Lake Winnibigoshish Fishing Reports

[Derek Vos]

P.s. Fishing was real slow for me today. Only caught 2 walleyes, one was 24.5 inches and fat.

[Greg Clusiau]

Fished out of High Banks this afternoon and caught a few eyes and some perch. Fish were caught on a variety of baits and the best depth was 25'. This one was just a hair too big to keep and was caught on a spoon/dropper rig.

[ole]

We also found the fishing a tad slow. Went out of High Banks and thought about (briefly) going off road to some humps, but found travel to be a bit undesireable. 25' was the depth we set-up on. Fish were down below us most of the day but seemed to be in a negative mood possibly due to the weather?? It was cold but still ended up being quite nice outside with sunshine and no wind!! Caught a mixed bag of perch, tulliby and a nice fat pike but no eyes. Still had a great time.

ole

[Derek Vos]

Haha I saw a couple of fish houses in that area that had palm trees sitting outside. I got a chuckle out of it.

[Iambjm]

Me and a buddy went out of Highbanks on Sat., drove out on one of their roads, then had to hike off road to set up. We heard some guys with wheelhouses comment that as soon as they drilled holes the water came gushing out. We drilled our holes in around 12 inches of snow, no water gushing. but by the time we went to pack up the snow had turned to nasty slush so there was a lot of water coming up. I wouldn't venture off road with a wheeler unless you have tracks. By the way, we did mark fish but were skunked.

[Cast A Way]

We went out of High Banks Sat. afternoon with our wheelhouse. The folks did a tremendous job of pushing in spots for the crowd of wheelhouses which near looked like opening weekend of open water.

We found as did many water gushing up through the holes we drilled. After moving a couple times to and plowing a deeper snow base it seemed to help some. Off road to me with anything other than a sled or tracked vehicle seems impossible.

A few bites was all for us - but still had a good time on our maiden voyage spending the night even though my truck said 23 below this morning. Great stars in the night and nice sunrise today.

[Fishin_Shellly]

We fished out of Highbanks this weekend too and, as usual, had a great time! Just a quick reminder to all of you who are trying to claim a piece of the ice....those guys with the plows are doing you a favor helping you to land a spot. Just like you wouldn't forget to tip your waitress, please remember to be appreciative of their efforts!

[gregg52]

FISHIN_SHELLLY

Did you catch any fish or were you just up there donating to the plows???????????

[delzz7]

This weekend out of the south end managed to catch a few perch and a couple of walleyes. The roads were in tough shape. The roads were only 2 lanes wide with some spots 1 lane for a good distance. The spots for our wheel houses were only 10' wide and plowed at angle off the main roads which made hard to back in. Sat nite on the way out in one spot the road was full of the slush, with big bumps and only one lane wide.

A couple of guys in our party decided to fish on sunday, because of the condition of the road they went to Highbanks. They told me the roads were 5 lanes wide & the spots for the wheelhouse were about 20 yards wide. I know where I m going too in a couple of weeks

[bluehat28]

I was also on the "south side",I decided to stay Saturday night big mistake. Tryed to leave at 9am only to watch a wheel house get stuck in the rough area. After about 1 hour he was pulled out.Once the road was cleared 2 rigs with larger houses went out before me. I sat back and watched them make it thru With alot of bouncing. I started out and was stopped by a kid on the road, about 200ft from where I started a crack had opened up the last wheel house broke off a chuck of ice on a crack a foot wide hole had opened up it was also 8 to ten ft long(on the road)I later walked down the road and found it had broken up for 200yrds and this wasnt even the bad spot.Bottom line I got off the ice at 340pm long wait.Plow trucks breaking, to much snow. I have never been so glad to get of a lake. bluehat

[terrible_fisherman]

I speared on the flowage this weekend with cousin and grandpa. We got a few pike each day. Lots of nice panfish caught and lots of eyes swimming through that didnt want to bite anything. I saw prolly the biggest eye I have ever seen come through the hole. I speared a 33 inch pike a few weeks ago and the eye that came through made that thing look skinny.

[Fishin_Shellly]

Caught 6 Walleye - kept 5. Put 1 Northern back in the hole.

[wmn luv me walleye fearme]

left red (which was slow) thursday, got set up out of dennys by 5 and fished until sunday. Thursday was decent. picked up about 7 eyes with 3 of them coming in the middle of the night on thursday. Then everything shut down. Only one more eye until sunday and we probably cleaned about 15 total perch above 9 inches. We were in 24 feet. Had a heck of a time getting off the lake on sunday and couldnt leave until about 4 as they had to work on getting a new route off the water.

[eurolarva]

When you say you have a heck of a time getting off the water is it because you are towing a house or wheelhouse. I want to fish this lake this weekend and I am just in an explorer with a portable. Is driving going to be tough for me as well? If so I may stay and fish local lakes here in the cities instead

[gregg52]

were they shellly fish ?????

where bouts did you fish

[birchbranch]

bluehat28:

I believe I was the first of the two wheelhouses that made it ahead of you. I have a red pickup with a red topper and a green wheelhouse. It was a bit hair-raising coming off the ice Sunday morning. It was incredibly rough with all the holes. I was grateful I didn't rip the axle right off the fishhouse. Much like you, I was very happy to be off the ice,,,, sorry to hear you had to wait so long to get going.

[Fishin_Shellly]

Greg:

We were fishing out of Highbanks - off the second road.

[gregg52]

how long were you up there dont spose you know if sunset has that road

along the north shore ???/

[wmn luv me walleye fearme]

It was because they closed the road to any travel for a while. There was a huge loose chunk of floating ice where 2 cracks came together in one area and the one spot where the guy above crossed became to0 water logged and rutted for anyone to get through. The guy right after him got stuck and have to think might have got damaged getting ripped out. I thought the floating ice was probably supported underneath until i saw a guy push on it with a shovel. With wheel house or without would not have tried to get out until they had plowed a few ways around the trouble spots and it was ready. Those guys from dennys had a rough day on sunday. Not their fault things opened up obviously and we realized that but I think they had a lot of cranky people on their hands that couldn't get off the lake. I kept realizing if i thought it was a bad day for me couldn't imagine being a resort owner and having people talk about "i'm never going back there again" when it clearly had nothing to do with them and they were trying to do everything they could to work around it. When the road finally opened up about 4 we started to ready the house and realized the jacks gears had been stripped and we couldnt lower it. We then had to ride in and luckily the guys had a sawzall they let us borrow and we cut it off and were off the lake by 5:15.

[gregg52]

kinda takes the fun outa the week end huh ???/

been in a similiar situation on mille lacs yrs back

as a matter of fact it was the last time i was on the big lake...lol

not beacause of that though

[Fishin_Shellly]

Gregg:

We arrived Friday and came home Sunday. I don't know about any other access.

[gregg52]

going back ???

have you downloaded yahoo yet

or any thing else where you can chat on

[Fishin_Shellly]

OF COURSE! We love to fish Winnie!

[birchbranch]

I agree with you about the guys at Denny's; They were doing everything they could to ensure people got off the lake safely. Those strong northwest winds on Friday made their lives very difficult. I wouldn't want their job,, and they certainly earn their road fees. I understand Nodaks either quit plowing roads, or is going to quit plowing roads due to the conditions. Without plowed roads, snowmobiles would probably be the only way to get around out there.

[wmn luv me walleye fearme]

Always thought it would be fun to be a resort owner. After watching them no way, no chance no how would i want that job. Nodaks is only allowing their customers no one else. Can't blame em. Seemed everytime those guys from denny's tried a new route they hit slush and got stuck again.

[gregg52]

ya doesnt seem fun out there in conditions like that

then hafta put up with everyones sh!t

at no fault of your own

i think and this is just a guess but the trick is probably keepin the roads open all the time even in bad weather so you dont hafta plow new

ones but if you get a heave..not much you can do bout that

let it heal i guess

some of the mille lacs resorts have bridges

tuff job though plus 3$ a gal gas doesnt help

[Corey20]

We get much more snow I dont know if there will be any roads out there. If I was leaving a wheelhouse out there I would be watching for any type of snow storm coming and would get it the heck off.

[gregg52]

corey

you know who bought the one stop ????

[Corey20]

My dad told me but I cant remember their names. Last name might have been Fox? I was up at the cabin over new years but never stopped in. I dont think they had gas yet. Will be interesting to see how the place is ran now.

[buzz1ng]

VOS, that was my house and my Uncles with the Palm trees. Got to try and be festive out there when its -20!! LOL We ended up catching 20 walleyes. 5 were to big and 2 were to small. Only a couple perch and I went out and caught 5 nice tulibees to smoke. OK Weekend.