Turning the corner into fall has been a slower than average process this season. But despite the summer’s stubborn desire to not relinquish control, the waters of Winnie and Cutfoot have begun transitioning into early fall patterns.
Paul Kautza with Fat Lake Winnie Northern Pike
Surface water temperatures, caused by a period of calm and sunny weather, took a short detour back into the 71-to-72-degree range early this week. But once the breeze picked up and the skies turned grey, surface readings in the 66-to-68-degree range have become the norm.
Walleyes can still be found in a wide range of habitat that include both classic summer spots as well as the areas known for producing good fall fishing action. Large, mid lake bars like the Bena Bar, Center Bar, Sugar Bar and Horseshoe continue to hold good numbers of fish. At the same time, walleye populations are building along shoreline breaks, in average water depths ranging between 6 and 10 feet.
Ashley & Jens Heig with nice “Winnie Walleye Double” 9-14-2022
One notable departure from recent reports has been the disintegration of the gravel bar, rock hump pattern that was occurring on the lake’s mid-depth flats. For a time, walleye, pike, and perch shared many of these hard patches of real estate. At this point, fish migrating across the 12- to 16-foot-deep flats may temporarily appear at some of the same spots, but they typically won’t remain on them very long. The disappearance of fish in these areas is one reason we believe that fall migrations have begun.
As fish locations are changing, so are the preferred presentations. Trolling, particularly using spinners tipped with fatheads continues to provide our guests with reliable walleye action. But so do jig and minnow presentations and over the past few days, they are gaining in both reliability and popularity. On Wednesday, our resident fishing guide, Jared Saufferer, and his crew fished jig and minnow throughout their entire fishing trip with good results. They did the same thing on Tuesday, but in a different area and had equally good, if not better results.
As good as jigging can be, catching a mixed bag of fish is important to some of our guests and for them, trolling with spinners will continue to be a better choice over the short term. Northern pike, many of them nice size, are roaming the shallow weed edges again and the spinners are a more effective way of landing these fish. The heavier tackle and line weights used in making them give anglers a better chance of not getting snipped off by the scissor-like teeth of the pike. “They’ll bite the jigs, but you’re gonna get snipped off a lot”, one of the local fishing guides reported.
Perch, many of them very good size, are mixed in with walleye and pike too and they are being caught using spinners too. Again, folks using jig and minnow presentations are catching perch too, but lacking large schools of fish to work on, are likely to be doing so less efficiently than many of the “trollers” who cover water more quickly.
There are anglers using other popular presentations such as crankbaits, jigging raps and lindy rigs too, and all these presentations are producing at least some fish. So, if you’ve been bored with the tried-and-true jigging and trolling techniques, this is a good time to experiment with presentations that you’ve heard of, but maybe not yet mastered.
Panfish anglers turn to both Cutfoot and Little Cutfoot Sioux for what has historically been very reliable fall fishing. So far, sunfish have been holding up their end of the bargain, but crappies have been few and far between. It’s likely that most crappies are still using summer habitat. Cabbage, coontail and flat stemmed pondweed are all plants that provide cover for baitfish and excellent ambush points for crappies. Until we receive a hard frost, those plants will continue to be more attractive to crappies than the open water spots are.
Did you read the crappie report dated September 12, 2022, on the FishRapper this week? If not, it might be worth your time to check it out because crappies, holding tight to their summer habitats appears to be an area wide trend, not just one that affects Cutfoot and/or Winnie.
We’ve all been really spoiled by the good walleye fishing on Winnie this season, last year too for that matter. But as good as it is, anglers visiting the lake for the first time can have trouble locating the right spot at the right time. Our best advice about fish location is to play the wind. Any shoreline on the lake holds fish today, yes, all 4 sides of the lake offer good odds in terms of fish location. But, when there’s a breeze that produces a ‘walleye chop” blowing along the shoreline, the odds go up exponentially.
Don’t fall into the trap of getting hung up on a spot just because you’ve learned that it was “good yesterday”. If the wind direction changes, so will fish location. And as quickly as a stiff breeze will start up a hot bite in the shallows. Calm water will trigger fish to either move deeper, or into heavier cover. Adapting to current conditions is more important than knowing “the spot”. The walleye population remains strong, so be persistent and the lake itself will take of the rest.
While we still have plenty of fishing guests at the resort, our summer is beginning to wind down. We’re looking ahead to the fall when our grouse hunting season becomes intense. Getting ready for our fall grouse guests takes both time and devotion. So, while we’ve still got ca couple of more fishing reports in store for you these next few weeks, we’ll probably wait until there’s a significant change in fishing patterns before we post the next one. In the meantime, enjoy the information we’ve share here and enjoy your time on the lake; the fall only comes around once each year, and it’s here!