Depending on the size of your winch motor you could use the circuit board of a cheap or old servo. The link below shows how I use them on my conversions to control micro gear motors. It works exceptionally well with no creep and no need to carry extra batteries as it plugs right into your receiver and you have full proportional control and not to mention that it takes up next to no space.
http://www.rctruckandconstruction.co...ht=motocrawler