Lake Winona Fishing Reports

[Ron Burgundy]

Late in the day til about 7-7:30 Deep water you can still get a bunch of sunnies. The crappies slowed down in my regular spot though lately.

[JIvers]

I did well at Bartlett Lake/airport lake this morning. I had to wait a few minutes between each fish I marked, and had to be patient when they showed up, but I came away with ten nice bluegills. A guy fishing near me caught a 16" largemouth.

It helped that I was fishing both lines for sunfish. I pulled up to the baitshop at 7:00, but they were closed, and I didn't feel like waiting there, or driving to the hardware store, just to buy sucker minnows that don't work near as well as shiners, so I just headed out on the ice without tip-ups.

There was close to two feet of ice out where I was fishing. Due to the snow I couldn't see what the ice at the landing was like, but shoreline ice is always the first to go bad, especially when people are driving over it, so I didn't think about driving out there.

[oleWalter]

Caught six crappie yesterday on the big lake, two of them coming in at 11" and 11.5".

I would put up some pictures but it won't let me add it.. any suggestions?

[Crm7290]

At the bottom of the page where you can quick reply you should see a button down there that looks like a picture. When you hover your mouse over it it says enter an image. Click that and navigate your laptop towards the image of your choice.

I was out on one of the back waters around latch, got to use a gas auger for the first time (I fell in love immediately). I couldn't buy a bite. As it was getting dark we decided to leave but one kid stopped and drilled one more hole and pulled out a 13 inch crappie. As we were already in the truck just watching him we kept going. I finally went on a snowmobile for the first time too! Quite a good day even without catching fish.

Eye hunter, do you always go out to Bartlett?

[TexasRig64]

hows the ice out at lake Winona? is it drivable?

[JIvers]

I ice-fish Bartlett more often than any other water around Winona when I am up there.

I know Bartlett quite well from when I lived in Winona and it was the hotspot in the winter, so I guess I keep fishing it out of habit.

I still hit the ice below the Spillway, or below the lock and dam when it is fishable.

I used to fish Schneider Lake off Hwy. 61 north of Winona, Sam Gordy Slough, Blackbird Slough, and McNally Landing, but for various reasons I haven't hit any of those spots in a few years now.

I don't fish Lake Winona because I am not familiar with it. In the 1990s there was no point to fishing the lake unless you were after largemouth, and now when it is a better fishery I am not in the area enough to take the time to get to know it.

[Ron Burgundy]

Bartlett or Lake Winona? Which should I hit after work tomorrow? I'd try in Roch but it's supposed to be a little warmer in Winona.

[#1RiverRat]

The bite has been hot out on Game Haven...

[Ron Burgundy]

Thanks for the response. I didn't load everything up befor work so Winona it will be. I don't feel like that long of a walk and trying a new spot by myself.

[rooz]

if you like to bust your behind dragging a sled to catch stunted pannies it is a great time especially if you have kids. please keep as many as you can so it will become a better fishery in 5 years.

[Ron Burgundy]

Bartlett treated me to a flasher full of fish from 4:30 to 9 with only 5 biters. 4 5 inch Crappies and a sunny. All lookers. I threw everything I had at them.

[itchmesir]

I think the better bet would be through a couple 1000 pike in the lake and let them have a feeding frenzy.. 5years you'll have monster pike and bigger sunnies

[Crm7290]

There are a good number of pike in Winona already. There are some big guys out there too. But please don't toss any new ones into the lake please.

Rooz there are bigger fish in there. Just have to find the spots. Yes there are a million babys too but if you are in the right spot you can get them.

Riverrat what is game haven? Is that a boy scout camp (I googled it). Is that private or public? AKA can I hop in the car and fish it?

[TeeWook]

I would like to know what Game Haven has to offer as well

[rooz]

i guess i should have made myself clearer. as i was referring to gamehaven/boyscout lake in my post. there are thousands of tiny pannies in there and i have read that the DNR is stocking pike in there this year to help clean it up.

[Crm7290]

Rooz is it open to the public?

Has anyone been out to Bartlett in the past few days? Im going to head out there tomorrow for a bit after classes and before the girl gets in from the cities!

[rooz]

you do not want to waste your time there. i do not know the winona area very well but i can't imagine it is any worse than gamehaven. in 4 or so years it may become a good ice fishing lake. there are some big bass in there for the open water season but non the less it is a stunted fishery that will need time to recover.

[#1RiverRat]

Sometimes you need to "bust your behind" getting to the fish or finding them. You'll need to do some sorting but that's why they call it fishing and not catching.

[rooz]

just saying there are much better options in the rochester area for nice panfish.

[itchmesir]

Does anyone ever go down and fish the Crooked Creek reservoir? I hear there are slabs and cats in there

[Crm7290]

Never heard of it itchmesir, maybe some of these poeple will know.

Is that near houston? I dont leave this area for ice fishing. Its not worth the drive really when I can have fun 4 blocks away

[itchmesir]

but now that i look at it again.. seems like it would be quite the walk to get to some ice

Gmap

[JIvers]

I fished for about three hours this afternoon at Bartlett Lake, and did alright, taking home seven 7-8" bluegills, and a crappie. I also threw back a few smaller bluegills. No luck on the tip-up.

The panfish I caught tended to be picky, with a lot of looking before taking the bait, if they took the bait. I was hoping it would get better in the "golden hour" before sunrise, but the bite pretty much stopped then.

There was probably 18" of pretty good ice where I was sitting, although it was a bit soft. There was some serious mush right off the landing, so if anyone is still thinking of driving out there I would not recommend it.

[Ron Burgundy]

Crm Was that you that left me the fish yesterday?

[itchmesir]

Got out and fished the big lake today.. Gills have moved in.. not all the way into their bedding spots.. but about 5-10' shy of them

[oleWalter]

Got out and shore fished tonight with my buddy, caught your average bluegill, smaller bass and about a 4lb bass that hit my half a worm near the East lake landing. Does anyone know if there are any better areas for crappies near shore as I don't have a boat?

Good luck, get out and enjoy the outdoors.

[itchmesir]

I got out again today from about 4-6pm... Spent most of my time on the West lake.. now that the city removed all the brush from around the lakes there are a lot more spots to check out.. ended up with a couple tiny gills in the 4-5" range.. and 1 bass on the East lake.. think the storm front sent them back out a little bit because where they were yesterday.. they were nowhere to be found today... plus they were hitting ever so lightly had to add an indicator to my leader to even see the most subtle of hits

@Walter.. sorry wish i could help you out.. been searching for them myself.. I know the West End dock usually holds them and so does the dock by the hospital.. but I'm not seeing the docks loaded up with people yet.. So I'm guessing they haven't really moved in yet?

[itchmesir]

Btw.. if anyone is interested.. I contacted the Lake City Fisheries Dept. and got an updated depth chart of Lake Winona... It was surveyed by St. Mary's in 2006

[oleWalter]

Thanks Itch

[JIvers]

Thanks for posting that post-dredge map of Lake Winona.

I'm heading up to SE MN next week to pick morels, but I'm probably hauling my boat up too. Normally I'd fish the river but that looks pretty much un-fishable.

So, I'm maybe going to fish Lake Winona, and see what I can find.