slowed during the day, even with the cloud cover. Saturday night picked up 5 and missed a few just before dark in another house 1.5 miles out. The ice right now has some big cracks trucks going to the first break then there is a pressure ridge, like Greg was saying the pressure ridge opened and I would not cross it with a truck yet. Here is a picture of one that opened Sunday and closed back up Monday and a nicer eye we picked up Sat night. I am sure after Christmas trucks will be fine.

[Greg Clusiau]

Blake and I tried Big Winnie again today and found some active fish.

[motley man]

Nice catch - how was the perch bite?

[Greg Clusiau]

Didn't get many perch at all where I was. There's hordes of them out there somewhere.

[Jim Almquist]

Nice catch Greg !

[Chad Peterson]

Looks like a great day catch'n walleyes Greg.

Sniffer

[Derek Vos]

It seems like since we got that last snow storm the daytime walleye bite has slowed way down. Is anyone else seeing this pattern as well?

[LunkerLTD]

Derek,

Two of us where out on Winnie yesterday 7 am - 2 pm (drove out the south end). We went as far as north as highbanks. We never had a known walleye bite. We only managed 3 perch. We tried A LOT of bars, smaller humps, shoreline points, with no luck.

We saw others start to come out at 2 pm, I would expect the evening fisherman may have had better luck.

We mainly tried depths from 18-24 feet, with one spot at 12 feet (the biggest perch came out of 12') We hardly saw any fish on your vexilars. Therefore I wonder if they are going much deeper during the day?

[Greg Clusiau]

Winnie walleyes were a bit slow for us yesterday. We did the afternoon bite until dusk and only brought home 6 fish, releasing 3 that were too large to keep. Also caught a few ciscoes and a 5# eelpout (always fun).

I think the sunny,high skies might have had a little to do with it. A previous outing had us catching fish all day long but it was heavily overcast.

Here's a pic of some of our group. A fourth matching Otter was unable to fit in the pic. Cool shelters.

[Derek Vos]

Lunker

Was that you in the maroon chevy?

[LunkerLTD]

Gray Chevy, I thought a saw a maroon truck to the far north but it was so far away I am not sure. Nobody was within probably 2 miles of us all day.

[bmc]

A buddy and I snowmobiled out from the Bowens Road and headed over towards the Rockpile. about 6-8" of snow on the ice.

We fished a mile or two south of that and found 13" of ice where we were at. Fishing was slow.

Panfish somewhere tomorrow.

Brian

[gregg52]

cutfoot??????

[Derek Vos]

Fishing was good today. I tried a fresh hump and caught a couple right away. Then right before dark, I caught fish as fast as I could get my lines down! Ended up catching about 25 walleyes and 1 monster 27" pout.

[ryan p]

First time out yesterday since Christmas in the cities.Only fished from 2 to 5:30 fishing was slow but still got some fish. After this next storm blows past we will be working our way further north. The ice did do allot of cracking so please keep your speeds down on all the roads!