Lake Winnibigoshish Fishing Reports

[Bryce]

Fished Highbanks Friday afternoon through Sunday morning. Tried 2 different spots. Hooked a beautiful 25" as our only walleye in the first spot. Moved the shack Saturday after giving spot 1 a few morning hours. 2nd spot gave up one 10" walleye. Both spots produced very good perch with waves of action throughout the day. Guessing we ended up with about 20 keepers and I know we threw back that many that we consider too small but are the most common size in the cleaning shack. Almost countless on the tiny perch.

Off road travel with a 22' house was still an option. Just had to blaze a path in with the truck before pulling the house in. Just avoid the drifts and old plow banks and you can get anywhere with maybe an occassional shovel session to cut the crust. Best option is still to talk to the plow drivers and they will scratch a path if time permits.

Last trip of the year for me with a litter of puppies due. Had a great time again this year on all my Winnie trips. Big thanks to Highbanks and staff for all you do and to Jigglestick for advice and stories. Looking forward to next season already.

[CONDUCT]

I guess we were not the only ones that had a down day.

I also lost my jigging rap around 11AM. We were catching perch in 18 FOW then they stopped for 45 mins. I kept jigging and seen something come on the flasher. Then one hard hit and I set the hook and it was gone. Lost my lucky jigging rap to a pike or eye I am sure. Felt it for like .6 seconds and the line was cut.

This all happen in like 5 seconds all I could see was red on flasher, the big hit and cut.

[justlivin']

Spent 2 days on the Ice out of Nodak with my son. Great trip caught countless perch and several walleyes. managed to bring home 25 9-12" perch and 2 walleyes 14' and 16 3/4" Great weekend to explore on the ice we probably only spent 4 hours in the house all weekend. Best luck in 22' of water.

[PikeBayCommanche]

Bryce,

If you could I am curious who you went with for a sire on your litter?

If you have any other info on the litter I am just curious let me know at my email below.

[vexi]

Fished out of Nodaks on Sunday, drilled around 100 holes till I found some bigger perch up and a small hump in the ravens area. 22 to 24 fow was the best depths gold colored buckshot with a minnow head caught most of the bigger ones. Ended up with 20 perch in the 9.5 to 11 inch range with alot of smaller ones. At 3:00 got a fat 23" walleye which was fun to catch so I then drilled some holes up shallower in 18 to 20 fow at the top of the break to deeper water and ended up with 3 15's and 3 12's which i threw back and missed at least 6 on the tip up. What a blast for a day trip and what a beutiful day did'nt even set up the portable.

[bradyd]

greg,

We were out near the humps area. Walleyes wouldn't start biting until at least 4pm and would stop biting around 8am. Pretty slow when it was dark though.

[gregg52]

ahh ok was just curious

thanks for the info

[jigglestick]

Bryce's 25 inch eye.

thanks again for coming up. the fish fry was great and the stories were even better.

good luck with the pups. I hope she has fifteen, all females.

have a good work season and see you next winter!

[Bryce]

Thanks Jiggle. Send me any other photos of my adventures when things calm down. Next time, I'm letting someone else take the photo. Not sure if I like your no long arming rule.

[pikestabber]

Bryce's 25 inch eye.

Winnibigoshish Lake and connected waters:

Walleye: All from 17-26" must be immediately released…

Hmmm...?

[Bryce]

Please quote the part that says it was kept.

Hmmm?

[gregg52]

if if it doesnt make it i'm pretty sure it was a male

ya i dunno pikeslayer has kinda of point

i think hes meanin the immediatly part

i guess if thats only one you caught over 20 for the week end

it something

but those size fish are so common up there you can snap picture while your taking it off

i dunno i'm just rambling ...........lol

[barebackjack]

it was kept. Hmmm?

I know what was kept from that fish you lucky dog!

[jeff127]

not sure what pikestabbers point is..........

report from last thurs night through sun mid morn. 9 guys, 3 wheelhouses on a small hump near zummers---around 140 perch, 4 walleyes, 8 tullibee. 4 guys never left the houses and the fishing was brutal to say the least in the houses---night and day. 5 of us caught most of the perch out from ravens point in 30-32 feet hole hopping sat and sun morn. best bite 9am to 2pm and most were 10 -12 inches. Had a great time and will be back up there next sat for one more shot at some jumbos. Offroad travel was cake in my 1/2 ton(without the wheelhouse) but did see alot of others get stuck.

conduct----if you head up there next year don't hesitate to call.......not being able to get off the roads too far can sometimes hurt the numbers up there.

jeff

[gregg52]

ya i think that's true

last winter we were up there not a house with -in 1/2 mile of

us and it was empty next closest was at least 2 miles

we pounded em walleyes and noertherns

got some but perch but dont really target them

[CONDUCT]

Jeff I will be back up there on March 5th and 6th to try and hit them perch.

[kevfish1]

Group of 4 of us just got back. Fished Saturday afternoon through Monday night out of a wheel house. Went out of Highbanks. Managed 55 perch and 7 nice walleyes from 19 to 24 inches that had to be released. Also a few tulibees for the smoker. The gps was a great aid in putting us on the edge of structure. Will be back again next year for some more great fishing.

[pikestabber]

Okay, sorry to assume. I saw the photo and it looked like the guy was standing in his kitchen. I didn't realize it was a fish house until after I posted, so my apologies for jumping the gun--I hate when people do this to me, so I should have approached it a bit more carefully. I get a little testy about slot fish as I grew up right next to Winnie, worked at resorts as a kid, etc., and had watched it get decimated to the point of near extinction due to over-harvest (hence the current slot, which is working very well I might add). I didn't mean to ruffle feathers or start a tinkling match ...

[MuleShack]

Bryce's 25 inch eye.

thanks again for coming up. the fish fry was great and the stories were even better.

good luck with the pups. I hope she has fifteen, all females.

have a good work season and see you next winter!

Nice Fish Bryce.

[hib iceman]

heading up to winnie this weekend, has anyone tried moving into the shallows for perch and eyes? are they still out on the humps? should be a great weekend to be on the lake. when do they move into the shallows? last weekend to catch the big eye im looking for.

[tip_upclyma]

hib iceman....i have been going up to winnie for the past 4 weekends....we were out about 6 miles on some humps...but last weekend was very slow. So sunday we moved into 20FOW on a drop off and got onto the eyes.

If you want eyes, i recommend you spend this weekend in 18-22FOW and off the humps.

Good Luck on the trophy eye.....i will be looking for the same this weekend!

[crawford714]

Im headed out with a friend and his dad March 5-9, I have no clue on what part of the lake we will be fishing. This is a first ever fishing trip that wasn't a tournament or Canada. I am really excited, spend 4 days out of the house, FISHING!!! Only if I got paid. Thanks for the fishing reports, I will let you know how we did and hopefully get some pics up!

Edit-I am 15. Do I need a fishing license? The PDF that I downloaded from the website wasn't really clear....

[CONDUCT]

Im headed out with a friend and his dad March 5-9, I have no clue on what part of the lake we will be fishing. This is a first ever fishing trip that wasn't a tournament or Canada. I am really excited, spend 4 days out of the house, FISHING!!! Only if I got paid. Thanks for the fishing reports, I will let you know how we did and hopefully get some pics up!

Edit-I am 15. Do I need a fishing license? The PDF that I downloaded from the website wasn't really clear....

Nonresidents under age 16 do not need a

license if the parent or guardian is licensed. Children of an adult who

has a Minnesota nonresident family license may possess their own limit

of fish. However, if the adult has an individual

license, the child’s fish are included

in the adult’s limit. Nonresidents under age 16 may purchase

a nonresident license and possess their own limit of fish.

So what this means is no you do not need a LIC but your parent does is what they are telling you. If you do not have your parent you will need a LIC since you are nonresident. Now if your parent is with you the way I understand and you do not have LIC the parent and child limit is combined. So lets say the perch are hitting you can only keep together 20 perch but if you got your own LIC for say 72 hours you could keep 20 and parent keep 20.

gl on winni I will be there that weekend also for 24 hours.

[crawford714]

Ok thanks a lot for clearing that up, I think I will just buy a license so I can keep my fish. They used to go to North Dakota but over the years money came tight and went to Minnesota and they have been doing great this time of year. So if I catch anything I will try to post up some pics!

[motley man]

PERCH - PERCH where are the perch? Any word on where the perch are hanging out? Plan on going up this week and wondering what depth to start at.

[crawford714]

PERCH - PERCH where are the perch? Any word on where the perch are hanging out? Plan on going up this week and wondering what depth to start at.

I wanna know too!!! lol and anyone try plastics? What color?

[Little Willie]

Yeah i want to know too--We will be up there this weekend as well, and we are looking for those jumbos --last few trips have been pretty disappointing, and hoping to change that this year--Any info would be great!

[MN Ducky]

My group is headed up on Thursday going out of highbanks, anybody getting any perch at all??

[jeff127]

Was up last weekend on sat for a few hours and hit a spot that was good the weekend prior. Fish were there but not as numerous or active. 2 of us kept 30 jumbos in 4 hours in 30-32 feet---base of a sharp drop. The spot we fished was out from ravens point and if I was heading back this weekend I would hit some shallower water early and late in the day.....10-18 feet on structure along shorelines(ravens point and bowens flats are always good areas)and mid day move deeper.

drill LOTS of holes and hole hop in each spot is the best tactic

for finding jumbos

good luck

jeff

[wmn luv me walleye fearme]

Heading up thursday afternoon with the wheelhouse and was planning on going out of Nodak's for some perch. By next weekend any guess on how the accesses will be holding up with the warm weather this week? Will take any perch advice as well but guess that might be pushing it.

Thanks