Winona Area?

Just wondering if anyone has been out, how did you do and how thick was the ice?
I was out at Bartlets aka airport lake on sunday and it only looked to be slushy. More movement there than one might think.

I am going to be fishing Lawrence Lake tomorrow, and then I think I will drive up to Winona to see what is happening. It always takes the airport backwaters longer to freeze–I was there Saturday, and there was a lot of open water around the boat launch. The snow on top of whatever ice has formed will make it a little trickier than normal, too. Still, it is supposed to be very cold for the next few days, so I am expecting to be fishing the airport backwaters by Friday.

Be careful on Bartlett but I would think with this cold it should be getting close. Anybody know anything about below the spill way at Prairie Island? We did real well there this fall. Years ago we used to walk across there to get to Blackbird. I would think where the trees are sticking out of water should be a good spot panfish. I don’t have any idea if its safe to go out there or not. Not as bold on the ice as I was 30 years ago. Thanks
Art

There was one brave guy out on Bartlett Lake (the airport backwaters) today–he was the first. I walked down to talk to him–the word he used to describe the ice was “scary”. I stayed on shore, as he said that in places it was only 2″ thick, and that is just a little too thin for me. This was well away from the boat landing. The area right around the boat landing and the shore line is froze over, but I would wait a few more days of cold before I went out on that. If there was bare ice, I would go out on Bartlett tomorrow, but it is covered with snow. So, I will wait until Friday morning to hit Bartlett. It is supposed to stay very cold tonight and tomorrow, so that should help.