Bartletts near winona

[Nare]

Any luck?

[JIvers]

I hope to have an answer for you this Sunday.

[JIvers]

Here is a slightly-delayed report:

 

I got out to the Airport Lake, AKA Bartlett Lake, a couple weekends ago. The panfish bite in deeper water was nothing great, with nothing but small bluegills. I did catch a couple of perch, and saw other guys in shallower water catching them, too.

 

The best part of the trip was this 27" Northern. I got a couple of hammer handles to go with him.

 

Hoping to make it up there once more before the ice goes bad, but Mother Nature isn't giving me a lot of time to do that this year.

[JIvers]

Still plenty of good ice on Bartlett Lake today. 16" where I was at. No standing water on the ice yet. The shorelines were in good shape, too. Too bad it will probably all be trash by Tuesday.

 

The bluegill were biting well this morning, but for every decent sunny I had to throw back about eight potato chips.

 

The Northern were slamming tip-ups baited with shiners. Too bad for me I brought suckers. I caught a couple Northern, and a 16" largemouth as well. I would have liked to get out to the airport lake tomorrow morning (after a trip across the river to get some shiners  ), but I have other things to do. The backwaters around Winona will just have to wait until next December.

[AlwaysFishing23]

1 hour ago, JIvers said:

Still plenty of good ice on Bartlett Lake today. 16" where I was at. No standing water on the ice yet. The shorelines were in good shape, too. Too bad it will probably all be trash by Tuesday.

 

The bluegill were biting well this morning, but for every decent sunny I had to throw back about eight potato chips.

 

The Northern were slamming tip-ups baited with shiners. Too bad for me I brought suckers. I caught a couple Northern, and a 16" largemouth as well. I would have liked to get out to the airport lake tomorrow morning (after a trip across the river to get some shiners  ), but I have other things to do. The backwaters around Winona will just have to wait until next December.

 

I had the same experience today. Tons of little gills and very few big ones pike were not going on anything on tip ups today though. Wasn't fishing your area but figured I'd chime in. I had anywhere from 17-29 inches of ice with some water on top ice is great yet.

[JIvers]

I'd be surprised if there were much good ice on Bartlett this weekend--that deep water with a bit of current takes a while to freeze--but I may go out and take a look anyway tomorrow when I am up in the area getting my first ice fix of the year in.

Anyone got any early ice reports for the Mississippi backwaters around Winona and Lacrosse? I'll be adding mine tomorrow night.

[Woods]

On 12/14/2017 at 5:43 PM, JIvers said:

I'd be surprised if there were much good ice on Bartlett this weekend--that deep water with a bit of current takes a while to freeze--but I may go out and take a look anyway tomorrow when I am up in the area getting my first ice fix of the year in.

Anyone got any early ice reports for the Mississippi backwaters around Winona and Lacrosse? I'll be adding mine tomorrow night.

I haven’t checked backwaters since last weekend, but I checked the small lake this morning and it has just under 2 inches of ice.  McNally’s has been hit pretty hard for the last 2 weeks.  

[JIvers]

Thanks for the reply.

Ya, McNally's gets pounded right away.

I looked at the ice in front of Schafer's in Onalaska yesterday; there was about 3.5" of ice near the docks, and then it got thinner in a hurry. Apparently someone got wet feet there earlier in the day. 

I ended up at Lawrence Lake Marina just north of Brownsville yesterday. There was probably 4" of good clear ice, much better than what I found in  La Crosse.

Will post pictures later, but I got one nice largemouth on a tip up at the Marina, one 10" perch, and a couple small perch. 

Today I drove around Winona, and fished the backwater pond east of Latsch Island on the west side of the road. The ice there was...not real good.  I stuck close to shore on 3" of not-real-clear ice after my spud bar saved me from a cold bath a little farther out. 

I caught a few small perch there, and a bunch of small bluegills. Nothing worth keeping, and nothing on the tip-up.

Was expecting the ice to be a little better than what I found, but what do you do?

 

 

[JIvers]

• Made my last ice trip of the season to Winona this weekend. Of course, I went out to my old turf at Bartlet Lake.
• The sunfish bite was very good...if you like potato chip bluegills.  
• The tip-up bite was good, and made the trip more than worthwhile. I kept a limit of Northern, and threw back quite a few bass. The Northern were hitting both shiners and suckers, while the largemouth burned through my shiners. The pike preferred live bait over dead, which is a little odd for this late in the season. 
• I've heard reports from just south of Winona saying ice conditions are going downhill quickly, so take what I say now with a large grain of salt...but I was surprised at how good the ice still was behind the airport yesterday. No one is driving out anymore, which is smart, but the shorelines were still in good shape, and over the deep water I had close to two feet of decent ice. 
• I will close with the highlght of the trip, which was this personal best largemouth bass that hit one of my shiners. 21", and fat, so I am sure she hit 5.5 lbs. Released after this photo.

 

[JIvers]