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SE MN, Rochester - Red Wing - Winona Fishing Reports


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now that the hardwater season is over and im still laid off from work anyone have any good spots to fish for panfish from shore? thanks

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  • 2 weeks later...
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  • JIvers

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The ponds/resovoirs in Roch. are all options: Willow Creek, Chester Woods, Fosters, etc.

Probably more on numbers than size.

You can also go near Wabasha and the public landing or along the road from MN to WI.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

The fishing on Lake Zumbro has been pretty good for crappies.

How have the rest of you been doing and where are you fishing?

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Weather and work have limited my outtings... a week or so I was finally able to fish the South Fork... it was finally starting to clear up and go down... but after the rain we got the other day/s I doubt its getting better

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I hit the Upper Iowa river in Howard County, Iowa, this morning; it was high and a little dirty, but fishable. Problem was, the smallmouth didn't agree.

The Root and the Upper Iowa start in the same general area, and flow fairly close to each other, so I would expect the Root to be in about the same shape. They got a lot of rain in western Fillmore and eatern Mower Counties this week, but the runoff wasn't so bad.

I'm going to hit a small headwater stream in Fillmore County tomorrow morning for trout, as I think it will be in good shape.

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Speaking of the Upper Iowa river that flows through Leroy MN. What kind of fish are in that stretch.

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The better fishing in the Upper Iowa River is from Lidtke Mill Dam by Lime Springs, Iowa, and on downstream from there.

Above Lidtke Mill, including the Lake Louise mill pond, you will still find some smallmouth, crappie, and the like, along with bullheads, suckers, and carp.

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Root River is high and muddy.. camped at Eagle Cliff the past two days.. got out fishing both days.. there was about 6" visibility.. and at least 8-12" higher than it should be.. caught mostly suckers.. hogsuckers and white suckers.. and caught only 1 smallie.. no trout..

All other streams in the area I checked out too were mudded up.. anything from very low visibility to chocolate milk... I'm pretty sure the down pour that happened today didn't help the situation

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  • 1 month later...

Made it out for a float last weekend so here a few pictures from the trip. Good fishing all day long, just had a few rain showers to deal with. We caught a pretty nice mixed bag of fish: Smallmouth, northern, musky, walleye, sauger, and a lone whitey.

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  • 4 months later...

Does anyone fish around Rochester anymore? Was wondering how or if anyone has been out in the area and how they have done? How thick is ice? Anyone out on Lake Zumbro? Cascade pits? grin

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i was on zumbro yesterday thinest ice i seen was 9" and a buddy of mine was on 12" on just about every spot he fished on a different part of the lake.

i have not een to cascade lakes but buddies of mine have been fishing it for a while now, do not know how thick ice is though.

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Thanks for the update, that sure makes me feel more comfortable I may have to try and get out this week. Man today sure looks like it would be nice out there, but I am stuck at home watching the kids and one sick kid. Otherwise us boys would be on the ice instead. Good luck to anyone heading out!

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  • 10 months later...

I have a buddy who is going to school in Winona, and he told me to come out there this January to go ice fishing. I have never been out there. Can anyone tell me the better areas? I will just be going for crappie. Unless walleyes are available. But i'll be looking for more action. I have a snowmobile and portable. Thanks in advance

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There is a split lake in Winona that is a popular ice fishing lake.. The crappies in the lake aren't the biggest though.. same can hold true for the gills.. but there are bigger ones in there..

McNally Landing or Bartlett Lake will be better options for game fish through the ice.. just be careful at Bartlett.. spring fed lake makes for soft spots in the ice.. I also hear the stretch past McNally landing is really good too..

Hope this helps.. I don't ice fish.. but I'm a townie.. So I know where all the ice fishermen go

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I have a buddy who is going to school in Winona, and he told me to come out there this January to go ice fishing. I have never been out there. Can anyone tell me the better areas? I will just be going for crappie. Unless walleyes are available. But i'll be looking for more action. I have a snowmobile and portable. Thanks in advance

Bartlett Lake is a good backwater for numbers of decent-sized bluegill, plus some crappie, perch, Northern, and largemouth.

Bartlett was dredged some time in the 1960s, I believe, and so it is deep, much deeper than a typical backwater. It is more like fishing a lake for that reason, and that is also why it takes a while to freeze. It is out by the airport in Goodview, and so it is sometimes called "the airport lake". This can be confusing, as there is a small but deep pit nearby that is called Airport Lake on maps. That has fish in it too, but I do not recall hearing much about people ice-fishing it.

Lake Winona has improved greatly for fishing thanks to dredging since I moved out of Winona in 2000, but I am not familiar with it myself. Lake Winona is right in town just north of campus, divided by Huff Street.

There are walleye stocked in Lake Winona, but your best bet for walleye through the ice in the Winona area is if we get a cold winter and low water on the river, which freezes things up below the lock and dam. Last year if we had any fishable ice there I never heard about it.

When the tailwaters freeze, there is usually a good sauger and walleye bite, but be aware that is NOT the safest ice, to put it mildly. No matter how low the river is, there is always current eating away at the ice from below, and even in a deep freeze a sudden uptick in the flow can destroy that ice quickly, and it will look fine from above right up until it is gone.

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Awesome! thanks guys. this will come in handy. Do you guys have a bait shop in town too? Maps, bait, info etc...

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  • 1 month later...

Good 6"of ice around Macnally. Besides west end bait, Daniel's (Ace Hardware) has bait. Good bite going on last weekend. Pretty much non-stop action. Had a hard time finding bottom w/all the fish. Hoping to ice a few more this weekend. Lotso people around MN City Boat Harbor and the culvert by the barges (not sure what that is called). All I've heard of is bluegills being iced so far. Nice to get a good start w/good ice for once.

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Went out to Willow Creek Reservoir today with my son. Good 4-6 inches of ice on Willow Creek with about a little snow cover on it to make walk pretty good without spikes.

Unfortunately we only caught 3 small gills (3-4 inches) and a small perch (4 in) during our 2 hours out there this late morning but we sure had a lot of fun. Saw about 4 other 2-3person teams out there when we left, talked to one guy who was having the same amount of luck that we did.

Redbeard5289

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  • 3 weeks later...

Fished the spillway today from 1-5:30 PM. Caught a few 6" crappies suspended in 34 fow and two cigar-sized sauger in 22 fow. I always enjoy catching sauger, their markings and color are always awesome! Hope they're A LOT bigger next time I catch them.

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  • 1 year later...

Fished spillway yesterday for a few hours half dozen 6 to 8 inch crappies in 20 to 25 ft. About a 20 minute bite around 4:00

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Fished the spillway today from 1-5:30 PM. Caught a few 6" crappies suspended in 34 fow and two cigar-sized sauger in 22 fow. I always enjoy catching sauger, their markings and color are always awesome! Hope they're A LOT bigger next time I catch them.

Sounds like a typical ice bite at the spillway to me.

I've had some decent days out there in the winter, and even a few good ones, but the sauger tend to run really small there, and the crappie are hit or miss.

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