Winona Late Ice

[bucktailsam]

Is anyone still out ice fishing the Winona area. A few weeks ago I was able to find the sunfish and pike in some backwater areas but lately it has been dead. Do the patterns change a lot this time of year and do the fish move out of areas they were holding earlier? I have heard there is a good panfish bite late ice and am wondering if anyone has any general tips on where they might move to, closer to the main currents?

Thanks

Sam

[JIvers]

I made my last ice trip of the year yesterday to Winona. Usually the late-ice panfish bite picks up in deeper water, and often close to some current, as you said. Of course, this means you will also be on late ice closer to current, so extra caution is needed.

Notice I said the panfish bite "usually" picks up at late ice. That was not true Saturday. Very slow fishing for me behind the airport--still plenty of good ice for walking in most spots. I did more moving around than catching for sunfish. The fish may not have bounced back from the week's cold front--that's what I'm blaming, anyway. There were few people out for such a nice day, which leads me to think the bite has been slow for a while at Bartlett. (It's a sad day when you can't catch many bluegill through the ice out there!)

I got two largemouth on tip-ups, and missed a couple more strikes. The Northern bite typically goes in to overdrive at last ice, but again nothing spectacular for me this weekend.