Mississippi River Wabasha to Winona and beyond

Went out in Winona. Some ice looked questionable, got out off of Prairie Island Rd-got into gills, kepts 20 *(ten each-the limit) but took 6 hours and a lot of sorting. Glad to get on the ice. Few other guys out too. Most everything should be frozen up by this upcoming weekend.

Went out on 2-10-13 to wilcox landing south of wabasha all the way out to the island. Only ones out but there were vehicle tracks out there. Nothing on tip ups but caught two pike on the rod using suckers one 27in and one 22in. Left there at aboutt 11am and went to the finger lakes. Wen out to 3rd lake and got into the jumbo perch great time!

Explored a few backwaters around winona from 1-5pm. Looking for some crappies but didnt manage to find any. Did get a couple small bluegills on small orange jig tipped with a waxie

Fished the dresbach dam friday night. Had shiners out on tip ups and lost two pike at the hole. Also saw a few walleye caught towards dark

Am at airport lake/Bartlets and pm at mcnallies. Ended the day with 4 keeper crappie and a dozen gills. Had 12 flags but only two small snakes to sow for it. Really windy. Many people and slow for everyone. Will get out again next week.

Started at Bass Camp. Went to the Wisconsin side and floated downstream to hit a wing dam. Low water and not much happening. Very few boats out, which tells you they aren't hammering anything. Managed one sucker in a few hours of fishing. Went down one dam and tried that-same results-eyes were hard to find. Did find a few northerns (biggest 30 inch) and an eye (18 inch) where a small current went into calm water. Tough day but great weather.

Mike

Lots of moving around and miles on truck and feet exploring various backwater spots. Started near Kellog and ended near Red Wing. Lots of little guys but then out of nowhere a 8 1/2 incheer would show up. Fun site fishing though.

Found a deep water hole not for off main channel around 2 pm. Crappies were suspended in 18-24 FOW. Many fish 5-6 feet down, others as low as 2 feet off bottom. Small profile rockers with waxies were best... some on plastic too. Tip Downs also produced some nicer fish.

4- 7 inches of hard ice near channel.

Best of Luck and be safe out there!

Went out on Airport/Bartlets all day President's day. Tough bite-fish were not hitting hard and the wind made it tough to detect bites. Good flag action, mostly bass. Landed 3 decent bass and lost a big one at the hole, one small northern and 3-4 misses. One good crappie and a few small ones. Gills weren't huge, but enough to clean for a meal.

Mike