Lake Winnie — Bait Clouds, Full Bellies, and the Worm Gets Its Job Back

I have a cousin who won’t eat at a wedding reception because he “already had a sandwich in the truck.” You can put prime rib in front of that man and he’ll just nod at it. According to Jeff Sundin’s newest Winnie post, a lot of the walleyes on Winnibigoshish are that cousin right now.

The Oct. 9 entry on Fishrapper works a little differently from his usual on-the-water updates. A reader wrote in after a 12-day fall trip, based out of Bowen Lodge by the sound of it, and Sundin answered. Between the two of them you get a sonar picture we hadn’t seen yet, a bait change that walks back part of Tuesday’s card, and some honest talk about why this fall has been so streaky.

Up front: three things that changed

1. Jig and minnow got demoted. Our Oct. 6 card had minnows beating crawlers. Now Sundin says the jig-and-minnow, a presentation he clearly loves, isn’t giving him his best results.
2. Crawlers are earning their keep again. Wiggle worming has been worth the hassle, he says, even with the water at 56 to 57 degrees. He’s careful not to oversell it. It isn’t a blowout, but with nightcrawlers he’s been putting together a decent day’s catch most times out.
3. Slip floats are working too. He’s seeing results from a slip bobber holding up a nightcrawler or an extra-large minnow. Most of the people doing it run forward-facing sonar: spot a fish, park, drop the float rig onto it. He says that approach keeps beating jig and minnow.

What one boat saw on the north side

The reader’s group spent most of the trip on the north shores, starting at the Rock Pile and working up the shoreline toward the Third River, plus a bit of time near Raven’s Point. They fished 4 to 14 feet. They saw plenty of walleyes on their sonar. Getting bit was the hard part.

His graph is the memorable bit. On a lot of their drifts over the Rock Pile, the screen filled with bait in a band roughly 6 to 14 feet down. Plenty of times the bait got so thick the regular 2D sonar couldn’t find bottom. They could see walleyes sitting inside those clouds, and the walleyes did not care about their jigs. Every fish they cleaned was plump and spitting up minnows.

He also wondered whether a run of south wind (six days out of seven) made things worse along that shoreline, and whether he should have gone looking for water with less bait in it. Big wind also made the long run over to Winnie’s south side a bad idea.

That’s one group’s trip, told secondhand. It’s also the clearest picture of the north side in any of our Winnie cards so far, and it lines up with what Sundin keeps describing.

Sundin’s explanation (his opinion, labeled)

He’s said before that the big 2018 and 2019 year classes are thinning out, and we covered that on Tuesday. What he adds this time:

• The balance flipped. Borrowing an idea from his mentor, fisheries biologist Dick Sternberg, he says it only takes a small swing between walleyes and forage to change how a lake fishes. Lots of hungry predators and the fishing is easy. Lots of bait and the hot bite goes away and the lake can seem empty.
• Possible reasons there’s so much bait (he says “probably,” “likely,” and “may” all the way through): less minnow trapping on the lake could mean more shiners; lower water might be pushing bait off the shallows into open water; and young perch or other little gamefish may have had a banner spawn.
• Feeding comes in bursts. Fish this well fed only need short, intense meals. Run into a school during one and it’s great. Find the same school after they’ve eaten and it’s a chore.
• Our two cents: none of this is DNR data. It’s a guide’s read plus one reader’s sonar. We think it’s a reasonable read, but it’s still a read.

What to actually do with that

• Don’t camp on fish you can see. This was the most direct advice in the post. Watching a pile of walleyes on the screen and trying to talk them into eating usually wastes time. Keep moving until you find a group that’s actually feeding.
• Bring crawlers again. Pack worms for wiggle worming plus whatever float setup you’re comfortable with, then let the fish pick. Minnows still belong in the boat; the post just says they aren’t leading right now.
• Maybe try water with less bait in it. That’s the reader’s afterthought, not something Sundin weighed in on directly, so treat it as a hunch. It does make some sense, though. It’s hard to compete with a buffet.

Look, I’ve spent whole afternoons hovering over a school of fish like a man trying to sell a timeshare to a family that already said no. They were right. I was wrong. Move the boat.

Where this goes from here

Sundin expects Winnie to get easier when the walleye side of the scale catches up, whether that comes from a strong natural hatch or from more DNR stocking. He also floats a hopeful idea, clearly labeled as a maybe: a share of all that bait might be baby walleyes, slowly growing into the next big year class. He says he can’t wait to see what the DNR’s summer survey work shows, and neither can we.

That’s the part I like. A guide staring down a tough fall, and the first thing he reaches for is the survey data, not an excuse. Our hope, and it’s only a hope, is that the numbers bring good news. Either way, the lake doesn’t have to be easy for the trip to be worth it.

How this fits with the earlier cards

• Oct. 6, Location Beats the Thermometer: 5–7 feet, rocks when it blows, eelgrass tops, plain 1/8-ounce heads and minnows. The bait advice there is now partly out of date. Location still matters most.
• Oct. 5, First Frost, Fussy Fish, Shiners Back on the Jig: the frosty Saturday when worms went quiet.
• Oct. 2, Wiggle Worms Beat the Chop: worms on a windy Tuesday. So in a single week, crawlers went from leading, to quitting, to back on the payroll.

Fine print

This card is built on one reader’s 12-day trip and one guide’s reply. It has no counts or sizes, and the only water temperature is the 56–57 degrees Sundin gives. We didn’t add anything. The bait-cloud explanation is his theory, not a survey. Confirm current MN DNR regs before harvest.

Sources

• October 9, 2026 Winnie entry, Jeff Sundin / Fishrapper (Early Bird Fishing Guide), reader email and reply
• Prior cards: Lake Winnie — Location Beats the Thermometer, Lake Winnie — First Frost, Fussy Fish, Shiners Back on the Jig, Lake Winnie — Wiggle Worms Beat the Chop