Lake Winnibigoshish Fishing Reports

[Joe]

2020 Winnie Fishing Reports - Click Here.

 

Enjoy the Lake Winnibigoshish fishing reports.

 

Current reports can be found by clicking the highest numbers on the upper right for this thread.

 

Looking forward to seeing your fishing reports and pics here too.

[gregg52]

Everybody must be froze today or not fishing

I wouldnt mind seeing a few myself

going up friday mornin.... I think

[Gary Crichton]

Last weekend due to mobility, that kind of fishing was slow. If you were able to get off the roads, you did better. A snowmobile is a big plus.

We fished anywhere from 20' to 36 ft. Fish at all depths.

G.C.

[bmc]

My buddy BD110 from the Duluth forum and I hit Winnie yesterday and rented a day house from Jigglestick. The bite was very slow, 2 perch, 1 small gator, and 1 tulibee. I don't know what's more frustrating...not seeing anything on the graph or seeing them on the graph and they won't bite, which was the case yesterday. We still had a good time and it was nice to finally meet jigglestick. His houses are nice and he works his tail off to keep his houses on fish. He was even talking about about doing some diving to see what they're up too. Better him than me!!! LOL

Thanks again Dave!!

Brian

[Gary Crichton]

As BMC said that was the way last weekend. We were graphing fish most of the day, but they would come up and take a look and then disappear.Some would hit but most did not. Tried various sizes and colors.

We were very limited in where we could go. Next time sleds have to come with. Could not get to spots we wanted to, because of the snow. The GPS will help ya a lot. It will amaze you.

Say Hi to Ben at the GDP for me.

Good luck

Gary C.

[bmc]

In the words of Austin Powers, "Ouch baby, very ouch!" LOL

I couldn't believe the water clarity up there. We could see bottom in 22' of water. I was looking down the hole to see how far down I could see my sucker minnow, and saw a beer can on the bottom. Baitfish on the graph all day, when they would disapper, we'd get a good mark on the graph, but all it would do is sniff and leave.

Brian

[hydro]

Just curious as to exactly how much snow there is on the lake (average depth) and how much slush is underneath. I'm coming up soon at the info will help me plan the snowmobile and waterproof boots agenda.

[jigglestick]

I've had several people ask me about the slush under the snow and I will say, that besides for the plow banks, I have not seen any water where I've plowed.

the water does come up any holes we drill still, but I block the houses and then bank them before I drill. this keeps the water basicly inside and not flooding the area. the water seems to come up about an inch or so, not shooting up.

once away from the plow banks, I can pretty much plow where ever I want, but there are areas where the rough ice is piled up in large areas. ouch.

if you bring a wheel house up try to find someone to open up a spot for you. if you set up to close to the roads, we will be flooded out and will have to close roads.

I am more than willing to help out if you catch me on the ice. I can even help choose a spot with the gps.

I am finding a lot of new to winnie people this year. I sure hope they get on fish. that's the part that makes or breaks an anual trip.

they say the fish are just a bonus, but I know the real deal.

so do you.

that's why I work hard to promote winnie. it's a great fishery. it's been real easy to find and catch fish the last few years, but this year it's making us work a bit harder.

[Gary Crichton]

Hey Jigglestick, Are you all making good headway out there?

G.C.

[jigglestick]

I pre-fished one house yesterday and it was bunk. I didnt check my depth with the vex and found myself in 28 feet of water. I like shallower. we did have some perch bites, but no game fish.

I might move it shallower in the morning. got sidetracked with another venture today.

I hate to fall back on the old standby, "the weather shut them down". to me it's just another excuse for a poor outing.it might be true, but I just hate admitting defeat.

it's what keeps me pushing on and on to find active fish.

[gregg52]

jigglestick

were you on the perch bar ??/ prefishing??

i believe that cold hasta slow down those fish

hopefully this little warm will help some

we'll be up in the morning i think i'm going to try the cutfoot

first have a few spots from last i think should be holding some those eyes gotta be starting starting to move alittle towards spawning areas i hope we did catch some nice gators of this spot to and it not far out from the landin by williams

[jigglestick]

spawning areas?? we will have another 18 inches of ice or more before it's done. it's the second week in january.

spawning areas??

maybe that's what I'm doing wrong.

[gregg52]

lol

ya i dunno just a thought but those fish are full of spawn

this is a memory and a made comment on past post cant fish memorys but yrs ago actually the first i ever fished winnie/cutfoot we were on battle point in feb back the the last week end it was open fishin a 10ft spot on the rock

and killed them nice fish to 23-25 inch no slots back then

since then have taken hundreds of walleyes off that spot also been skunked alot there to

but i do believe alot walleyes from the big lake travel to little cutfoot and not sure they wait til mar april to go

not to say the big lake is empty lol

at any rate i'm still wondering if you were on the perch bar

how manyy house to have out and are they all full for the wek end i'm tryig to talk a buddie in comin up

[jigglestick]

I was out by the perch bar and with out giving out to many details, I have somewhere between 2 and 8 houses out.

just look for my plow truck or ask around for my phone number if you need or want some help.

I can not post contact info here, sorry.

[gregg52]

oh ok i didnt know that

[email protected]

if that works for ya

[MAdDuckiceroads]

hey jigglestick will you be out by the perch bar tomorrow morning? got a group of guys and a permanent coming up in the morning and it would be great if you could punch us in a spot by there? [email protected]

[motley man]

Any perch reports out of Nodak

[Hotspot]

Four of us were up at High Banks on Fri,Sat with the wheelhouse caught 8 walleys released 1 that was 20 inches,we also caught 13 perch and let some smaller ones go.We had a good time thanks High Banks was our first trip to winnie.

[pumper317]

myself and 6 guys were up friday thru yesterdy. We got a few perch, and a few walleyes. Most of the walleyes were eaters which was great. We let go maybe 4 or 5 that were too small, and equal that in ones that were too big. 24.5 was the biggest. A couple nice pout were caught as well, so thats always a bonus. GREAT TRIP>>> THANKS HIGHBANKS!!!

[Derek Vos]

Pat I caught that 26 in pout that day I saw u at highbanks.

[pumper317]

Nicely done, i love those things... Anything else?

[natedf2]

I am new to this so you will have to bear with me. I am goin to the big lake tomarrow and will be back on sunady. staying at Nodak and the people there are great. it sound like the perch bite is doing ok. and i hope our group will do as good as we do every year. we have been going up the same weekend every year since they had the 100 perch limit. there has been years that our group was stuck to no travel witch would discurage every one. but if your a full blooded ice fisherman even if you don't have a sled you will do what it takes to get on the fish. So in all i hope it is a good year put all of the drinking aside and save it untill you get on the fish.I hope this doesn't offend any one but lets giver the beans and make it a good time. I will try to post pictures from the trip after we return.

To all out there good luck and great fishing. Thanks for the tips Jigglestick if we see you it would mean we would be taking the chance of driving cross country and that really sound unlikely this year. The humps have been great in years past ( yes there is many of humps but that is what i know them by acording to the lake map i have)

One last tip i have (or the only tip) is if you are looking for perch, " the shanty towns are not the way to go." so many lines and not enough fish to go around. at least if you are by your self you can jump around holes to stay on top of them. Like people say stay don't flood the roads because a good spot you had the day before may not be so good when you can't get to it the next day and the lodge's don't need to work more then they have to they do a great job to keep all of us satisfied as it is (tipping tem is great).

Later,

Natedf2

[jigglestick]

have a great trip!

looking forward to the pictures

[wingnut38]

fished winnie yesterday. kept 2 13" eyes, 12 perch 9-11 inches and two snutes. threw back a 20" eye and 5 under 10". very light biters except for the 20". he came in to the jig, looked at it, then i heard the bobber on the deadstick go down. he nailed that thing. you could barely feel the bite from the eyes that i caught with a green weasel spoon. when i marked them on the vex, i would lift the jig up real slowly and they would follow it up about a foot or so and all of a sudden you would feel just a little extra weight. set the hook and they were on. punched about 40 holes to find perch. marked fish just about everywhere but they didn't want to eat real bad. still had a nice day on the ice. mild with no wind.

[bmc]

Wingnut,

What time of day did you catch the perch and were you on top of a hump or at the base (mud) or maybe fishing the main shoreline breaks?

Thanks,

Brian

[wingnut38]

caught most of the perch late morning and then again early afternoon. no biters from 11:30-1:30. they quit biting about 3:30 and then the eyes started hitting. i was fishing on top of humps and on edges. i also tried deeper water off of the humps with no luck except a few whitefish. most of the fish were caught on the hump. i did mark fish just about everywhere though.

[gregg52]

snutes

I call em that to lol

how big

never use to keep em but srarted last summer and cooked a few

they were great gives one an extra option when the eyes are slow

we fished a couples tourment in aug walleyes are tuff that time of yr so we fished for snutes!!! 5-6 pounders are fun to catch seems to be alot of em in the cutfoot

[wingnut38]

4# and 5#. also had about a 5 lber cut my line off when i had her backwards in the hole. they are fun to catch and hard to bring in without a leader. the bigger one made 4 runs on me before i got her up the hole. winnies northerns are nice and stocky compared to our "todd county" snot rockets.

[gregg52]

very good eating to i was really surprised i made some walleye and snoute the same time want alot of difference i just need a few lessons in filleting them i'm fast becomin a fan of them

we were fishing them like walleye on a rig 4-5 snell 10 lb

bout 6 inch sucker i found some real wide gaped hooks

its fun specially when the gf get ones takes her an hr to get one in lol

[natedf2]

Just to let all know the fishing was really slow the perch where really finnike. Between the 6 of us we got 87 perch, 3 walleye and 3 pike. The roads at nodak were great. Had to really work hard for the fish we got. We did see a hole school of 3" perch on the camera which was awsome watching them for a few minutes. the wheather last thursday was awsome and then there was friday -20 below with 15 to 30 mph winds. That holed every one up in the shanties. Saturday was -29 with no wind and it felt warm out compared to friday. didn't get any pictures it was nothing to brag about. there was still a lot of bottle bass getting drank and cards getting played when we got back in every day.