Lake Winnipeg

[Flippin and Dippin]

I am lucky enough to be going on a trip to the meca that is lake winnipeg. Middle of February. We are renting a shack and sleeping in a motel. Any tips on what to use or where to fish?

[IceNutz]

I would take a lot of Chubby Darters and find the eyes!

[grizzlyhackle]

I am lucky enough to be going on a trip to the meca that is lake winnipeg. Middle of February. We are renting a shack and sleeping in a motel. Any tips on what to use or where to fish?

Where is swampdonkey? That dude kills em every year

[Reinert]

Maybe contact tomasz burlaga he's here on this site.look for his videos

[Flippin and Dippin]

Right on. I'm stocked up on rattle baits, spoons, and got a few medium and medium heavy poles. Thanks

[Sandbilly]

I am lucky enough to be going on a trip to the meca that is lake winnipeg. Middle of February. We are renting a shack and sleeping in a motel. Any tips on what to use or where to fish?

Good for you!

A few questions.
A shack, as in fishing out of a permanent shelter? The "where to fish" question is pretty well answered if your are fishing out of a permanent.
Is on ice transportation provided?
Are you going with someone that has icefished up there before?
How far from your motel to the launch? 
Does your outfitter provide augers, portable shelters or any other equipment?

Rattle baits and spoons work fine. We didn't use liveies or salties (minnows) to catch the Winnipeg pickerel (walleye) aye.    Fun to visit with the folks up there.
Heavy braided line and a fluoro leader. I ran 17# nanofil / 12#P-line with no issues.
Retie often due to nicks and ice buildup. Might not have the ice buildup problem we dealt with if fishing in a heated shelter.
A quality barrel swivel between lines. All of our fish came out of 5-15 feet of water. You will encounter severe line twists without swivels, if on fish.
Good GPS and Navionics US&Canada phone app. Can never have too much navigational equipment on Winnipeg!
Check into your cell phone plan before leaving home. If your plan charges more for out of country connection, purchase a revised version well before departure. Not sure what it costs because it was already covered on my phone, but it's something like $15 for a short stay.
Have all documentation readily available at the border. We had 0 issues but have heard horror stories including some in our group on previous trips.
Know regulations, the metric system and have a metric ruler when keeping fish. Apparently the metric ruler thing is important if checked by DNR.
Avoid US currency. Exchange rate is around 30%. Use a card if possible, it will do the exchanging for you.
If your vehicle has a block heater, use it. Hopefully the motel has a plugin. Take a long extension cord, jumper cables, shovel,  assorted tools. It's not if, but when you will break something up there.   

Have fun!

dc 

[Flippin and Dippin]

That's alot of good information. I was vauge with my original post. Didn't think about a barrel swivel. You wern't worried about spooking fish? How long of a flouro leader? One of my fishing partners is a prepper like you ain't seen before, so we have read up on regulations and what not. Should I try to buy a license before we leave or is it easy enough to purchase one up there? The place we are renting the shack from "puts us on the fish". From the pictures online, they look like sheds on skis. 10×10. Thanks again sandbilly.

[TSB]

I've been fishing in Manitoba 17 time the first week in June getting into Canada is not a problem as long as no DUI ! Back into the US after 9/11 was a little different but still not a big problem. The game and fish always checks us do not freeze your fish with out 2" of visible skin and Do not Freeze the Fillets together have them separated in the Bag! They told me they wright a lot of tickets on this !  Don't lie I have seen them run guy threw the ringer waiting my turn!  Manitoba is an awesome place the people have always been good to us and the fishing is unreal!                                                                                                                                     

[swampdonkeyice]

I have done 4 trips to Winnipeg in feb and march.  We did a ton of research and we get a satisfaction out of do it yourself trips, but getting rentals is cool too.  Winnipeg is super easy, as its a giant, featurless basin.  No shelfs, no sand bars, no rock piles, just a giant basin from 5 to 20 foot of water.  Keep moving until you find fish.  live targets, rippin raps, clackin raps work good to call the fish in, and trigger aggressive bites.  Also the go to bait that always outproduces anything is just a jighead and salted minnow.  Rig it so it has a natural look about it, and look at the bottom of the frozen minnows they sell and try to buy ones that havnt been thawed and re froze, and have good size ones. Big light spoons also work well like pelican or rjs.  It sounds like they are getting alot of 18 to 22 inch fish this year, with some big ones mixed in.  We used 12 to 15 pound test, and get high quality SHARP jig heads, as there are many giant teeth inside the big greenbacks mouth, and getting a solid hook set in a 30 inch plus greenback is 90 percent of the battle, you will drop many big fish.  Auger extension will be needed if your drilling your own holes.
If you are fishing the west side, then get a room in Selkirk, which is 15 mins from the lake.  If your accessing from the mouth or east side, then stay at the south beach casino, which has an all you can eat buffet thats decent, with decent priced rooms.  Tracks or sleds will probably be the only mode of transport that time of year, depending on snow pack.  Good luck and share some pics when you get back, and be ready for a trip that you will never forget in a world class fishery!

[swampdonkeyice]

Here is a video I made from a trip to winnipeg.  I was fresh into making videos, so the sound and editing is horrible, but we stick a bunch of heavy fish, and I got some cool underwater video down the hole.

[Slabsticker]

I'm not really part of this thread, but WHOAAA!!!!! Awesome video, obviously I have another thing that needs to go on the bucket list now. Good luck to anyone headed up there this year and more pics/vids would be awesome. I truly love the greenbacks in that lake!

[grizzlyhackle]

I knew SD would show up 

Good info from Sandbilly and TSB as well! Winnipeg has been on my bucket list for a while, definitely need to get up there sooner than later

[Flippin and Dippin]

Thanks for the information. This is all very helpful. Can't wait to get up there. I have been open water fishing in NW Ontario a bunch, but never ventured north of Webster SD for the hard water. Swamp Donkey, as far as salted minnows go, can I bring my own? And are you talking your typical gumball jig heads or large pelkies? Thanks again y'all. Hopefully we will be posting pics of some beautiful greenbacks

[Sandbilly]

That's alot of good information. I was vauge with my original post. Didn't think about a barrel swivel. You wern't worried about spooking fish? How long of a flouro leader? One of my fishing partners is a prepper like you ain't seen before, so we have read up on regulations and what not. Should I try to buy a license before we leave or is it easy enough to purchase one up there? The place we are renting the shack from "puts us on the fish". From the pictures online, they look like sheds on skis. 10×10. Thanks again sandbilly.

Always enjoy that video swampdonkeyice.

Catching fish will not be an issue if you are in areas they are running. Main reason I ran leaders was to prevent line twists. Water clarity is from stained to chocolate milk so no worries about spooking fish. We were sticking 40-50 fish/day/person running and gunning. Apparently it's a numbers game in December. Most were 16 - 21 inch walleye and a few sauger. One 8"yellow perch that smacked a rattle bait. Six in our group, we had 21 walleye over 25 inches. Pictures are on the Ice Team site. I would do it here but my internet connection is so slow that it takes over an hour to format a pic and post it.   

Leaders were basically the length of the rod so I didn't have swivels passing through frozen eyelets.

We planned to buy licenses at a bait store in Winnipeg but my buddy laid his pickup and trailer on it's side N of Brookings so it interrupted progress for about 5 hours. Ended up getting licenses at a convenience store in Gimli with no problem.

Good info about bringing fish home from TSB. Maybe it's the adventure, but those walleye taste better than any other walleye I've ever ate.

It will be interesting what type of ice conditions you encounter in Feb. We were able to travel out 3 miles or so on a strip of the lake that had opened up mid December and then refroze. Made a few 6 mile trips to the mouth of the Red off the refroze ice that was very unfriendly. Shard and snowball ice the entire way. Took an hour and a half picking our way just getting there on sleds. Some very large areas in the southern basin had so much slush piled under the ice there was no way to clear a hole and drop a lure through it. Visited with a local that was running a Snowbear and he claimed it was the worst ice conditions he had encountered in 67 years. Take it for what it's worth. The two buddies that had the pickup/trailer on it's side have been ice fishing up there for six years going twice a year, dec & march. They didn't know how much of the southern part of Winnipeg would be fishable by March with a normal winter. Someday I will make it up there in March but it won't be this year.

Keep us posted.

dc         

[Flippin and Dippin]

Got some pk flutter fish in the other day. Various sizes and colors. Heard they sint bad. Amy yips on how yo work em?