Lake Winnibigoshish and Cutfoot Sioux Chain of Lakes Walleye Report by Jeff Sundin
Fall fishing patterns have been slow to kick in on the Lake Winnibigoshish chain, but this week, cooling conditions have begun moving the lakes in the right direction. Last Wednesday morning, we recorded a shallow water temperature of 59 degrees, and at mid-lake on Winnie, average temperatures of about 64-to-65 degrees. Friday, (9-18) surface water temperatures on the big lake were a uniform 63 degrees wherever we traveled.
Jeff Sundin, Walleye Lake Winnibigoshish September 18 2026
The strong algae bloom reported by Bowen Lodge a couple weeks back had declined somewhat already. Balls of white foam, representing the die-off of plankton, provided evidence yesterday morning of further declines in the algae blooms. That said, an average water clarity of somewhere around 8 to 10 feet deep remains favorable for anglers, especially when the weather produces ideal conditions.
The term ideal conditions mean different things to different people, but for me, a snapshot of yesterday’s weather sums it up. Grey skies, paired with a southeast wind of 10 to 15 MPH that provided the classic “walleye chop” on the surface. Those conditions, on Friday, proved to be more than theoretically good, they definitely encouraged fish to move onto shallow water structures to feed.
Walleye chop on the water, Lake Winnie September 18, 2026
The fall session of “Fun with Dick and Paul”, a perennial topic in my daily fishing reports happened to be on day 3 yesterday. I’d already forewarned my crew that walleye fishing had been a struggle in recent weeks. “Unless we get a lucky break, and have the right weather, any great walleye bite might not happen,” I advised. Luckily, the right weather did arrive, Dick and Paul did enjoy an afternoon of good walleye action.
Our period of good fishing did not happen right away. Either it took me a while to get onto the right spot, or it took a while for the fish to begin moving and the action to start up. The reason that I’m unsure about that is because I’d been checking in with some of the other anglers we knew. Fishing in a variety of areas, they were almost all reporting a slow start to the morning. Sometime around noon, I started getting text messages from friends saying things like “we’re picking up a few” or “I’m starting to see a little action” or in one case, “we got 11 on the last pass”.
That one, the “we got 11” report, really grabbed my attention. Captain Jake Premo, who works the lake often, loves to fish with jigs and minnows and that’s what he and his crew were doing yesterday. Dick and Paul, and me too for that matter also love to fish with jigs and minnows. For them, it’s been the primary presentation for most of the 50 plus years that they’ve stayed on and fished both Cutfoot Sioux and Winnie.
Thanks to the heads up from Jake, we were able to get in the jig bite that reminded them of the good old days. I’m paraphrasing, but in Paul’s words, “This day is the first one in years that reminds of the early times we fished here. I remember when we used to motor out of the gap, head for the rock pile and drift in the waves, just like this. Even without fancy electronics, the wind and the waves brought the boat across the rocks, and the walleyes found us there, just like they’re doing now.”
Dick Williams Winnie Walleye September 18, 2026
I don’t want to make it sound too good, but Paul’s assessment was accurate. We rode the waves out to the far end of the rocks, threw the drift bag in the water and let the wind drift us back while we jigged. As we drifted, we hopped our 1/8-ounce live bait jigs, tipped with fatheads over the rocks, snagging up a little, getting pecked by perch a little, and occasionally, picking up a nice fat Winnie Walleye for the effort. By the time we were done, the boys were not filled out, but we were close, just a couple of fish short of their full bags.
The fish themselves were surprising to me too. The most recent year class of walleyes, thought to be a decent one, was the class of 2023. Those fish should not be much above 14-1/2 to 15-1/2 inches by now. Yesterday though, the fish we were catching ranged in size between 16 and 17 inches long. So, we may have gotten lucky and stumbled into a group of fish from a different year class. If not, the average size of the fish we caught would represent a phenomenal growth rate for the 2023-year class. More on that later.
Like I said, there were perch on the rocks where we fished too, but I can’t say they were large ones. We harvested some for supper, but most were below our typical 10 inches long standard, only a couple of them were in the 11-inch range. Back at the fish cleaning station, evidence of perch cleaned by other anglers was similar. There were some jumbos in the buckets, but mainly smaller, 9-to-10-inch perch were represented there.
Northern pike were out there too, and we caught a couple of them, but not many. Like the walleyes, they appear to be well fed, they were fat, chunky and even the 21-inch pike we harvested appeared to be larger than it was. I think this would be a good time to gather a few of the short but fat fish to use in some of your favorite recipes.
Crappie fishing in the Cutfoot Sioux chain of lakes has been “okay”, but maybe not fantastic. I hear from folks who have been working at catching them and they are usually finding enough fish for a meal. Most folks are using spinners and minnows to catch their crappies. But as I reported a couple of days ago, we’ve had better luck using jigs tipped with artificial lures. For a full report about crappies, read the report of September 18, 2026.
So, there’s our fishing report from yesterday. But “Fun with Dick and Paul” wouldn’t be as fun unless we stopped at the Gosh Dam Place for a fish fry. Almost every year the boys have a fish dinner each of the first 4 nights after our fishing trips. They still have fish on the 5th night, but that is always reserved for Suchi in Grand Rapids. Last evening, as usual, the meal at Gosh Dam Place was fabulous, with plenty of food, great service and good conversations. If you haven’t brought your own fish in for a meal, you should because I think you’d love it.
For folks headed toward Bowen’s today, or this week, I think you should be optimistic. Despite my report about the so-called ideal fishing conditions we enjoyed yesterday, friends have reported doing well, even on days when conditions have not been ideal. On calm days, trolling spinners and covering water sounds like the best game plan. Not everybody finds fish, but the ones who do are managing to get them to strike. It sounds like fishing in the 6-to-10-foot depth range, and searching for weedy cover has been the best strategy.
Advanced anglers who have forward sonar are still catching walleyes using slip floats. Leeches are no longer available, but using small jigs tipped with ½ night crawlers, or lively, medium-size minnows are effective. The best way to get some decent minnows is to buy the river mix and select the better ones for slip bobber fishing.
I have to mention one last thing, Paul noticed that I was using a different fillet knife last night and asked me about it. A couple of years ago, when Dick and Paul were here on their June fishing trip, they helped me get some fish to assist the Benchmade company to produce a video about how to fillet fish. At the time, Benchmade offered a 7 inch, “Water Series” fillet knife, and that’s the one I used in that video. Since then, they’ve come out with a 5-inch Water Series model as well. I helped them test one, completed a report and sent it back to the company.
Bowen’s is a Benchmade knife dealer and a few weeks ago, Jens handed me a new 5-inch fillet knife to replace the previous test model. I’ve been using that 5-inch Water Series knife since then and it is amazing. I still love the knives I used before too, but I have to say that this new 5-inch is even better than those. If you’re in neighborhood and have time to stop in, ask anyone in the lodge at Bowen’s to show you one.
Okay, now we’re on to day 4 of the fall session of Fun with Dick and Paul, and I’m not sure what we’ll do. If you check the fishing reports page on the FishRapper tomorrow, I’ll fill you in then.