In 3 weekends, we pulled up 18 fish over 25″.  Here is exactly how it was done.

I could sit here and try to convince you that I’m a “trophy” fisherman, but the reality is that Lake Winnipeg makes everyone look like a professional.  A big part of catching trophy fish is finding the locations and Winnipeg is no secret.

location

In one weekend, I landed more trophy walleye than I had my entire life. That, of course, led to fishing multiple weekends, and an addiction that doesn’t subside. If you want to get someone addicted to fishing, take them somewhere you can guarantee them big fish. There is no better place than Lake Winnipeg to do this.

“Lake Winnipeg makes everyone look like a professional fisherman. Catching trophy fish is all about location.”

the presentation

There isn’t any complex strategy that went into catching these fish. It was more about being in the right vicinity and making enough noise to bring them in. For presentation, it’s aggressively “jigging” with a large and loud bait, not something I would commonly do in the waters back at home, but fun nevertheless.

My particular lures of choice were red and pink rattle baits.  A Northland Tackle brand to be exact, a much cheaper version of the popular LiveTarget. Keep in mind, MOST of the fish on the lake are caught with some variation of a rattle bait or spoon. I’ve hardly heard any talk of the classic jig and minnow being used. For bait, the lures are commonly tipped with salties (nickname for dead shiners salted for preservation).  Personally, we found pink and red to be the “hot” colors, although I’ve heard of plenty of people catching them on blues.

The Attack

These fish are aggressive.  Although I did catch a few on the descent, most were caught when I was climbing the water column, trying to get the fish to chase up.  When they grab, it’s like “dead weight” a heavy pull, that often pulls on the drag.  When you see them pull up through that hole in the ice (that’s nearly 4 feet deep) you will quickly become astonished by the size of the head. Most of the time they come through in schools (as expected).  This, of course, means getting multiple “big” fish back-to-back is common, followed by an extended period of time with no action at all.

GO FOR IT

If Lake Winnipeg is a reasonable drive for you, plan a trip for it. There aren’t many places that offer this good of a chance at catching a trophy walleye. Catching a fish over 25″ is LIKELY. Most people who travel to Lake Winnipeg for a weekend go in the spring when the fish are piled up by the river (and the odds of the weather being nice are a lot higher). However, there are plenty of opportunities all winter long… which means November to April most years (but be sure to always check the ice reports).