Airport Lake

[11-87]

We were using Shiners on a tipup, and if I remember, about 3-4 ft of water and maybe a foot off bottom or so. Those aliens put upa dam good fight for a couple of kids..

[piker007]

Was at airport today. Theres about 6in of ice. Decent fishing

[Crappie2760]

Where do you fish on airport lake? I drove by there today and there was still open water off to the left and birds chilling on the edges of the ice. I can't believe its not froze over!

[JIvers]

Where do you fish on airport lake? I drove by there today and there was still open water off to the left and birds chilling on the edges of the ice. I can't believe its not froze over!

If by "open water off to the left" you mean the culvert opening just off the shoulder of the road as you drive out to the parking lot, that small spot never freezes. It is a good spot to shoot carp, as they are attracted to that patch of water in the winter.

When you are in the parking lot looking out at the deep backwater area (the water on either side of the road as you drive out there is too shallow to hold anything in the winter), there is usually open water off to the right of the boat ramp where the water narrows. That will freeze over completely in cold snaps, but that ice is never safe.

I wanted to head up to Winona today for some fishing, but the weather forecast doesn't sound promising for travel. I'll have to wait until next weekend to give a first-hand report for the area.

[Crappie2760]

Oh sorry I meant on the right not left oops I mixed up my directions haha. That answers it then. I just never have seen it in the winter. Thank You. It appeared as if there were vehicle marks driving onto the ice on the far left side of the parking lot and they went way down to the left and out of sight. Do you have to travel a long way from the parking lot to fish Airport?

[lookincalifornia]

we used to just head straight out to the point on the right of the bay. if you are looking to set tip ups, you may have to go into the bay a little further. i never tried to find green pads, they might hold fish if you can find some off to the right.

[jamessingkeo]

any big crappie cought out of there befor?

[piker007]

never caught any big crappie out there but lots of sunnies. northern and dogfish are out there too. you can fish from the open water all the way back in the bay

[jamessingkeo]

how thick the ice on that?

[Laska]

6", just out there Saturday, didnt see a thing, anyone know where theres a good spot for northerns? Im spearing for the first time this year and I went out three different places this last weekend with no luck...

[dufek]

I was out at Airport Sunday and all we got on the tipups were a couple 14-15 inch bass. Tried shallow and deep. Saw two northern caught out of the 10+ tipups by us all day. Got into a school of perch and the usual gills which kept things entertaining enough to stay through the game. Had 7-8" of ice by us.

[JIvers]

I made my first winter trip to Winona today, and fished Bartlett Lake, AKA "the airport lake", from about 8:00 to 1:00. I caught a lot of small and medium sunfish, one small perch, and saw a few more perch on the camera. No crappies, Northern, or bass caught on camera, line, or my tip-up. Some guys behind me had a flag come up once that I heard, but I don't know if they caught anything or not. The wind made keeping my shack anchored a chore, and resulted in several false flags that I saw.

There was about 10" of ice where I drilled out towards the island. One brave soul drove their tan mid-80s Cutlass type car from the boat landing out past the island--not me! I want about eight more inches of ice below what it there now before I drive out on the ice anywhere.

*!!!!!!!SOAPBOX ALERT!!!!!!*

I have been fishing the airport backwaters since the mid-90s. I probably fished it two or three hours a day, three or four times a week per winter in the second half of the '90s. I moved away from Winona in the summer of 2000, and since then have ice-fished out there on average five or six days a winter, usually for the better part of a day each time.

Every winter I become more convinced that the average size of the sunfish in Bartlett is shrinking, as are the numbers of Northern and largemouth. In the 1990s, before I owned a power auger, GPS, underwater camera, and prior to December of 1999 a Vexilar, I could catch plenty of 8" bluegill most days, and could reasonably expect several Northern and/or largemouth to hit my tip-up more days than not.

The last few years when I am out there, it seems like people are catching fewer and fewer Northern and bass, and smaller and smaller bluegill. I know that I catch fewer 8"+ bluegill every winter (none today), and fewer Northern of any size. I am beginning to think those trends, if they are true, are related.

What does anyone else who has been fishing that backwater for quite a few years think? It is possible that in the last five years or so I have picked the wrong winter day to fish out there every single time, but I doubt it. Instead, I wonder if harvest of predator fish (Northern and largemouth) is having an effect on the bluegill population. Fewer Northern and largemouth mean more bluegill fry surviving to compete with each other for a finite supply of food, leading to slower growth rates for all bluegill.

Or, if the average sunfish size out there is declining while sunfish numbers remain high, it could be a result of over-harvest of large male bluegills, a' la "the Lake Winona blugill study" syndrome. When too many large male bluegills are removed, smaller males are able to spawn. When male bluegills spawn, they devote most of their energy to spawning, and usually do not grow anymore. When those smaller male blugill are harvested, still smaller males are able to spawn, setting in motion a vicious cycle of ever smaller bluegills that was documented in a study on Lake Winona.

I would like to see the DNR take a look at this issue, as I believe the quality of fishing for both Northern and bluegill in the airport backwaters has declined in the last ten years.

[JIvers]

*ADDITION TO SOAPBOX SPEECH IN PREVIOUS POST*

A few things I left out of my previous post on the quality of fishing at Bartlett Lake:

After I read the Lake Winona bluegill study, I stopped keeping bluegill over 8". I also do not keep more than ten bluegill per day, as that is all I need.

I also will not keep Northern of over 24" or so, as I have read studies that indicate that a decent number of large Northern in a population is needed to keep the hammer handles in check. Otherwise, too many small Northern will compete with each other for food, leading to fewer large fish.

And I never keep largemouth, although this is partly due to the fact that I don't like them on the table, regardless of size. (In the case of mortally wounded fish, I will keep them when it is legal for me to do so.)

I suggested in my previous thread that I am not 100% certain that over-harvest is behind a decline in bluegill size and Northern numbers. I did not say that it could be some other environmental factor at work, not angler pressure on sunfish and/or Northern and largemouth.

*END SOAPBOX SPEECH ON BARTLETT LAKE*

[Laska]

It s a good possibility for either thoery to make sense. My grandfather came home the other day and said "Airport lake looks like swiss cheese," now that to me says something, year after year I here people going there and saying how many people there are and how the fishing is so great... So I figure that just simply too many fish are being takin period. One guy I know doesnt take more than he can eat in one sitting which is what I do to, I kinda wish people would understand the concept of taking a picture of a trophy fish take the measurements -(AKA for Taxidermy) and throw er' back let er' get bigger and spawn more trophies!

[Chode2235]

I agree on Airport. But have you been out on the main river lately. The size and numbers of bluegills is increasing quite a bit out there.

You can tie up to practically any tree and catch a ton of great fish out there.

Thanks Zebra muscles!

[10lbeyeball]

Is airport lake right next to the airport? If it is we used to fish northerns in there about this time of year! I was also told that there had been agate put in place to keep people out for homeland security reasons!

[Laska]

Drove out past "bartlett" today and it looks like a mini city down to the left side by the island only 3 guys over by the backwater striaght out from the landing, something must be going on, me myself Im going to da riva by the PI slough

[Andy Loos1431189100]

I totally agree with you EyeHunter. I remember when I was a kid, we used to catch big bluegills all the time at airport lake. Now, I don't even waste my time going out there. If the DNR past the 10 sunfish rule like they on the river, then you would start seeing big fish again. I was out there two years ago one afternoon and a family had two 5 gallon buckets full to the top of sunfish. Very disappointing to see.

[Andy Loos1431189100]

Friend went out to airport this last weekend, caught a ton of fish with a few decent fish mixed in, but not many.

[JIvers]

I agree on Airport. But have you been out on the main river lately. The size and numbers of bluegills is increasing quite a bit out there.

You can tie up to practically any tree and catch a ton of great fish out there.

Thanks Zebra muscles!

I know about the big sunnies in the main channel during the summer months. I don't target bluegill on open water, but when I fish crawlers for walleye I get plenty of 8"+ sunnies.

[#1RiverRat]

Is it even worth fishing bartlett's anymore? That place is ice fished so hard it isnt even funny. Nothing but small sunnies and a few decent bass here or there on a tip up now and then...people just don't realize that you need to let the big ones go!!!

[#1RiverRat]

Is it even worth fishing bartlett's anymore? That place is ice fished so hard it isnt even funny. Nothing but small sunnies and a few decent bass here or there on a tip up now and then...people just don't realize that you need to let the big ones go!!!

[JIvers]

Just to add still more to my earlier soapbox speech...

One factor I think makes the airport backwaters, AKA Bartlett Lake, more vulnerable to over-harvest of both large bluegill and predator fish (Northern and largemouth) than most backwaters is the relatively closed nature of the airport lake. It is connected to the river, but that connection is largely limited to high water. Most of the time, Bartlett "Lake" is just that--a small, largely self-contained lake.

Many backwaters are directly connected to the rest of the river system most of the year. That makes it easier for fish to enter and leave the locale as they see fit. Heavy angling pressure on these small areas may have less effect on fish populations, since they have the whole river system to recruit replacements for harvested fish. Take a bunch of Northern out of Lawrence Lake (to give one example) one winter? Plenty more come in next fall. Those big bluegill that are out on the wing dams in July? Come November, they move in to Lawrence Lake, or some other backwater area connected to the main channel.

I suspect far fewer fish from "outside" the airport backwaters move in there to replace the panfish and predators harvested each winter. That would make the effects of heavy harvest of big bass, Northern and bluegill (as I said earlier, I believe too many Northern and largemouth have been taken out over the years, too) more noticeable.

In a perfect world I would like to see tighter limits on bluegill, and very limited harvest of larger Northern, on Bartlett Lake. With its combination of deep-water winter habitat and expansive weeded areas, it could again be a dynamite panfish/Northern/largemouth spot.

Realistically, the DNR cannot custom-manage each backwater and lake. The best we can hope for is to educate people, and convince them to let more of those big fish go.

[JIvers]

So...anyone catching lots of small sunnies out at the Airport Lake backwaters, AKA Bartlett Lake, in Winona this winter?

[hector00]

You hit it right on the nose when you say small sunnies the screen is full of them no matter where you go out on the lake.

[JIvers]

You hit it right on the nose when you say small sunnies the screen is full of them no matter where you go out on the lake.

Made my first trip to the Airport Lake backwaters this morning. Three words sum up the bluegill fishing: small and slow.

On the plus side, I did catch four crappies; of course, none of them was over 4" tops.

I had one run on my tip-up, but whatever it was stripped the minnow. I didn't see any other flags come up this morning.

It's my first trip there this winter, and I can tell that ice has been hit hard, so I shouldn't expect too much. Still, this was not the sort of day I would have had out there five or ten years ago, in keeping with my rants on this thread from last winter.

[mhines]

If I may ask what part of the lake were you on? boat landing area, or the village area?.......I was out there on Tuesday, got setup around 12:30 caught 2 large mouths, 2 perch, and i believe a northern that i lost coming through the hole(darn cheap line). Then the fishing seemed to die off, after 3pm. Over all not a bad day for me, since this is my first year ice fishing...I was over where the village usually is.

[JIvers]

If I may ask what part of the lake were you on? boat landing area, or the village area?.......I was out there on Tuesday, got setup around 12:30 caught 2 large mouths, 2 perch, and i believe a northern that i lost coming through the hole(darn cheap line). Then the fishing seemed to die off, after 3pm. Over all not a bad day for me, since this is my first year ice fishing...I was over where the village usually is.

Village.