Lake Winnipeg Update 2017

[johnr]

I didn't make the journey this season. Miss the fishing, but the 9+ hour drive is a sonofabitch. Will be heading next season for sure.

 

[Bigbuck]

Dakotaeye, do you think the ice will be ok to fish next week

 

[dakotaeye29]

Dakotaeye, do you think the ice will be ok to fish next week

I do, you just barely get through without an extension, did not seem to be getting soft yet. Go prepared with planks to cross ridges or cracks. If anything the shoreline might get soft but it was solid when we left. Mark ridges/cracks on gps and check then before crossing each time. pm if you have other questions.

 

[tomasz20]

ice will be good till the end of the season. (April 2rd is the last day) I should be going sometime next week as well and will be out there the last weekend of the season. The bite has been really good lately.

 

[Fisherman25]

Is anyone fishing close to the mouth this year, or is it just too muddy? Most years theres nobody fishing north of about 17' of water, so definitely a different year.

 

[Lungdeflator]

We are planning on going straight out to 22-24 fow. Not even going to mess around in shallow this trip.

 

[Fisherman25]

We are planning on going straight out to 22-24 fow. Not even going to mess around in shallow this trip.

Yeah that's kind of the direction I'm leaning as well. My next thought is if they're tough to find out there, then go looking for a distinct mud line and fish the cleaner side of it, whatever depth that may be.

We leave Thursday morning. We stay in a house up in Sandy Hook, so we'll pretty much be able to drive straight east and fish this year. We'll be running around with two cabbed Polaris Rangers with tracks and and one red four wheeler on wheels all with sleds. If you see us stop on by and we'll let ya know what we're finding. Good luck to you guys!

 

[MuskyManiac]

I have never fished in such brutal conditions as I did last Friday there. Tons of water on the ice with dropping temps and 50MPH winds. The freezing spray from the quads was miserable, coating you and everything else. I thought the Clams were going to rip apart. Friday night the temp dropped and froze everything on the ice solid. Excellent travel conditions all over. Fishing was tough like we've heard all winter. We tried our normal depths to start with nothing and eventually made our way to 22 feet under the ice. That's probably the deepest I've ever fished there. We should have gone even deeper for sure. Unfortunately I was not able to put the small fish rumors to rest. Very disappointing trip, but still an adventure.

 

[Fisherman25]

I have never fished in such brutal conditions as I did last Friday there. Tons of water on the ice with dropping temps and 50MPH winds. The freezing spray from the quads was miserable, coating you and everything else. I thought the Clams were going to rip apart. Friday night the temp dropped and froze everything on the ice solid. Excellent travel conditions all over. Fishing was tough like we've heard all winter. We tried our normal depths to start with nothing and eventually made our way to 22 feet under the ice. That's probably the deepest I've ever fished there. We should have gone even deeper for sure. Unfortunately I was not able to put the small fish rumors to rest. Very disappointing trip, but still an adventure.

If you don't mind me asking, why do you think you should have went deeper?

 

[Auggie]

Finding fish wasn't too difficult. I did have to channel my inner perch fisherman and deadstick a hali's with a treble dropper for most of my fish. Marked lots of fish, but they'd come up a little and go back down. Didn't find good fish. Read some stuff on manitoba fishing forum regarding the over fishing of the lake. It'll be 10 years before Winnipeg returns to the promise land.
Here's a recent Herald article on the lake.
http://www.inforum.com/sports/outdoors/4236614-dokken-problems-loom-lake-winnipeg

 

[MuskyManiac]

If you don't mind me asking, why do you think you should have went deeper?

Just from other people's reports since we've returned. Any quality fish we saw from other groups were no shallower than 22. We were just a few miles from even deeper water but never checked it out....now I wish we would have.

 

[ndskeeter]

I'm heading back up Saturday for a few days of fishing and man the weather looks nice. Should be a light south wind each day and 60* on Monday....sounds like sunburn time!

 

[Lungdeflator]

Well another year in the books for us on Winnipeg. We fished Thursday-Saturday, just left right away Sunday morning without fishing. Accessed out of Warner. Thursday access was great, but by Sunday morning, it was sloppy with some deep ruts and puddles. Lots of trucks parked out along the road. All water depths measured from the bottom of ice. Water was dirty straight out from the mouth, but clear out deep and farther west. Eagles nest was dirty at 11.5fow but clear at 12.5fow. Seemed to be an "umbrella effect" with the dirty water and the river pushing it straight out.
Thursday- We went straight north of Warner about 4 miles and started in 17fow. Only caught a couple, then moved east to the ridge in 19fow. Caught a few more small ones and one guy had a 25"er. From there we tried a few spots out deep, 22-24fow. Very slow out deep, only caught 2-3 in the couple hours we were out there. Mid afternoon we headed south to the ridge in 20fow, pretty slow again. In the evening we moved back NW to the spot on the ridge we were at in the morning and had a better evening bite there. I had a nice one get off halfway up, but other than that all smaller ones. Every spot we tried we caught at least 1-2 fish, but it was a grind. Ended the day with 26 fish between 4 guys but only one over 20". Best baits were pink/silver flutter spoons and purple rattle baits.
Friday- Started out by the ridge again in 19fow caught 5-6 in that spot. Friday started pretty slow for us. By the later part of the day we were on the North side of the ridge in 19.5fow, right were the ridge turned to go North. We found better fishing about 150-200 meters off the ridge. Ended up sitting on one smaller area for the rest of the day and did fairly well. Ended up with close to 60 fish between 4 guys on the day, with the biggest coming right at the end, a nice 27.5"er. Best baits were purple rattle baits. Gold rattle baits did fairly well earlier in the day.
Saturday- We woke up early and tried in 16fow right at first light, only marked a few with no biters. Moved out to the North side of the ridge and same thing, managed to catch a few but only after going through the whole tackle box to find something they liked. Moved about a half mile to the east and sat in the shelters to get out of the wind until about 330. Had a few bigger schools of fish come through, at one point 2 of the guys caught 7 fish in 5 minutes. The bite seemed to get better as the day went on. We moved back to the west about half a mile to where we were Friday evening. The bite there was good and we figured out that the fish wanted blue and silver rattle baits and blue and silver spoons. We ended up catching 20-30 fish in that one spot from 330-dark. In that time we had a 26", 26.5", and a 27". So if we count that 27.5" from Friday, that was 4 fish 26" or bigger out of that one little spot.


Ice was in great shape. Travel was very easy. Crossing the ridge on ATVs wasn't that bad at all, used the ramps to cross only 2 times and found other spots to cross without ramps. All 3 days the bite seemed to get better as the day wore on. Most consistent bite for us was 200pm or later in 19-20 fow on the North side of the ridge. What the fish wanted to bite on seemed to change by the hour.
I think we will be back next year, but only 1 trip, not 2.

 

[tomasz20]

Anyone have any experiences with burbot on lake winnipeg ? I know there are big ones in there and just wondering. I have caught quite a few as a bycatch but none over 27 inches.

 

[Fisherman25]

Well another year in the books for us on Winnipeg. We fished Thursday-Saturday, just left right away Sunday morning without fishing. Accessed out of Warner. Thursday access was great, but by Sunday morning, it was sloppy with some deep ruts and puddles. Lots of trucks parked out along the road. All water depths measured from the bottom of ice. Water was dirty straight out from the mouth, but clear out deep and farther west. Eagles nest was dirty at 11.5fow but clear at 12.5fow. Seemed to be an "umbrella effect" with the dirty water and the river pushing it straight out.
Thursday- We went straight north of Warner about 4 miles and started in 17fow. Only caught a couple, then moved east to the ridge in 19fow. Caught a few more small ones and one guy had a 25"er. From there we tried a few spots out deep, 22-24fow. Very slow out deep, only caught 2-3 in the couple hours we were out there. Mid afternoon we headed south to the ridge in 20fow, pretty slow again. In the evening we moved back NW to the spot on the ridge we were at in the morning and had a better evening bite there. I had a nice one get off halfway up, but other than that all smaller ones. Every spot we tried we caught at least 1-2 fish, but it was a grind. Ended the day with 26 fish between 4 guys but only one over 20". Best baits were pink/silver flutter spoons and purple rattle baits.
Friday- Started out by the ridge again in 19fow caught 5-6 in that spot. Friday started pretty slow for us. By the later part of the day we were on the North side of the ridge in 19.5fow, right were the ridge turned to go North. We found better fishing about 150-200 meters off the ridge. Ended up sitting on one smaller area for the rest of the day and did fairly well. Ended up with close to 60 fish between 4 guys on the day, with the biggest coming right at the end, a nice 27.5"er. Best baits were purple rattle baits. Gold rattle baits did fairly well earlier in the day.
Saturday- We woke up early and tried in 16fow right at first light, only marked a few with no biters. Moved out to the North side of the ridge and same thing, managed to catch a few but only after going through the whole tackle box to find something they liked. Moved about a half mile to the east and sat in the shelters to get out of the wind until about 330. Had a few bigger schools of fish come through, at one point 2 of the guys caught 7 fish in 5 minutes. The bite seemed to get better as the day went on. We moved back to the west about half a mile to where we were Friday evening. The bite there was good and we figured out that the fish wanted blue and silver rattle baits and blue and silver spoons. We ended up catching 20-30 fish in that one spot from 330-dark. In that time we had a 26", 26.5", and a 27". So if we count that 27.5" from Friday, that was 4 fish 26" or bigger out of that one little spot.


Ice was in great shape. Travel was very easy. Crossing the ridge on ATVs wasn't that bad at all, used the ramps to cross only 2 times and found other spots to cross without ramps. All 3 days the bite seemed to get better as the day wore on. Most consistent bite for us was 200pm or later in 19-20 fow on the North side of the ridge. What the fish wanted to bite on seemed to change by the hour.
I think we will be back next year, but only 1 trip, not 2.

It sounds like we were fishing pretty close to each other on the ridge. We had real similar luck both overall and in deep water. A few of the guys ran north 15 miles or so and couldn't find fish out there much either. We made a last run Sunday morning before we left. Actually found a spot in 8 fow where we had our best fishing of the weekend.

That said, we all decided to take a year or two off up there. A 5.5 hour drive to catch a few fish around 28" and a bunch of fish under 20" is something we can do right here at home, so until the lake recovers a bit, we'll be trying some other lakes.

 

[Bowhunter_24]

It sounds like we were fishing pretty close to each other on the ridge. We had real similar luck both overall and in deep water. A few of the guys ran north 15 miles or so and couldn't find fish out there much either. We made a last run Sunday morning before we left. Actually found a spot in 8 fow where we had our best fishing of the weekend.

That said, we all decided to take a year or two off up there. A 5.5 hour drive to catch a few fish around 28" and a bunch of fish under 20" is something we can do right here at home, so until the lake recovers a bit, we'll be trying some other lakes.

I agree totally that its not what it used to be and that sucks but I would like to know which lakes around here you can basically plan on catching a few 28" walleyes. Or take me fishing. ha

 

[Fisherman25]

I agree totally that its not what it used to be and that sucks but I would like to know which lakes around here you can basically plan on catching a few 28" walleyes. Or take me fishing. ha

Haha, I agree it's not a given. Take 4 days and 6 guys though and fish Sakakawea as hard as you do up there, and you'll stand a good chance of icing some fish in the upper 20's. It depends on time of the year etc., but it's very doable. To be honestly, I've done exactly this on Audobon a few years for a friends birthday weekend and we landed a couple fish just under 28".

 

[Lungdeflator]

Thomas- we seem to catch 2-3 Pout up there every trip, but nothing big.

- - - Updated - - -

The last pout we caught up there was on a crawfish colored rattle bait. My cousin brought it up and it already had a 10-12" walleye stuffed down its throat. The tail was hanging out of its mouth. They are crazy predators.

 

[RustyTackleBox]

Haha, I agree it's not a given. Take 4 days and 6 guys though and fish Sakakawea as hard as you do up there, and you'll stand a good chance of icing some fish in the upper 20's. It depends on time of the year etc., but it's very doable. To be honestly, I've done exactly this on Audobon a few years for a friends birthday weekend and we landed a couple fish just under 28".

I agree... sakakawea, Audubon, devils or oahe... if you take 6-10 guys on any of these lakes and fish as hard as you do up there for 5-10 days straight you will catch fish and you will end up finding some 24"+... the 3 big things are the color, you will not find a fish that color in ND, and structure, in Winnipeg you are not looking for structure because you are fishing in a teaspoon shaped bay (most guys say a bowl but i feel a teaspoon is more like the shape, shallow toward the red river and deeper to the north) and finally which I am not sure why, but I have not found walleye in ND that aggressive to hit a 4-5" rattle bait or spoon as often as those little 10-12" walleyes do up there (that was my biggest shock)

by fishing as hard I mean, MOVE... don't go to Audubon and sit in fort totten trail and go up to the bar for drinks and a meal every few hours, don't be stuck in an ice house or pop up in 1 spot all day... if each guy you are with punches 20-30 holes in a day you will find a fish or 2... if you want to sit in one spot and get drunk I am not saying you are wrong, I'm just saying you can't say "the fishing is bad" because you just fished an 4, 8" holes in a 8' area of the whole lake and did not put forth the effort to reap the reward