Cutfoot Sioux Lake Winnie Walleye, Perch and Crappie Report September 21, 2023

Since our last Lake Winnibigoshish Cutfoot Sioux Fishing Report, the weather makes it feel like we’re further away from fall this week than we were last week when we reported that fish were transitioning into fall fishing patterns. Warmer daytime air temperatures and more sunshine have momentarily stalled the cooling cycle. Surface temperatures remain steady, holding in a range between 63 and 66 degrees, depending on where we fish throughout all the connected lakes.

Bowen Lodge Fishing Customers, Guided by Jared Saufferer

 Lake Winnie and Cutfoot Sioux both still provide plenty of opportunities, but you’ll notice that certain methods, certain times of the day, and certain weather patterns bring out the best in which species will bite best, and when they’ll do it.

 For Jared Saufferer, our “in house” fishing guide, jig and minnow combinations have been better for walleyes when fishing Cutfoot Sioux. On the main lake, where he’s been fishing primarily the north central shoreline structures, along with some of the deeper, mid-lake bars of Winnie, trolling spinners have been reliable too. Spinning has also been a staple presentation for some of our guests and guides that we’ve been hearing from. Jeff “Cubby” Skelly. Pictured below, turned in a solid performance on Monday.

Skelly’s crew trolled spinners in water depths ranging from 6 to 9 feet, on one of the lake’s large sand flats. There was a stiff breeze that day, which contributed to the effectiveness of that shallow presentation. Other folks fishing in the same area also caught fish using jig and minnow combinations, and there were reports of walleyes caught by others who were trolling shallow running crankbaits. Naturally, some folks were chomping at the bit to fish in that same region on Tuesday.

 Once the winds subsided though, fishing action on that flat slowed. While there were still some fish caught on that shallow flat this Tuesday, folks who succeeded not only put more effort into catching them, but they stayed on the lake longer to catch them. The key, knowing when to go to any given spot, is directly related to weather conditions at the time of your trip.

 Our suggestions for the where and when of walleye fishing are simple; on breezy days, follow the wind and use the walleye chop to select the best shallow spots. On calm days, follow the structure in deeper water and locate fish on your electronics before dropping a lure into the water. A third choice, fishing the evening bite, applies to folks who lack the gear, or the expertise to use either of the first two options.

Shallow Water - Last week we wrote, “Winnie’s water conditions have been clearer this season than they were last year and as water temperatures cool, clarity is increasing even more.” Because walleye feeding patterns are heavily influenced by water clarity, a healthy cop on the surface is required to get fish moving in the shallows. When the wind blows, check your map, and select areas that are likely to be exposed to a workable wind.

For drift fishing with jigs and minnows, Sundin like’s wind “quartering” into the shoreline.

 For Jeff Sundin, workable means selecting an area where the waves are quartering into and along the structure he wants to fish. “I avoid areas where the wind is blowing straight into, or off of the shoreline,” he says. “I want to use the wind to help me create a controlled drift, one where the waves slapping the transom give something to push against. That incoming pressure allows me not only to pin the boat to a desired depth, but also to help control the speed of my drift. Most often, I’ll deploy a drift sock off the bow to provide additional control, and to hold the bow parallel to the structure.”

For Dale Anderson, locating fish in deep water is all about using his electronics. Following structure, Anderson scans both below, and to the sides of his boat using down imaging, and side scanning. When fish are spotted, Anderson stops, and directs his crew about where to cast their lures for maximum efficiency.

The water depths most likely to be effective this week are 16 to 24 feet of water, depending on the location and the weather. The presentation most likely to be used this week will be jigs and minnows. But there are other presentations that could work too, slip bobbers, jigging Rapalas, and even deep running crankbaits.

Just because you may not see the fish does not mean that you cannot catch the fish. If you do not have side scanning electronics, you can still locate fish on conventional down imaging sonar. Bear in mind that walleyes, especially on calm days, are liable to become “boat shy”.  So, if you spot fish below your boat, mark the spot, then move off to the side and cast to the area instead of fishing vertically. Even anglers with the most rudimentary electronics can follow the edges of structure and cast out and away from the boat. This method of “casting blind” may be less efficient than using advanced electronics but has been effectively used for decades to produce great catches of fish.

The evening bite has been the great equalizer all summer long. Following shoreline structure in water depths of 8 to 16 feet and trolling crankbaits will produce fish.

When the wind blows, especially on cloudy days, drifting the shallow breaklines, or on shallow rocky structure using jig and minnow combinations will also produce both perch and northern pike. The perch are nomadic right now because they are chasing down schools of young perch, most of them just hatched last spring. Whenever the large schools of bait are located, perch are likely to be found. Key depths are 6 to 8 feet along shoreline breaks, on structure, like rocks, or in the vegetation on shallow flats.

Crappies moved into open water for a time, and were heavily pursued, especially in both Little and Little Cutfoot. Folks who got in on the early run, had good fishing. Today, many of those fish have moved, and catching them consistently requires more investigation.  Until the next cold snap, crappies are more likely to be found in cabbage, coontail and other deep-growing plants. Spinners tipped with minnows are a good search tool, but, once located, jigs tipped with soft, action tail type plastics. Paddle tails, twirl tails and spin jigs will be more efficient.

It won’t be long before we begin winding down and focusing on hunting, more than fishing, but that hasn’t happened yet! We’ll be monitoring conditions and reporting on the next phase of the fall migrations. Stay Tuned!

Location, Location, Location ... Fall Walleye Patterns For Winnie Walleye

The phrase “It is all about location”, is often credited to somebody in real estate. But we think that the phrase could have easily been coined long ago by a seasoned, veteran fisherman.

That’s because right now on Winnie, it truly is all about location. In fact, we’ve observed that catching fish is a simple as finding fish. It is one pivotal time of the open water season when our guests who know how to locate fish on their electronics turn in consistently good fishing reports.

On Cutfoot and Winnie, the transition from summer into fall is always an exciting time. Fish, migrating from summer hideouts into fall feeding areas makes them vulnerable to anglers. For a time, they are easy to catch, but at the same time, they are prone to moving frequently from one area of the lake to another.

Migration corridors on the big lake really aren’t hard to figure out. A large proportion of Winnie’s walleyes follow the breaklines of mid-lake, super-structures, huge mid-lake bars that connect directly to the shoreline, The Bena Bar, Center Bar, Sugar Bar and Stony Point Flats are all good examples.

As small schools of fish move toward the shoreline by following the edges of these bars, they start showing up on shoreline breaks and on the flats that lay adjacent to them. As smaller schools continue to arrive, they amass into larger and larger schools, and feeding becomes their #1 priority. This is how we find ourselves in the throes of “the fall bite.”

At this point, we have already seen evidence of some early migrations. Our guests have found good schools of walleyes along both the north shore and also further west toward Ravens Point. Those areas were prime locations during a recent period of continued, strong west winds. Now that the winds have calmed and become more variable, similar schools of fish are showing up on the east side of Winnie too. Tamarack Bay, Highbanks and Little Stony point are entering the conversation much more frequently.

The image of the dock at our marina shows dislodged aquatic vegetation and foam floating at the surface. The dye-off of both plants and plankton are sure signs of fall, they reveal how cool air temperatures bring about change in fish habitat.

Foamy Surface and Dying Vegetation Reveal Cooling Water Temperatures

As the water cools, it has cleared somewhat, but there is still a healthy algae bloom. The above average turbidity compares favorably to the past few years and continues to encourage a good old fashioned shoreline bite on the big lake. Weed edges found at water depths of 6 to 8 feet still produce good catches. Deeper breaklines along the shore hold fish too; fishing in depths of 10 to 12 feet was particularly productive over the weekend. Still deeper, the breaklines leading into mid-lake are hosting schools of fish too; you will find them at 20 to 24 feet deep.

Jig and minnow presentations are overtaking summertime trolling presentations, especially when fish are found on structure. Fish located on long stretches of shoreline can still be caught using Little Joe Spinners, but we now think of this presentation as a method of exploration. If you don’t already have an idea where to fish, it’s a good way to find good fishing spots.  Once located, schools of fish can be more effectively pursued using the jig and minnow.

Pike, in large numbers, will be found on the shoreline breaks along with the walleyes. You wouldn’t need to do anything special to catch some, but if you are interested in catching larger numbers of them, then trolling would be a good tactic. Spoons, large spinnerbaits, crankbaits and even the Little Joe Spinners will all produce pike.

It’s been interesting to see the number of these fish that have grown large enough to grow out of the protected slot size. Fish exceeding 26 inches are not the norm, but they are not rare either. Pike anglers have a good chance of catching a couple larger fish, along with plenty of 20 to 21 inch fish for the dinner table.

Panfish and perch are teasing us, they show up sporadically, but fishing for them has been inconsistent. Relatively few crappies and sunfish have evacuated the weeds and whenever any small school of either species moves out into open water, they are immediately located and pursued heavily by anglers. It will probably take another cold snap or two before weeds will die off and force panfish into open water.

As fall migrations progress, we’ll weigh in with news from our friends and guests who are fishing the lakes. Enjoy the scenery and Good Luck!

Lake Winnie and Cutfoot Sioux Fishing Report July 8, 2020

Lake Winnie: Too Hot To Handle?

Hot, sunny weather and calm winds have allowed surface water temperatures to sky rocket on both Cutfoot and Winnibigoshish. It doesn’t matter where we go on either lake, 80 degrees is the current minimum temperature and we’ve see a few readings pushing the 85 degree mark.

Generally speaking, fish are active but typical of the post zebra mussel era, clear water conditions do not favor anglers who target walleye during the daytime. For die-hard walleye anglers, fishing during the early morning and late evening is the secret to consistency.

If you hang around the fish cleaning shack, you might over hear anglers talking about searching for fish on mid-lake structures like bars and humps. The consensus among many is that the fish have been slow to move away from the largest, shoreline connected bars and that many of the smaller humps have few, if any fish on them. So take a look at a few of your favorite small humps if you like, but we think the best strategy for walleye anglers is to focus on the lakes largest structures.

On Winnie, finding good stretches of healthy vegetation in open areas of the main lake has been a challenge. But in the outer-extremes of the lake, healthy stands of cabbage can be located and they are holding a mixture of assorted fish. Third River Flowage, Sugar Lake, Tamarack Bay are good areas to explore.

Finding healthy vegetation to fish will be much easier in Cutfoot, shallow flats have produced dense patches of coontail, cabbage, flat stemmed pondweed and northern milfoil. During early morning, baitfish can be seen on the surface, holding over the tops of the dense greenery. Cruise the lake and observe the surface activity, this will reveal dozens of ideas about where to target fish of all species. Make note of areas with high densities of baitfish, and mark spots where you see panfish splashing or milling on the surface.

Overall, trolling presentations are probably the best way to search for fish. Spinners tipped with fatheads, night crawlers or leeches are a mainstay. Use spinners that have #3 or #4 size Indiana or Colorado blades and single 2/0 Aberdeen hooks, the longer single hook rig allows for both better hook sets and easier hook removal. Blade colors preferred by many of our guests are hammered copper, hammered gold, pink-gold, and chartreuse-gold and perch patterns.

In the weeds, use bullet sinkers ranging between 1/16 and 1/8 ounce and outside of the weedline, use heavier weights. The bullet sinkers are good to about 15 feet, but if you locate fish deeper than that, switch to bottom bouncers for more precise control. When using bottom bouncers, 1 ounce of weight for every 10 feet of water is a good rule of thumb. For example, fishing at a depth of 15 feet would call for a 1-1/2 ounce bouncer, in 20 feet of water, 2 ounces and in 25 feet of water, a 2-1/2 ounce weight would be best.

At times, the spinners will reveal the location of fish tightly grouped in a small patch of weeds. In these instances, it may be more efficient to abandon trolling in favor of fan-casting jigs tipped with plastic tails. There are so many tails that work, but we really like “Ripple Shads”, “Twister Tails” and “Beetle Spins”. All of these action type jigging baits can be used to probe deep into the vegetation and root out fish. Tipping jigs with live bait is not necessary and in many cases, counterproductive.

The same rule could apply to walleyes found in deeper water, holding on small spots. Set the spinners to the side and fish with Lindy Rigs tipped with live leeches or healthy night crawlers. Use a worm blower to help float the crawlers and small, carrot floats to help suspend the leeches higher above bottom.

There are some folks fishing at night these days and crankbaits have been effective. Focus on shoreline breaks, rock bars and shallow humps; key depths range between 10 and 16 feet. Experiment with crankbaits that run in this depth range and chances are you’ll find a couple that will work.

We think that with continued warm weather, the early morning and late evening periods will provide the best chance for action. But when the skies turn grey and there are whitecaps on the lake, daytime anglers can get in on the fun too.