Lake Winnibigoshish Fishing Reports

[grpd]

From what I understand the man fell out of his boat and then was hit by his prop. He was airlifted to St Mary's or St Luke's I believe. Not sure what his condition is but sounded like the bleeding had been under control

[gregg52]

was it windy or what ????

see you guys you need to be in those big Yar Crafts !!!

when was this spose to have happen ?? & where big lake or

cutfoot????

[1895Storm]

gregg52

Highbanks is hosting boat demo days along with walleye central Sept.12. I talked to a gentleman from Yar-craft today and he mentioned they were going to be there. Don't know if you ever have talked to any of the boys at Yar-craft, but they sure are great to work with. I'm planning on checking it out. Maybe see ya there.

[gregg52]

i usally talk with dean at the factory

i know dypwick here from brainerd

i bought my boat in longville

so ya i talk to you a few of them now and then

i like dean good guy he took my boat back last yr and did some updates on it

i might go that aint really my favorite place on the lake

[Northlander]

Sorry so late guys.

We were up 8/11 - 8/14. Stayed at High Banks. Nice place and the Cabin we had was in a great spot and very clean.

As far as fishing I have never open water fished Winni so it took a good 1/2 day to get some things figured out.

Most fish were caught in 25-31' of water and leeches and crawlers were about 50/50. 6' lead with a small pink corky did best.

Northwest side of the lake was best with the STRONG south winds. 2 drift socks were needed at times.

Between 8 and dark many perch and smaller eyes were caught trolling Hollywood or Gold Sunrise Flicker shads in 9-17' of water on the north east shorelines and weed edges. A few smaller pike as well. 1.6-2.0 seemed best with rod sweeps in the mix. The perch were very agressive.

Biggest eyes of the trip were only 25" and 23.5" but many slots were caught. Unders were tuff to come by for me. 13" and under dont see my knife so I was looking at 15"ers for a meal. We did have 1 big fish fry and that was enough.

Man was it HOT and WINDY and WEd 8/12 or what? Good thing we had shade trees and cold beverages. Plus the air conditioner in Cabin #10 works great.

BMC sorry I didnt call ya at all but I didnt fish nearly as much as I would have liked. I dont like the heat that much.

Thanks Kim at High Banks it was fun.

[bmc]

Steve,

Sorry we didn't get a chance to get out after 'em. Looks like you did OK though and had a nice meal of Winnie walleyes! I don't blame you at all about the heat. My wife, daughter, and I had the boat out, but did more swimming and cruising than anything. We did good on some nice bull gills one night on a new spot I've never fished so that was a pleasant surprise.

Maybe next time around!

Brian

[DaveZman14q]

Are the eyes making their way into the weeds on Cut foot yet? id have to imagine its right around the corner if their not there yet.

[hockey33]

I'm curious too since I'll be on Winny for the first time and staying near cutfoot and plan on hitting it a week from Friday.

[bmc]

Water temps are still low 70's, but will hopefully start dropping soon, so the bite will pick up. I was out on Winnie this past Monday and we boated a few fish, but nothing great.

Early in the morning we found them in 6-7' on jig/minnow or rig and crawler. During the day, the lake was pretty flat and we found them up by Raven's in 14' of water on a rig/crawler.

I think Cutfoot is hit and miss right now, but should be picking up speed day by day.

Brian

[winni]

Anyone have any updates regarding if the walleyes are still in shallow on the southeast side of winnie? Any Northern reports?

[gregg52]

I was last fri didnt do to good was really trying to catch gators and caught walleyes..go figure lol .....but i was on the north end and the cutfoot

[slovene]

Yes, but seems like you need a little wind to get 'em going.

[gregg52]

lots of boats last week end i think the weather is bringing everyone out but the bite just isnt there yet a few fish here and there

[slovene]

Stayed away from the boats and did fairly well on Sat., will be up again this Sat.

[gregg52]

I'm thinkin I'll wait a week spose to cool down its gettin cool at night should cool the water

Fish around here this week end think i'll go out on gull for awhile today

see what happenin

[gregg52]

Slovene

Did you battle the elements ?????

[slovene]

Yes, and it was worth it, although I am just starting to feel my hands again and some of my gear won't be dry until at least Wednesday!!

[gregg52]

coool

cutfoot i'm presuminng

[magnum mike]

Hey Crash, were there any ducks or much shooting in the Winnie area? We were originally planning on hunting 3rd River this weekend. This changed when I only saw 4 duck boats between Hibbing & Squaw Lake and they all turned down the 3rd River road.

[slovene]

Yes, you presume correctly.

[slovene]

No, but I heard there were 21 rigs parked at Third River Landing. Didn't see many flying either, but it was hard to look up with my rain hood on all day!!

[magnum mike]

One of our guys saw the tennis coach at the Squaw Lake store and he said you guys were fishing. The weather was pretty nasty and I don't hate fish that much to go out in that weather. Thanks for the reports.

[pondwater]

Looking for a little info or some help. Going up to winne this weekend and sounds like the bite is in the cutfoot area but is the bite on live bait or shad raps?

[Jim Almquist]

pondwater I fish cutfoot every fall and always have good luck on jig and minnow. I like to fish with 3/16 oz jigs with some blue and green colors on them. I prefer Rainbow chubs but fatheads will do in a pinch. I like to troll with the electric along the edges of the weeds and jig pretty aggressively. As far as depths the weather will dictate that for you. If it is sunny and calm you might find them 10-20 feet and if it is cloudy with wind the might be in 6' of water.

[slovene]

I agree with the above post, except I use 1/8 oz. jigs with a minnow and stop the boat and hover when I see fish or a pod of minnows with fish under them. Another option that can be overlooked in cold water is a lindy rig with crawler (or even a leech, still!!). Some days when it's a tough bite, this method can really save the day.

Because Cutfoot's contours can be very erratic in nature, I wouldn't recommend running plugs until you have trolled an entire breakline and stored it on your GPS or mapchip. This will/can make trolling a lot easier. If you're into trolling plugs, try the big lake and troll either the inside of the weedline, let's say 4-7', or the outside, around 8-10'.

This should get you started in the right direction and the depths jimalm gave you are also a good point to start at. Just remember every day can be different on the Foot, so really watch your sonar for pods of minnows. Usually the fish at this time of year are either right under them or not far away.

Good luck (and remember to wear gloves, temps in the 30's this weekend)!!!!

[pondwater]

thanks for the info jim I`ll let you know how we did when we get back.

[pondwater]

good info guy`s thanks for every thing

[gregg52]

you might want to bring your auger with......lol

[fishuhalik]

Pondwater, I'll definitely second what jimalm said. Jig & minnow ftw this time of year

[pondwater]

Well just getting back and it was COLD. On saturday the wind was blowing so hard that I never even tried the big lake stayed in cutfoot, water temp was 49 deg in the large part of cut foot and in the rivers found it to be only 44-45 deg.

Found some fish saturday but only on the water for about 4 1/2 hours my hands could only take it so long. All the fish that we got were on a worms and on the edge of weed lines.

Sunday got a tip from a local that there was a bit in the 3rd river in 4.5 to 5 foot of water he was a trusted sorce so I checked it out. Found there was a good bit, used small jigs and shinners. Lots of big fish but got close to a limit of keepers. Best bit was in the am and then shut off later part of day. The weather was a little bitter to on sunday. Also there were many duck hunters in that area.