Winnipeg River??? ToddNE

[MOTOR HEAD]

ToddNE

give me some insight on last years bite. Where did you have the best luck and what lures worked the best.
did you try the Red?

[Todd_NE]

Wasn't there in 04 motorhead.

Todd
Today, redemption is spelled R O N!

[Roger Benoit]

Motorhead,

I'm a local from Winnipeg, I can sorta tell you what it was like last year.

Last year, Trolling with clown colors seemed to work. This year my luck has come on Rapala # 9, Black back, yellow/Orange bellies and Frenzy firetiger.

Jigging, Seemed the bigger the jig bigger bait seemed better. My partner for the last two weeks has been using a lot of frozen shiners 4" or so and has gotten some really hard slams on it.

Overall the largest we've picked up has been around the 24" mark.

Trolling has only produced some 16-18" fish. Our biggest fish has come on jigs, anywhere from 1/2 to 3/4 tipped with live or frozen. 1/2oz bubblegum jigs have done it for me so far.

Not too much luck on the bay. lots of drums two weeks ago, last weekend, none. River has produced well tho.

The weather has not cooperated tho. Too much movement, too much south winds. Wind shifting twice a day, mid 15c during the day. But it should get better, lows this week are in 1-3c range. That should bring the water temperature down to 55F or so by the weekend.

If that dont make them put the feedbag on, i dont know what will.

Good luck

Roger

[walley250]

We did best trolling a #7 Firetiger. I don't think jig color seems to matter as much as people think, however I like the bubble gum color the best. I found that adding a flasher or rattles to a jig can really improve the numbers of fish caught.

[ChuckE]

We've fished at Minaki for over 20 years now. This year, we used black Gulp Leeches and 3" Black Gulp Minnows on bubblegum, perch and dark blue jigs. They worked great--won't be buying leeches anymore. Threading the leeches on the jig head (like a minnow)seemed to work better than hooking them thru the 'imitation' sucker.

For beating the banks, we found that #7 to #9 Crawdad (old color and not the new color) shad raps worked good, followed by #3 Copper or Gold mepps on a very slow retrieve.

Chuck from IL

[OK fella]

So there are still fish at Minaki?

[ChuckE]

You bet. Lots of nice walleye, smallmouth, northern and musky. Except for a few walleye that we eat, we let everything else go. ;)

The size has definately increased over the past few years and it is getting harder to find eater walleye at times. In general, fishing pressure over the past 3 years is down, due to delays in crossing the border, increasing Looney, gas prices, etc. It is a great fishery!