Lake Winnibigoshish

Lake Winnibigoshish, also called Big Winnie or Winnie, is a reservoir on the Mississippi River in north-central Minnesota. It lies about 15 miles northwest of Deer River in the Chippewa National Forest, within the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, and straddles Cass and Itasca counties. The Minnesota DNR gives its area as 56,544 acres, with a mean depth of 15.1 feet and a maximum depth of 70 feet, and calls it the state's seventh-largest lake. The DNR describes it as a shallow, wind-swept reservoir with a sandy shoreline and gently sloping shoals. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gives a larger figure of 67,000 acres and 141 miles of shoreline. The Corps began a timber dam at the outlet in 1881 and put it into operation in 1884. The present structure dates from 1899 and controls runoff from a 1,442-square-mile drainage area containing 28 lakes. The Mississippi is more than 11 miles wide where it flows through the lake.

The U.S. Forest Service runs the public ramps near Bena. They are Tamarack Point, Richards Townsite, Birches, Plughat Point, the west-side Winnie access and Reeses Landing. Plughat Point has a concrete ramp. Zebra mussel larvae were found in 2012, and the DNR added the lake and 13 connected waters to its infested-waters list.

The lake is known for walleye, yellow perch and northern pike, and cisco also live there. In 2025 the DNR set up a fisheries input group, and it is updating the lake's management plan for 2027-2037.