Season In Transition Lake Winnie Cutfoot Sioux Report July 8, 2021

Mid-Summer fishing patterns have developed on both Winnie and Cutfoot. With rising water temperatures, fish are more prone to strike faster moving lures, so finesse techniques for walleyes are out, and aggressive, trolling and casting presentations are in.

Panfish, perch and pike, as many of our guests are learning, actually come along as a by-product of trolling for walleye. The species that we catch depends on which area of the lake we’re fishing. Head out onto the big lake and troll the flats with bottom bouncers and the mix will be pike, perch, and walleye.

Move into Cutfoot and begin trolling the weed edges with spinners and the mix will broaden, sunfish, crappie, rock bass and even an occasional largemouth will find your offering.

Trolling, as popular as it is, isn’t the only aggressive fishing style that will trigger fish to strike during mid-summer. Gaining fast in popularity are cast-and-retrieve presentations, here’s why.

With the arrival of clear water caused by Zebra Mussels, fish, especially walleyes have become more “boat shy” than they used to be. They can still be caught, but sometimes driving the boat over them will force them to move before an anglers lure can get in front of them. Positioning your boat within casting distance, but not directly overhead will allow you to present a lure to the fish before they are alerted to your presence and therefore less prone to strike.

Locating structure is the key, cabbage patches, rock piles and sharp, well-defined points make good targets. Remember, you want your lure to arrive in front of the fish before your boat does. Unless you have the latest and greatest side-imaging technology and really know how to use it, casting toward likely structure is your best chance of finding fish. Even if it takes a few tries, have faith in finding good structure and your effort will eventually be rewarded.

Casting heavy, fast moving lures like jigging raps is one casting presentations that works, sometimes. When they work, they work great, but walleyes don’t always respond to the super- high retrieval speed that these lures require. Another more moderate casting presentation is to use jigs tipped with plastic, action style tails. Paddle tails, shad imitating lures and even large twister tails can all work. This group of lures not only allows anglers to cast good distances away from the boat, but also have an enticing action as they drop into the water column. The longer “hang-time” gives fish an extra few seconds to respond and will often produce strikes when heavy jigging lures are too much.

If you’ve never tried casting jigs with plastics, a good starting off point is to pair a round head 1/8 ounce Lindy Jig  with a 3 inch Ripple Shad. Cast the lure towards the fish, let it fall and then begin your retrieve using a sweep-drop-sweep-drop motion. Remember, lures like these offer attracting power moving either up or down; be sure to offer fish plenty of drop-time.

Casting jigs and plastics will allow you to drum up some panfish action in Cutfoot right now too. Scale the lures down in size, 1/16 ounce jigs tipped with 2 inch tails will fit the bill size-wise. Everything that swims in the lake will strike these lures, so have fun experimenting.

Crappies have been stubborn during the day, but can be found during early morning and late evening. Sunfish, because of the warm weather have been more cooperative during the day, but they too show a preference for moving between late afternoon and dusk.

Perch are where we find them these days, weeds are sometimes good, rocks are good at times too and even deep mud-sand transitions hold schools of them. Trolling spinners is probably the best way to locate fish. Once you have an idea where they are, narrow down your territory and rig up with jigs, or Lindy Rigs and focus on the more tightly grouped schools of fish. When our guests find them, they catch some good size fish, average size ranges from 9-1/2 to 11 inches this summer.

Northern pike, particularly larger ones are still roaming deep water. Fishing steep structure on the lakes larger bars using live bait is probably the best way to target them. Creek chubs, large suckers or big golden shiners will all work; Lindy Rigging or slip-floats are the 2 best presentations to try. Trolling crankbaits on top of the flats is an alternative for pike as well, focus on water depths of 14 to 16 feet and troll at brisk speeds, 2.5 to 3.0 MPH. Rattle baits, shad raps, reef runners, use your imagination about which lures to try. Crawdad patterns, Firetiger, bright orange and white are all food colors, tailor your color selection to the water conditions. On rocks, crawfish patterns are great, in open water, maybe white would be better; experiment until you get the desired results.

With the Independence Day holiday behind us, we are already beginning to look forward to early fall fishing patterns. But first, there are a lot of cookouts, swimming, and water sports on the agenda. Take advantage of the great weather while you can and if you’re in the area, stop in for a chat!

Managing Changeability During Mid-Summer: Peak Production Time For Winnie and Cutfoot!

Most everyone agrees that the recent spell of hot weather was too hot for human comfort! But we do have to admit that the stability it provided was great for both Winnie and Cutfoot, not only in terms of fishing success, but also as it relates to fish growth over the long term.

In terms of fishing, massive hatches of Mayflies occurred as the water warmed and walleyes responded by moving toward expansive, semi-soft bottom flats. It’s not uncommon to hear about folks catching walleye in what appears to be “structureless” territory. Random schools of fish, some large and some small, roam the flats gobbling up Mayfly larvae before they can reach the lakes surface and emerge as adults.

On Winnie, the water depth in many of these areas runs from about 14 to 18 feet deep. But similar soft-bottom flats can be found both deeper and shallower, so be creative in your search. Finding fish and catching them during bug hatches on the flats is easier than many believe, but presentation methods do depart from typical early season walleye presentations.

Because fish are scattered across a wide swath of territory, jigging, Lindy Rigging and similar, finesse presentations provide only limited success in these scenarios, it takes too long to cover enough water to encounter many fish.

Trolling at speeds of 1.0 to 1.3 MPH is a better way to cover territory. A bottom bouncer and spinner is a trick that the walleye pros use and it works well. A 1-1/2-ounce bottom bouncer, paired with a gold, chartreuse/gold or perch pattern Little Joe Spinner and tipped with either night crawlers, leeches or fatheads is a good starting point. Overall, crawlers are preferred by the pros, but they’ll keep you busy because perch of all shapes and sizes will attack them. Leeches can be used effectively to help reduce the number of fly-by perch attacks. Inexpensive fathead minnows, used by many of Lake Winnie’s fishing guides are good too and they will also encourage more strikes from northern pike, considered by many to be a bonus.

Rip-jigging can also be used while trolling or drifting at fast speeds and covers even more ground than spinners do. Forget about minnows, use ¼ to 3/8 ounce jig head tipped with large plastic tails. Action on the fall is key, so use paddle tails, twirl tails or shad body imitations. While trolling, cast your lures out and way from the boat, then use an aggressive upward sweep-fall-sweep-fall motion to entice strikes. Walleyes will surprise you by striking these lures aggressively and you’ll catch plenty of bonus pike along the way.
Folks with a knack for running their electronics love power-corking too. Move the boat slowly and watch your graph for fish and once located, drop 1/16 ounce jig, tipped with either a lively leech or ½ night crawler suspended below a slip float. Allow the fish a few minutes to sport your bait and strike and then move on to continue your search.

Deep water structure, like bars and humps have been slow to “turn on” this summer. For many, a trip to the middle, armed with Lindy Rigs and live bait would produce great results during this part of the summer. There have been and still are isolated cases of good fishing on the humps, but larger, mid-lake bars connected to shore have been better so far. All of the lakes “main bars” have produced fish for anglers over the past couple of weeks.

Key depths on the bars range from 16 to 22 feet and the rule of thumb is that shallower fish strike better and are likely to be larger than fish found in deeper water.

Before the cold front arrived, algae blooms, another by-product of the warm weather were gaining strength. The water was developing some color as the particles crew but may have suffered a setback this week. In terms of walleye growth rates, the more plankton the lake provides, the better winter survival of small fish will be. In terms of fishing, algae blooms help shade fish’s eyes from intense sunlight. That encourages fish to move shallower and makes catching them on structure easier, especially during late summer. We will keep you posted about water clarity as conditions change.

Panfish action remains spotty, most anglers have found that crappie fishing is best during the evening, just before sunset. Weed structure is the best location for catching either crappie or sunfish, cabbage patches are great, so is coontail and narrow leaf pondweed.  When you find wild celery, expect perch to be nearby, especially when the vegetation is located near gravel or rock.

Pike are still being caught primarily as a bonus fish while in pursuit of walleyes. To target them, move toward steep, deep structure at mid lake. Warm water temperatures encourage them to move toward deeper, cooler water. Live bait rigs tipped with large minnows are good, so are spinners tipped with minnows and jigs with large plastic tails.

As we move toward the 4th of July, mid-summer patterns will intensify and we’ll be here to keep you posted on their progress. Stay safe on the lake and if you’re in the neighborhood, stop by for a chat, we’d love to see you!

Lake Winnibigoshish Receiving “Heat Dividend” Fishing Report June 6, 2021

As anglers, we don’t often think of hot, sunny weather as an advantage for fishing. And, truthfully, in the short run, the heat wave has caused some challenges for folks trying to catch walleye during the daytime. But for fish populations in Cutfoot, Winnie, and connected waters, there will be huge dividends paid in the form of stronger growth rates because of the above average temperatures we are experiencing right now.

Bowen Lodge Facing Lake Winnibigoshish

Over the past few days, surface water temperatures have been shooting up into the high 70- degree-range. In fact, on Saturday, the water on Winnie, out front of our resort reached above 79 degrees, nearly passing 80 during the late afternoon. Algae blooms are increasing, water clarity is decreasing and thanks to that, fish are finding their way into shallower water.

The benefit to our guests is that walleye are becoming easier to catch during bright conditions without having to fish deep water. Walleye are beginning to inhabit more traditional structures like rock piles, shoreline breaks, deep weed patches and even some of the mid-lake bars and humps.

Water Temperature On Bowen Flats 79 Degrees June 5, 2021

Key water depths are now in the 12-to-16-foot range and key locations are the lakes large, mid-depth flats. Large areas where water meanders from the shallow shoreline toward the lake’s deep-water basin. The more space there is between the shoreline and deep water breaklines, the more important “structure” becomes. Anything that gives fish a reason to pause and feed, could be considered structure.

Small rock piles or patches of gravel are scattered around on the flats and can hold fish, so can isolated patches of vegetation. Less obvious to anglers, but still especially important are areas that contain semi-soft, marl. Marl is that sticky stuff, a sand-clay mix that can cling to your anchor and be hard to wash off.

Fish love marl because it is where insect hatches occur. It can occur anywhere, so don’t get hung up on any particular location or water depth. Instead, use your electronics and your eyes to discover areas where insect hatches are occurring. Whenever there’s a good bug hatch, you can bet that fish will be nearby.

In a typical summer, insect hatches would trigger changes in feeding preferences and force anglers to use different presentations. While some of our guests have begun using Lindy Rigs and live bait, many continue to catch walleye on jig and minnow combinations. Although, shiner runs are pretty much over now, fish are still responsive to minnows as bait. This will last for a while but will vary day-by-day. Carry a little bit of everything instead of stocking up with a lot of a single bait.

Trolling with spinners is a mainstay presentation during the warm water period and some anglers report good results using spinners tipped with minnows right now. Shoreline breaks and structure on the flats are good locations to try setting up your spinner behind a simple bullet sinker. On deeper structures, bottom bouncers can be used to place your spinner in the strike zone more precisely.  

Panfish and bass have been active in shallow water, but are primarily in full-scale, nest protecting mode right now. There are few if any female fish milling around the spawning grounds. Male fish are glued to the nests, protecting them from invaders. Now, there’s no harm in keeping an occasional handful for supper, but as anglers, it’s up to us to help preserve enough of them to ensure good fishing into the future. Ethically, it’s a good idea to take a few of the smaller fish and release the larger, bulls.

In case you have not heard, the sunfish limit for Cutfoot Sioux has been reduced; anglers may now harvest a daily limit of 5 fish.

Crappies, for the most part have moved away from spawning structure and can be found on the weed flats adjacent to deeper water. Right now, early morning and late evening are key times for catching them. Once they are finished with their prime-time feeding runs, they are fickle and difficult to catch. If crappies are important to you, get up early and fish for them before you start looking for other species. If you don’t like to get up early, then plan on fishing later, during the evening twilight period.

Perch are inconsistent, most of the ones we see are being caught by anglers using jig and minnow presentations, incidental to walleye fishing. Lindy Rigs tipped with live minnows will work as an alternative and soon, using spinners will become key in terms of producing good perch catches.

Northern Pike have provided a lot of action this week and can be found in almost every water depth, on a variety of structures. Whether you are jigging, spinning, or Lindy Rigging with live minnows, pike will find you, so it isn’t necessary to go out of your way to setup for them. They have been running nice size too, with good numbers of fish in the high 20 to low 30-inch range being caught.

As the week unfolds, we’ll be watching conditions, so be sure to check back for updates about seasonal fishing patterns. In the meantime, good luck out there!  

Cutfoot Sioux and Lake Winnie Walleye Fishing Report

Our guests ushered in the 2021 walleye fishing season in style. Great weather, good fishing, and a fresh sense of comradery made our resort a happy, dare we say delightful, place to be?

Typical of many openers, Bowen’s Bay and Cutfoot Sioux were about as far as our guests needed to go to catch walleyes. But some folks like to travel first, then fish, and for them, Big Winnie did not disappoint either. There were schools of fish on all 4 corners of the lake, so depth and presentations varied depending on which area folks discovered.

Mike and Lisa Lindholm with nice Lake Winnie opening day walleyes.

Although the 2018-year class of walleye has dominated recent conversation, there were still plenty of larger fish in the mix too.

 The accompanying photo of Lisa and Mike Lindholm was typical of what many anglers enjoyed this weekend as well. A healthy smattering of fish from the 2013-year class helped keep the cameras clicking while folks gathered some of the 13 to 14 inch 2018s for family fish fries back at camp.

 On the south end, walleyes were stacked up along a steep shoreline break. To the west, they were straddling a slow tapering breakline between the shallow flats and deeper water. Up north, walleyes were holding in a trough formed by the tailwaters of Third River Flowage, the large flat between Stony and Mallard Points. To the east, folks found fish along the Mississippi River channel and on the weed flats in Tamarack Bay.

One generalization about the 2021 season so far is that fish are located significantly deeper than they were during the 2020 fishing season. That is because the water, especially in Lake Winnie is much clearer than it was last year. For now, it’s anybody’s guess whether the clear water conditions will persist this summer. That will depend on how much rainfall the area receives; how warm the water gets and how effective the Zebra Mussels reproduce this season. We will keep you posted about water conditions every week.

 Because the water is so clear, most fish have been caught in water depths of 15 to 22 feet. There were exceptions, anglers who hit the lake early in the mornings or stayed out late in the evening have found some action in shallower water. But during the daytime, conditions have been clear, sunny, and calm, 15 feet has been the minimum starting depth for most anglers.

Walleye Location Depends On Baitfish Habitat Click Image For Article

Clear water is slow to warm, but the trend is upward. Anglers are reporting surface temperatures ranging from 53 to 58 degrees on the big lake, slightly warmer in both Cutfoot and Little Cutfoot. Shiner minnows are responding to the warming trend and live bait trappers say that they began running in earnest about 5 days ago.

Schools of spawning shiners will be key to locating not only walleyes, but perch and pike as well. Assuming that we eventually get some cloudy, breezy weather conditions, baitfish along the shoreline SHOULD trigger periodic shallow water action. When that happens, all 3 species can be caught at the same time, using the same presentation. For an informative article about walleye location in relation to baitfish, click the image above.

Jig and minnow, as usual, has been the mainstay presentation for most anglers. Using ¼ ounce weights has been best for anglers fishing over the deeper schools of fish, 1/8-ounce jigs are better at the shallow end of the spectrum. Shiners have been plentiful so far and that is what most folks are tipping their jigs with. Large fatheads and rainbow chubs are producing fish too, so for jig fishing, don’t be afraid to use them as well.

Lindy Rigging has started earlier than usual for some, rigging large, lively minnows or air injected night crawler have added extra fish to their larders. Probably because of calm conditions, the slower, more methodic presentation is triggering strikes from neutral-to-negative fish. So, if you mark a school of fish on your graph and they snub your jig and minnow, try Lindy Rigs before you leave the area.

Walleyes and walleye fishing consume most anglers during the early season, but occasionally folks ask about whether crappies have begun spawning. The answer today is not yet. We thought that maybe we’d find some in shallow water on Monday, but an hour-long scan of the shallows didn’t produce any sightings. This is likely to change soon especially if the warming trend continues, we’ll keep you posted.

We love eating fish and we want you to enjoy a family fish fry whenever you want to, but we also think it’s good not to go overboard. So, before we end the report today, let us give you one “conservative minded” sales pitch about the class of 2018 walleyes.

These 2018 fish have the potential to provide years of great fishing, if we don’t pull out too many, too fast. Most, if not all of the 13-to-14-inch walleyes in Winnie have not yet matured. But they will this summer and if they are left in the lake, will spawn for the first-time next spring, just before the 2022 fishing season begins.

We suggest helping them along by setting your own voluntary size and bag limits and then sticking to them. Keep a few for a meal, release a few to provide seed for another season; it only makes sense.

During our formative years at Bowen Lodge, we made a lot of headway with anglers by promoting conservation. Ideas like voluntarily releasing adult, female fish and being selective about which fish made it to the fillet table. We would love to see that spirit of cooperation return to our lake and there is no time like the present to get it started.

Cheers and happy fishing, we will be seeing you on the lake! And don’t forget, if you’re in the neighborhood, stop in and say hi, we’d love to chat and give you a tour!

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.