Mississippi River Wabasha to Winona and beyond (all postings)

Any ice reports for backwater by winona? Looking at fishing day after Christmas. Thanks in advance.

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

Winona Dam Report,

I traveled over to wisconsin yesterday and stopped by the winona dam to watch the action.

Numerous sumo perch caught on lindy rigs with a small amount of night crawler as bait.

I plan on heading there on Friday and will report back.

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

Was at the Wabasha Marina 1/31/12 and with 3 people caught 54 bluegills, 3 crappies and 2 northerns measuring 25 and one measuring 35 inches and weighing 11 1/2 pounds.

Ice conditions are good in the usual spots in Winona. People have been fishing McNally's, the Culvert, MN City Boat Club and the Winona Boat Club as well as Sam Gordies and Mertes Slough. If you don't mind a crowd, they are catching fish. I don't like crowds, so I have been elsewhere. Fishing has been very good. Crappies have been very aggressive and the tip-up action has been excellent for pike and bass. Plenty of gills to go around also. After this week, things should really lock up. Merrick Park should be accessible by the weekend, so it could be good for a couple days, until it gets beat to death. From the reports I've been reading and hearing, the river has been pretty generous from Lake Onalaska to Nelson and back down the other side. If this is too general, message me for more specifics.

Anybody been out? How's the ice? How's the fishing? Thinking of coming this weekend from Central WI as I used to live near Winona. Any info on ice conditions would be greatly appreciated.

Fished backwaters of 5a this morning from 6:30 am 'til 9:30 am. Tried a few spots with fish at all stops. River lowest it's been all season at 7.4 feet(Winona stage). It's still 1.5-2 feet above normal summer heights. Caught many short eyes and only one legal at 17". Few small channel cats, a redhorse, mooneye and a goat. About 9am, switched modes from live bait to casting spinners for pike and bass to end the morning. One pike @ 30". Was an ok morning. Mind is starting to morph into waterfowl mode here soon. I'm ready for some ice.

Late report. Have been killin' the eye's on 5a. River coming down fast. Still a couple feet above normal, but the lowest it's been all spring. Numbers are there, but not taking many home to eat. Fishing shallow clambeds/gravel/sand (4-6 fow) with quite a bit of flow. Fishing snell rigs with crawlers and leaches. Headin' out in the morning...river stage as of 10pm was 7.9 in Winona. By the way...starting to get a few cats in the mix as well.