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Spillway- Winona


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We fished the spillway Sunday and had fair luck. Lot of small male saugers. 2 male eyes about 16". A lot of white bass, some pretty decent. The sheepies are in there pretty thick. Ringworms were the ticket for us. Game warden was there and ticked a few people for not having a license. It was people fishing from shore. We talked to the warden and I was very impressed with him. Said he had been checking people at the main dam in Winona and had not seen a fish caught. He was in a boat. Ihave not run into this warden before. We had to go early to do chores. Talked to a guy I see there a lot and he said the crappies have been pretty hot there about sunset. Warden also told us that he had seen a lot of fish being caught below the Whitman dam the last couple days. Good luck

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where u fishing from shore, wat color on the ringworms, and how is the floating debri right now, i might head out there 2morro afternoon

thanx for the info

if it werent for easter we;d all be easter

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We were in boat. Blue with white tail probaly caught most fish but we tried a lot of colors and seemed to catch a few on them all. Very little debri in water. Looks like a rain out for work today so will probaly be down there again this afternoon. Good luck

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Interesting. I was out there in my boat on Saturday afternoon from about 3:30-7:15. Between the 2 of us we caught 1 dink sauger and a 3 lb sheephead. We fished near the spillway and also went around the corner into the slower water for awhile. We were using minnows and crawlers for live bait. I also was casting a rattlin' rapala. My buddy caught the sauger with a willowcat that was mixed in with the minnows. He had 2 hits on that willowcat within about 2 minutes. We were fishing out by the fallen trees. There were a lot of fish on the depth finder but we did not have much luck. There were a few boats tied up to the wall opposite the boat landing. I could not see if they were catching anything or not.

I wanted to try for cats but didn't get around to it. I lost a big flathead in there years ago.

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Gopher Guy did you notice the current seam between the down trees and the Wisc. side? We caught just about all the fish along that seam on the shallow side. Don't get me wrong, we had to work for the fish and like I said they were almost all real small. Got to belive it will turn on there real soon. Have had some real good days there along with some bad ones Didn't get out today maybe tomorrow. Good luck

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Yeah, we fished over in that area. Must not have been using the right bait. Were you anchoring or trolling/drifting? The anchor slipped a few times in that really deep water. I'd never fished the area in a boat before, always had been along shore. I did not realize how deep it was out there! I'm thinking that could be a very good catfish spot, what do you think? I live in Hastings so I won't be down there again for a few weeks I'm guessing. My dad lives in Winona so that's why I fish down there so often.

I also saw several boats up at McNally landing on Saturday morning along with a few more up at Vercota landing. Sunday we went to Bartlett's and my dad had 1 bite and he missed it. It's been pretty rotten.

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I caught a lot of fish, including some big walleye, below the spillway in the spring when the water was high--it was usually better than below the lock and dam during high water. Now I'm stuck down here where no one has seen a walleye in several weeks. mad.gif

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Got out again yesterday. Had about same luck below spillway. A few small saugs. The redhorse suckers were in there real thick. Fun to catch but not what Iwas looking for. Went downstream quite a ways and picked up 3 decent eyes. They were right up in the trees. Biggest was just short of 20 inches. No swollen belly. I think they have spawned. Was casting ring worms. Have caught a few small cats there but I don't target cats. I'm sure they are in there. We were in McNallys last week and got the big skunk. Kind of surprised me as we did real well in there at first ice. First time I have fished there from boat so don't really know that much about it. We fish below the spillway a lot all through the summer and have pretty good luck there. Lot of smallmouth up in the rocks right below spillway. Good luck

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hey eyehunter i see u live in coralville my parents live down there just moved there this summer, its a nice town, they live in brown deer, if u are fimilar. jst thought it was cool

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Is this the Spillway that is accessible through the PI campground? I usually fish dam 5A, but am curious to where this spillway is as a second option. How much does the boat access cost at this spillway? I believe I read that it has a fee. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for the report!

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Quote:

Is this the Spillway that is accessible through the PI campground? I usually fish dam 5A, but am curious to where this spillway is as a second option. How much does the boat access cost at this spillway? I believe I read that it has a fee. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for the report!


Yeah, it's the one right by Prairie Island campground. It is free and there is plenty of parking and tons of room to manuever your trailer. There are usually quite a few people shore fishing there too. There is also McNally landing which is just up the road about a half mile and then there's also Vercota landing which is another mile or 2 down the road.

All these launches are free.

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Gopher Guy is correct. Its free and also a very nice ramp.You can get out to the main channel very easy from here. Right now with the high water you can go out through Blackbeard or just follow straight down stream and you will come out about 1/2 mile (guess) below 5a. Good luck.

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Quote:

hey eyehunter i see u live in coralville my parents live down there just moved there this summer, its a nice town, they live in brown deer, if u are fimilar. jst thought it was cool


Yeah, I know Brown Deer real well--I can see it from my front door. grin.gif They opened the water hazard up to ice fishing for the first time this winter, which was cool because it is a five-minute walk from here. There are some nice bass in there too, but to get them in the summer you have to sneak in at three in the morning...or so I have heard. wink.gif It doesn't equal the PI spillway in the spring time, though.

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