Lake Winnibigoshish Fishing Reports

[gregg52]

james

i'm not saying theres anything wrong with the lake all

i'm saying is if you are going to control someting you will

eventually have to make adujustments

you cant target the same thing forever common sense will tell its going to go out of balance

i've been fishing winnie for 30 yrs i doont remember it ever being VACANT of 2-5lb fish

[boatfixer]

Thats funny because thats all I catch on Big Dub

[gregg52]

Big Dub????

[boatfixer]

Big "W"innie

[gregg52]

OH !! LOL

[hib iceman]

fished winnie saturday and sunday. saturday tried i hump i have fish a few time this winter, caught a few 10-13" eyes. set up int he evening on a different hump that one has tried, caught 15-20 eyes with 8 keepers. sunday morning back to the same spot, one 26"er and tons of perch. set up on a different virgin hump at 3:00, fish bit right away mixture of perch and eyes. keep our limit and released 25-30 eyes and tons of perch. best weekend i have had on winnie yet

[jeff127]

Nice report hib. I wont be back up to winnie until the weekend of the 20th......wish I had more time. Were you on the north side.......how was ice travel? I hope the snow gods dont give us any big storms before I get back up there. Its nice to be able to roam the lake(with wheelhouse) and try different spots and not be stuck to spots the roads bring you to.

jeff

[gregg52]

the great winnibigoshish

most lakes you cant buy a walleye this time of year

and it seems the bite gets better as the winter goes on up there

coooooooooool!

[thatoneguy]

fished winnie yesterday. Started at 7 AM on a hump in about 26 FOW, and marked fish constantly, but no biters. Hopped around for a bit, set the tent down in 19 FOW on a shoreline break, and picked up lots of big perch and two 16" walleyes, all in about 30 minutes. Wish I could have stayed around for the evening bite!

[james_walleye]

james

i'm not saying theres anything wrong with the lake all

i'm saying is if you are going to control someting you will

eventually have to make adujustments

you cant target the same thing forever common sense will tell its going to go out of balance

i've been fishing winnie for 30 yrs i doont remember it ever being VACANT of 2-5lb fish

If you think there is nothing wrong with the lake than why did you even bring up adding a regulation for people to keep 1 fish in what is now the protected slot??

If you have been on the lake for 30 years than it should be pretty obvious to you that 12 years ago the age structure of the lake wasnt healthy. Its the exact reason the slot was implemented and it has done its job in restoring some balance in the lake.

Not protecting the older fish in the system all those years is what took the system out of balance. The slot has given the lake more of its natural balance back. If for some reason you start to harvest 23" walleyes back out of the lake, that is what would start putting the lake back out of balance.

[dust_stl]

Just got back home from winni 14hour drive from Winni to St Louis Mo. Group of 4 guys fished sun,mon,tue mourning. On sun we went out with highbanks in there sno bear guide service all I have to say was that was a good idea. We set up shop at 830a north side of the lake 26-28ft and within 5min we already had a couple jumbo perch and 1 22" eye. That set the pace we ended up with 65 perch between 8-12" and that 1 big eye. At 4pm we moved into highbanks ultimate lodge 24ft. caught a couple small eye's and at 330am the big girls came to play caught a 21" and a 20" back to back on rattle reels. We caught some eyes on golden shinners and a couple eyes on suckers and at times the perch also liked the euro larve over the fatheads. Mon caught a dozen more perch 1 pout 1 pike and 3 16"-21" eyes and 2 big white fish. Tues we caught a nice eye at 6am and by 930 we where driving home. High banks exceeded are every expectation and then some, I would highly recommend them to anyone. Pic’s to come as soon as I figure out how to post them. Good luck all. Driving off the roads was no problem as long as you have 4wd.

[Seabass77]

We are renting a day house (#3) this saturday from Highbanks. Is this close to the area that you had some success? Any idea where they have this house?

I think I have reasonable expectations for success with a day rent house, just looking for some decent action, not expecting gangbusters.

Thanks!

[Kodiak]

Just got back home from winni 14hour drive from Winni to St Louis Mo. Group of 4 guys fished sun,mon,tue mourning. On sun we went out with highbanks in there sno bear guide service all I have to say was that was a good idea. We set up shop at 830a north side of the lake 26-28ft and within 5min we already had a couple jumbo perch and 1 22" eye. That set the pace we ended up with 65 perch between 8-12" and that 1 big eye. At 4pm we moved into highbanks ultimate lodge 24ft. caught a couple small eye's and at 330am the big girls came to play caught a 21" and a 20" back to back on rattle reels. We caught some eyes on golden shinners and a couple eyes on suckers and at times the perch also liked the euro larve over the fatheads. Mon caught a dozen more perch 1 pout 1 pike and 3 16"-21" eyes and 2 big white fish. Tues we caught a nice eye at 6am and by 930 we where driving home. High banks exceeded are every expectation and then some, I would highly recommend them to anyone. Pic’s to come as soon as I figure out how to post them. Good luck all. Driving off the roads was no problem as long as you have 4wd.

just awesome!!

[dust_stl]

Seabass I have no clue where house #3 is Im sure it was close. Tips I could give you expect walleyes early mourning 6-9 and late afternoon around 430p-on...for the perch we had 2 under water cameras and you can say as seen on tv they came in hard for my euro larve load up that trbel 2 or 3 larve on each hook seem to work better than fatheads and over wax worms ..keep that bait real close to the bottom maybe just a couple inches up..we still caught lots of perch on fathead minnow heads and full minnows but they seem to like euro larve the most... we caught perch from 7am-5pm and then is was eyes the rest of the way.. we saw over 4 or 5 big pike during the middle of the day..and last tip perch,eyes didnt like the buckshots we caught almost all perch and eyes on perch color or bright green color forge minnow didnt catch one fish on a lure that ratteld also try plain red hook and full minnow..good luck

[CONDUCT]

Seabass I have no clue where house #3 is Im sure it was close. Tips I could give you expect walleyes early mourning 6-9 and late afternoon around 430p-on...for the perch we had 2 under water cameras and you can say as seen on tv they came in hard for my euro larve load up that trbel 2 or 3 larve on each hook seem to work better than fatheads and over wax worms ..keep that bait real close to the bottom maybe just a couple inches up..we still caught lots of perch on fathead minnow heads and full minnows but they seem to like euro larve the most... we caught perch from 7am-5pm and then is was eyes the rest of the way.. we saw over 4 or 5 big pike during the middle of the day..and last tip perch,eyes didnt like the buckshots we caught almost all perch and eyes on perch color or bright green color forge minnow didnt catch one fish on a lure that ratteld also try plain red hook and full minnow..good luck

Thanks for the great info.. Heading up there with Kodiak in couple weeks.

[Seabass77]

Thanks Dust!

[certified jumbo]

good reports guys!!!!

just a couple of general questions here. i'll be coming up to winni in mid february?? is there a decent perch bite in february?? do you need to bounce around a lot to stay on perch?? and one more question, do you need to do a lot of sorting??

thanks for any answers.

cj

[Average Outdoors]

I am on Winnie right now as I type this. Killed the perch this afternoon! I moved to 18 ft of waterat4pm and have not had a bite in three hours. Not exactly what I was expecting from all the good report....I have tried a tip up in 15ft and 23 ft also no action. Going to try it on Winnie one more day tomorrow, and looking for any pointers. I was out of Dennis today, and my neighbor is also skunked at this point. Maybe they will hit late tonight???

[CONDUCT]

Keep us updated Average Outdoors and gl.

[gregg52]

keep fishing they'll go sooner or later

[Bobberboy]

Most of the eyes we caught were a bit deeper in 22 to 26 fow.

[tip_upclyma]

I am heading back up today after work for another weekend on Winnie! Pretty pumped....and this time I have a GPS! I will report after the weekend!

[Average Outdoors]

Got back yesterday from Winni and the fishing was ok. The perch bite was great. Larger 10-12in. inch perch were found in deeper water (32-34fow) I caught a few walleyes everyday in ranging depths. Most of them were caught on top of the "humps" in 24 ft of water. The size ranged from 10 inches to largest at 24inches. Fat Healthy Fish! Everyone on the lake said it was very slow, and I did not see many other people catch fish. I plan on going back in 1 week and seeing if the bite will be back on and steady. Best luck on medium sized pimples (gold or grean/yellow)with a full minnow. I Was told to use the very large weezels or pimples (fire tiger print) with a minnow head. I tried that on one of my rods almost all day for three day and received NO bites on it. Curious if anyone was out last week and had better luck? -Chris "The Average Outdoorsman"

[Seabass77]

We fished out of a Highbanks house on Saturday, caught 9 perch, 1 walleye, and 1 whitefish. Marked lots of others, but nothing was very aggressive. Still was nice to get out.

[tip_upclyma]

I got back from a weekend of fishing. We were on a hump in 24FOW.....bite was slow all day in that depth...marked a bunch, but no takers. But the evening bite was pretty good...we caught 6 walleyes 12-14"ers....and missed probably 6 others between 4-630pm.

When I go back this weekend I will work the same plan....put the perm on a hump, and during the day just chase perch in deeper water.

[ylekiot]

how are the off road conditions holding up for getting around without chains on?

[Average Outdoors]

I was there last weekend and I would not recommend going off the path too far. I saw quite a few guys get stuck, and this was before the extra snow this week. If you have a sled, that would work fine. Not sure about the other resorts, but Denny's put their road right on the break. This makes it easy to fish close to the road. What are you fishing for? If you want perch, you should be able to get them less than 50 yards from the road. If you would like Eyes, I would suggest the Humps about 2.5 miles north of Moxie Bar. Once again, you can take the road right to them. Good luck and let me know how you do! -The Average Outdoorsman

[Iambjm]

6 of us went out yesterday in 3 trucks, the guys that were leading the way decided to off road in and one of their trucks (a dodge ram) got stuck. I can't really tell you where we were fishing other than it was a hump, they were having a tough time reading the gps because it was so bumpy and we must have driven around in circles for around 15 minutes. Caught mostly small perch, some small walleyes and 1 decent very fat northern. It was a fantastic day to be out on the ice, sunny and warm, I fished most of the afternoon in just my flannel lined jeans and a long sleeve t shirt with a sweater over it. This was my first time on Winnie and I had a blast!!!

[jeff127]

Just checking to see if anyone had some luck this weekend. My bro was up with 3 guys and they didn't do real hot. A few walleyes and 25 good perch from fri noon to sun noon. They fished 2 different small humps around the zummers area with no fish caught from 730pm to 630am. I am bringing my wife up this coming weekend........I will be going out of either highbanks or dennys.

Any info on spots/areas that have been producing recently would be awesome.

thanks, jeff

[CONDUCT]

Hey jeff127 we are heading out of Chaska Friday morning and getting on the lake by 11AM we will be there till Sunday and we can keep in touch if we find the fish.