By: Tim Moore
New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee is a large glacial lake at 45,440 acres with a maximum depth of 200 feet. This uniquely clear lake has a large center section called the Broads and a series of bays that stretch for miles in all directions, creating 183 miles of continuous shoreline. The lake is home to celebrities, politicians and professional athletes. It is also home to some of the largest white perch in North America, and a lot of them.
Lake Winnipesaukee is most well known for its beauty, boating opportunities and largemouth bass populations during the summer months, but during the winter a transformation takes place. When the lake freezes, white perch ice anglers sharpen their augers and ready themselves for some of the fastest fishing action that the lake has to offer. Winni, as it is affectionately called by those who fish there, offers some of the best white perch fishing anywhere in North America. Anglers from all over the country have sought out these abnormally large fish due to their numbers and size. The lake regularly gives up white perch over 2 pounds, and 100-fish days are no fish tale. You also have the very real possibility of hooking into one of the lake’s infamous lake trout, since they often follow the white perch around and pick up the scraps left behind after a feeding frenzy.
The main forage in Lake Winnipesaukee is rainbow smelt. The high lipid content of smelt allows the white perch to grow unusually large. When you add that to the fact that the perch travel in large schools that only get larger in number as the ice fishing season progresses, the result is often non-stop action. As popular as the fishing is, the size of the lake leaves plenty of room for anyone looking to try their hand at a little white perch ice fishing.
Cloudy days are always going to be your best bet. On cloudy, rainy or snowy days, the fish will usually bite all day. On sunny bluebird days, focus on the hours around dawn and dusk. Be prepared to do a lot of moving around during the mid-day period because the fish will be less active. Spoons, tungsten drop jigs and bucktail jigs are some of the most productive jigs used. Focus on basins and steep breaks in 27 to 40 feet of water. Packing light and only bringing the necessities will make you more mobile and efficient when the need arises to make several moves to stay on a roaming school of fish.
If you ask most anyone who has ice fished on Lake Winnipesaukee, you will usually hear the same thing. It is the perfect lake to ice fish. The fishing is usually very good, and when it’s not, the sights and sounds will keep you feeling quite content. The picturesque mountain scenes that surround the lake alone make every trip worth the effort.
Tim Moore is a nationally recognized professional angler and owner of Tim Moore Outdoors LLC, offering Lake Winnipesaukee ice-fishing charters. He is a member of the New England Outdoors Writers Association and the producer of Tim Moore Outdoors TV. Visit www.TimMooreOutdoors.com.
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