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Lake Winnibigoshish Fishing Reports


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Wow its slow for reports around here, heading up in the morning to hit big winni for the weekend. Would love to hear some recent reports before we leave at 3 in the morning. Thanks in advance!

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while we struggle to catch any limits of walleyes, the size of slot fish are still impressing a lot of anglers. a lot of people have caught their "biggest walleye ever" this year.

the perch bite is going strong.

mostly females in the bucket, meaning the males havent even joind in the push yet, meaning it will only get better as the season progresses.

think shallow for perch and dont waste time with the picky fish. keep moving until you find agressive fish and then hang on!

forage minnows and minnow heads, or something similar. make sure your using a big enough hook so there is still some exposed hook after you stab your minnow head or you'll get a lot of misses.

Keep your stick on the ice!

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4 of us hit Winnie yesterday afternoon/evening. We were up in the Tamarack Bar area of the lake.

We fished from 2:30 to about 6:30 and it was slow going to say the least. While we graphed fish in most of the 20-30 holes we cut, catching was a different story.

Between my wife and I we caught 15 perch, 1 small walleye, 1 2-3 lb eel pout, 1 small tulibee, and a 4-5 lb sucker that hit my red Lindy Flyer and he me thinking BIG walleye till I saw ol' sucker lips come up the hole.

The other 2 guys had similar results.

We stoped at the GDP for supper and talked to a few other fisherman who had similar reports.........tough day on the ice. 2 guys told me they put on 30 + miles on the ice today looking for perch and ended up w/ 17 keepers.

I did hear from a CO of 1 group up in the NW area of the lake in 11' of water that was doing really good on nice sized perch.

Brian

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Got back from Winnie last night, fished out of Nodaks Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Weather was beautiful, calm and warm but a bit foggy. We targeted the Moses/Horseshoe area and Center Bar. Found fish in every spot we targeted, perch at the bottom of the break line in 25’ to 30’ of water. Nice sized fish that did not need much sorting, with a few fish out of each hole before moving to another hole nearby. Our group of 8 people were very close to limits on Saturday. Best performing lure was a small yellow/red spoon with a 1” dropper to a single hook and a minnow head.

Pike were plentiful and mixed in with the perch, with some coming from shallower water nearby. In the late day hours we moved to the top of the break in 16’ and did well on walleyes with most in the “keeper” size range. Lures with the “Flyer” body style worked well and glow colors out performed the metallic lures. The largest walleye was about 26” CPR. A couple of large pout were iced as well.

Driving is good for the most part but be careful. Watch out for crusty drifts out there as they will stop you quickly and you will need to either dig or get pulled back out! If you are going out cross country bring your snap strap.

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Had a great Saturday on Winnie !! Got into some jumbo's on the North end near perch bar. Had great action at 17 ft the first place I popped a couple holes. Caught 4 or 5 for everyone kept. Came home with 10 beauties. Moved around a little when I should've stayed put. Came up dry a couple other spots so went back where I started and caught several more finishing the afternoon there. Caught and released a nice pike that was quite a tussle, made for an enjoyable outing !! It was a perfect day. Can't wait to return !!

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Hey Brian,, we were the two guys you talked to at GDP...things were a bit better sunday as we were both able to pull limits of big perch with some nice pike and walleyes mixed in!! we tried the spot in the NW and didnt have much luck, i think about 7 keeper perch...moving around was the key!!! good to meet you!!!

4 of us hit Winnie yesterday afternoon/evening. We were up in the Tamarack Bar area of the lake.

We fished from 2:30 to about 6:30 and it was slow going to say the least. While we graphed fish in most of the 20-30 holes we cut, catching was a different story.

Between my wife and I we caught 15 perch, 1 small walleye, 1 2-3 lb eel pout, 1 small tulibee, and a 4-5 lb sucker that hit my red Lindy Flyer and he me thinking BIG walleye till I saw ol' sucker lips come up the hole.

The other 2 guys had similar results.

We stoped at the GDP for supper and talked to a few other fisherman who had similar reports.........tough day on the ice. 2 guys told me they put on 30 + miles on the ice today looking for perch and ended up w/ 17 keepers.

I did hear from a CO of 1 group up in the NW area of the lake in 11' of water that was doing really good on nice sized perch.

Brian

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Highbanks did a great job again this year. The accomindations were great and so were rick and kim. We did ok, it did seem hole hopping was the way to go. Tried alot of spots where people havent gone and we caught fish. It was another great year at Highbanks. Oh rick and kim thanks for the eel pout boil it was good! I also hope nick's phone now works after all of that work me and rick put in for catching is phone back.

Thanks again,

Brian Steffen

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Hey hydro, I think I reconize you from the avatar pic, you drove up to my wife and I while fishing center bar. We did ok for walleyes that night with 23.5 being the biggest and got to keep 2 at 16.5 and missed a few more. Sunday morning we tried the general area you told us to try for perch and found the mother load of jumbo perch. We had our 2 person limit of true 10 to 12 inch perch by 10:30 that morning, the perch were so aggresive we did'nt need bait and I'm not kidding! So thanks for that tip and I did see a pic of that 26" walleye in the lodge that night on one of your buddies phone.

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after reading all these posts i think im going to change plans for this weekend!! Heading up saturday afternoon w my portable... i have a general idea of where i'd like to try buut i dunno how much hole hopping ill be doing in sub zero temps.. smirk plus I've never fished winnie b4 - soo i was just curious if anyone knows what kind of availability there would be if I tried to rent a shack for half day saturday? i just wanna get on some fish!!

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Vexi,

It was nice to meet both of you out there on Saturday and I'm glad I was able to help put you on fish and that you both did well. We caught several walleyes further down the bar, again in 16 FOW that evening. All in all it was a great trip! We're heading back next year so maybe we will see you.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just got back from a weekend fishing winni. On saturday we used dennys roads and fished in 30 ft of water and had very limited success with only a few over 9 in and one pout and a few tulibee's. Sunday was the better of the two days we where a little more mobile we fished anywhere from 10-30 ft with 17ft producing the best fish. The weekend was capped with my dad catching a 24in eye.

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I'm usually out on river bar 3-4 times a week fishing before work and I have to say we have had the best luck in 18-23 feet for jumbos and walleyes. Been bringing in lots of fish the past couple weeks. We keep our tip ups in 16-17 feet for northerns and have been hooking into some big ones.

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Are you guys setting up on a break line or just moving around from 18-23 until you find active fish? Anything special for the tip-up bait?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Any recent reports? I am planning on coming over on Thursday for the first time ever on Winni. Any suggestions on where to go out of? Looking for some Jumbo's. Have a lakemaster chip for my GPS so that will help with contours. Is there any better time of the day for the perch bite? Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks!!

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What i am hearing is you need an ATV to get on the ice...hope you have one! i might have to cancel my trip because i do not frown

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I wouldn't cancel because you didn't have a wheeler. There are some areas you can walk out from and get to some good fishing. I fished yesterday maybe out only a half mile from Sunset and did good. Lots of sorting, but lots of decent keepers as well. You could also walk out from West Winnie Campground as well. Morning bite is definetly best in my opinion. Good luck if you go!

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  • 1 month later...

The weather and fishing were almost ideal this Saturday. We fished the NW corner of the lake and found hungry walleyes in 8 FOW betwen Mallard & Rocky Point. Typical shiner and jig presentation was the hot ticket. It took 7 dozen shiners to get 9 keepers in the box. We got a lot of big slot fish with 25 1-2" being the biggest.

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Fished High banks Sunday in the wind and we pounded them took home a dozen with the biggest 28.25in, another great day of fishing on Winnie. 1/2 ounce gum ball and a shiner never fails.

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Fished High banks Sunday in the wind and we pounded them took home a dozen with the biggest 28.25in, another great day of fishing on Winnie. 1/2 ounce gum ball and a shiner never fails.

Good to hear it was better on Sunday, Saturday was pretty slow. That wind was brutal. I had read to use lighter jigs, so we weren't on the bottom as well. Gold was the favorite color by far for our boat.

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Fished High banks Sunday in the wind and we pounded them took home a dozen with the biggest 28.25in,

Eating or mounting the 28.25 inch?

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We started out at the north shore rocks on Sat. Caught some nice fish and a few eaters. We down past Bowens flat in the afternoon and pick up a few more nice fish and a few more eaters. I released a 26, 24, 22, 18, and a 17/1/2". My brother released a 21, 19 and a 17 1/4" We ended up keeping 5 eaters. Sunday was very rough but we went back down to the Dish's area and kept 6 nice eaters and put back 4 that were over 17" and 4 that were too small. None of the bigger ones were over 20". Monday we went out for a few hours in the morning. Caught one nice eater and that was it. All fish were caught on jigs and shiners.

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Released the big boy and feasted on the others, nothing better than lake to fry pan!:) Be heading back up Friday morning can't wait. Good fishing

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what size jigs are you using? Verticle jigging or dragging jigs? Thanks, Outdoorsmin

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May 15 Fishing Report 2012

Big Winnie or Lake Winibigoshish had a different opener then the norm; normally you will fine most of the walleyes on Bowen’s flats down to the Dishes and along Pug Hat point. Although there were pocket of walleye, perch scattered throughout the area. There were larger groups of fish along Highbanks area; Stony Point also held fish, along with the Rock Pile. Jig and shiner worked well, 7 to 9 feet was the best depth over the weekend. Monday was a different day the wind was flat shallow water bite was very slow, some people moved out to the mid lake humps and surprisingly there were quite a few fish, most were over the slot but there were a few keepers and this is only the opening week end. Good luck and be safe. Charlie Worrath, Charlie Gone Fishing Guide Service

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Well opener has come and gone, fishing over the weekend was good Sat we found our fish in the 6 to 9 fow water range along the esat shore jigs and shiners. Sunday the wind picked up and so did the fishing we decided to avoid some of it and fished the south end of the lake there we found a mix of walleye pike and perch there the best bite was 6 to 8 fow of water. Monday was tough with sunny skies and flat calm we worked alot of areas but our best bite was 13 to 17 fow.

Good Luck Ryan Peterson

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