Lake Winnibigoshish Fishing Reports

[Jim Almquist]

Steve it will be hard to guess with all the cold weather we have had. I will be up for opener and let you know what temps we are seeing. The one thing I know for sure it will not be close to what it was last year. Way too many nights still where are overnight temp is at or close to freezing.

[muskiesteve]

Thanks Jim.

Lets hope the sun can find Minnesota soon. maybe its lost? lol

[Jim Almquist]

Looks like we have two more nights with the temps in the 30s and then the rest of the week it looks to be in the mid 40s for lows. Things are shaping up nicely for a excellent opener.

[gregg52]

ya winnie is always going no reason to believe this yr will be different

[Jim Almquist]

The water temp is 51 in Cutfoot today. Sure are a lot of people camping this year despite the cool temps. Caught a few small northerns in Little Cutfoot this morning. Taking a break before we get out a give it another try for Crappies with a little different tactics.

[pathogen]

4 keeper 'eyes, 3 jumbo perch, 1 big crappie....that's all we could muster this morning....

Looking forward to see other reports, don't know if we did worse than most or average, we didn't see many other fish caught in the areas we were in.

[muskiesteve]

Looks like things are looking up! the water temp should be spot on for us when we get there on the 28th of may! I have my dad who I think this will be his last year because he has been through cancer and other problems. : -(

I sure hope he gets on some quality fish.

Thanks for the info guys.

Steve fiorio

[Da_Bearded_One]

Ya pathogen we did about the same as you. 2 keeper eyes. Caught three throwbacks. One was 251/2. And a handful of perch. All fish were caught jigging with rainbow chubs. We mostly fished up by the dugouts.

[Seabass77]

Fished saturday afternoon in front of Highbanks. We caught 17 walleyes, 11 slot fish. Biggest fish was 25". Lots of perch too including a 13"er. Jigs and shiners, 17 feet of water. Water temps were 47.

[eyelife_MN]

Friday night we hit a very small lake (lookin for warm water). Found a smaller lake attached to a small lake were the water was 58 degrees. We did very well on 10-11inch crappies, but the sunnies were something to remember. We landed about 35 crappies and around 30 sunnies that were ALL at 9-9 3/4inch. Just piggies!!! They were all pushing a pound..

Sat was a pretty good day for our boat. Worked around the north end and pick up a several (5) boxers and a few throw backs. Then we ran back to the small lake to smack on those sunnies/crappies again, for about 2 hours. We went back to Winnie an eventually (4pm) we landed at Stoney Point (stoney ridge bar) of which we filled out the rest of our 3 person limit in about an hour. It was a good run. 25 eyes, 6 slot (25 was the biggest) and the rest were a perfect 15-16 1/2. Some perch, northerns as well.

Sunday we found the biters in 17-18ft, what a difference a day makes. Sun was out and wind layed down. Sunday kept us on our toes. Stays stable the sinners will be thick and the bite will get even better...

[Jim Almquist]

We had a great bite on Saturday. Between my brother and I we had 11 keepers by 9:00am and when the bite slowed down we started moving around and caught a bunch of fish out of the slot with the biggest one right around the 22" mark. Between our 2 boats we ended up with 22 fish so it was a great fish fry that night. Water temps were in the 47-29 range. Sat. when it was cloudy and windy 12' to 15' was the good depth and Sun. with the lighter winds and sun it seemed to be better in the 15' to 17'range. Most of the fish we caught were in Cutfoot and the rest were just outside the gap on the north side. Jigs and shiners all weekend.

[WHITETIPsresch]

Friday night we hit a very small lake (lookin for warm water). Found a smaller lake attached to a small lake were the water was 58 degrees. We did very well on 10-11inch crappies, but the sunnies were something to remember. We landed about 35 crappies and around 30 sunnies that were ALL at 9-9 3/4inch. Just piggies!!! They were all pushing a pound..

Nicely done. We had the same success on a lake like this,who knows coulda been the same one? What kind of boat were you in? We had 4 bluegills over 11 inches-which are getting mounted together on a stump. Biggest crappie was 13.5 inches. The good thing about the lake we were on, is on a normal water year you cant get a boat in there, letting the fish grow to the giant size they are. As for walleyes we filled out for 4 guys saturday by 2pm around third river in 6-11 feet. Sunday the walleyes were stacked in all the areas with current we fished.

[eyelife_MN]

I was in a green ProV, dual console. Friday there was only one other boat in that section. Sat. when we stopped in there was 1 when we got there, and 4 when we left. If that was the case, sounds like you snagged some EVEN bigger pannies. Nicey done as well.

Good start to the year, looking forward to getting out again.

[greedom]

WOW! What a weekend of fishing! 4 boats and 8 guys = one fish fry and everyone brought home a limit. Jumbos and a few gator to boot. Threw back many slots as well. I dont think there was a presentation or bait that did not work. Leeches, fat heads, shiners, jigs, lindys, crank baits, slip bobbers - you name it we caught Walleye. Fished Tamarack Bay and in front of High Banks the entire weekend.

Never did chase any pannies...

[orangefeetdown]

Anyone gonna be up around memorial day week? Hoping to get over to winnie for a day or 2 at least! anybody have any tips for the lake?

[Corey20]

Memorial will still be an awesome jig/shiner bite. Depending on where you are they could be in 5-15'. I would say along the north shore, highbanks, mallard and ravens will be kicking out fish.

[Jim Almquist]

Like Corey said the bite should be great. I like to jig and the Winne walleyes seem to like the firetiger pattern jigs. If you are in shallow just cast a ways behind the boat and jig away. They like to strike the jigs even if they are moving at a good clip. Patches of weeds and rocks will hold fish. There are some dandy slot size fish right now so you should be able to nab a meal or two. Don't get to caught up with fishing with the flotilla's because there fish in more spots without boats than with.

[orangefeetdown]

Awesome, thank you guys very much for the quick reply i am pumped to get up to chase some whitetails on winnie! Just got an HDS7 with structure scan so that should make it a little easier to find the fish also!!! TIGHT LINES BOYS!!!

[greedom]

I always spend the entire week of Memorial Day at the lake. That time of year never disapoints. What the other guys said about methods and locations...I'll add that from what I experienced on opener, I'll be fishing almost exclusively with rigs and leeches by that time and supplimenting with some crank bait action. Rigging is my favorite way to fish.

[bmc]

We had a crew of 20-30 people up there from work today. West side of Winnie in 6-8' and 10-12' in Cutfoot was producing today.

Brian

[gregg52]

sounds like you work at a fishing friendly company bmc!!!

gotta love that

[bmc]

Yesterday we had 5-6 boats fishing. We ended up w/ plenty for shore lunch plus extra for a couple of the guys.

We started off in Cutfoot w/ a couple box fish and then the cloud cover burned off and we headed to the big lake.

Fish are scattered along the northshore from The Gap down to Stoney Point. It seemed like 10-12' of water was best as was a blue and white jig.

We contemplated trolling shad raps or hornets to cover water, but we didn't.

Brian

[CC Hurl]

Did good in the area BMC mentioned above. Perch,white,firetiger jigs and shinners. Drifted the gap and slowly trolled against the wind. Fish fry Friday night and one nice 24'' CPR fish. Others in the slot but the 24'' was cool. Love a good fish for the camera. Never did chase pan fish but heard it is going real good up there in smaller lakes. Good luck and thanks to everyone who helped me out with some tips on how to fish Winni.

Don't get to hit the big lake much in my 14' blue fin, but this trip I was spoiled and made it out there alot. Lots of fun indeed.

[ryan p]

Got out on Winnie a few days last week, fishing has been great, not alot of big fish, a few each trip in the low 20s but great numbers of 14 to 18 inch fish are being caught by alot of boats right now. Jigs and shiners are working best. Lots of fish on the north shore the last few days.

[Avid Angler]

I just got back from Winnie and wow what a trip this year.

Four guys boated 251 walleyes in two days. The funny thing was we ended up two short of keeping our limit of 24. Counting error!! LOL

Jigs and shiners worked well in 6-8 ft of water on the windy side of the lake.

We also fished Red one day because of no wind on Winnie and boated 106. That bite was hot as well. It is a great time to be up north fishing walleyes.

Avid

[kdawg]

I've been fishing Winnie over the second weekend for 14 years now. Best year ever. If the wind was on, the fish were feeding. If the wind laid down, you had to work hard, but it seemed there were always takers. One morning they were "on" at 5:15 am, the next morning 8:30. You just had to be on the water to know when it was going to happen. Every evening they turned on around 7:15 or so, and one night they stayed on well after dark. Friday night, with 15 in our group, we had a fish fry of 36 fish, and everyone brought home a limit. Most fish were 14 through 18 inches, but we threw back plenty over 20, with the biggest being just shy of 24. Great weekend (4 days) on a great lake.

[fishinferfun]

It sounds like a great start to the fishing season. We come up for a week in the of June and can't wait!

[gregg52]

i see 2 post that are talking 14-18

did they change the slot

or is that just the size you are catching ??

which is cool

[Jim Almquist]

The slot has not changed but there are a lot of fish just out of the slot.

[hib iceman]

heading up to winnie today. any help on where i should start fishing? wont be there till after work. thanks