Ever Ice Fished the Red Wing Dam? I have!

Well, sorta! Dave’s idea to dig up some old photos led me to remember this pair of shots taken back in ’96 I believe. The winter had been unbelieveably cold and we fell into a snap in January that had kept me off the water and out of the boat for 3 weeks. This is one of the few times I can ever remember being unable to access the river at Everts Resort. This was “pre-Steve Vick” days… I wouldn’t be surprised if he would have found a way to get the guys on the water!

I got a major itch and decided to check out the ice conditions by accessing the river at the lock station and pulling a sled from there.

The ice was 8″ – 12″ thick in most areas and ran nearly half way across the channel below the “Y.” We were able to get into some dandy saugers and I can honestly say I never has such perfect “boat control” the whole time we were out there… lol The thing I remember most about this day was how brutally cold it was. We had a 5 # tank of propane and a double burner stove but we still froze our behinds off.

Back when the winters were actually cold…

An upstream view.

Way Cool pictures James !!!

no pun intended

Wow!! I don’t care if we see that again for a while……… Of course I’d be on a bucket right beside you.

Wow, I remember that… was living down in La Crosse, and if I remember correctly, the temperature didn’t get above ZERO for like 7 days.

i wonder how long that 8-12 inches lasted after the snap. IM sure it was gone pretty fast. I don’t really understand the second pic that says Lock side on the one side and “to the dam” on the other…Are they not connected to each other? At least thats the way it is at dresbach and genoa. I know guys fish both dams that i have mentioned, and i have ventured out at dresbach once.

That is very cool!

Cade-Red Wing dam is a little different than around here The lock and dam are seperated by an island. It is a pretty sweet place to fish. The flow there is so much calmer than here. Plus, they have some huge saugers and walleyes there compared to here

About three miles above the dam is a nuclear power plant that dumps warmer water into the river so it stays open water all winter. There is a period of a week or two that they shut the reactors down for maintenence and then the water can freeze up til they are turned back on and then theres open water again. This is the only year I can remember it getting this frozen. Some guys keep their boats out and fish most of the winter in the open water here.
Thanks, Bill

I remember that winter-I was living in Winona, and got in a lot of ice-fishing below Lock and Dams 5a, 6, and 7 during that spell–I didn’t have a shelter then, so it was COLD. I had one day at Dresbach where I caught over twenty sauger in maybe two hours, and would have caught more, but I couldn’t feel my hands or feet anymore.

Most winters we usually got a week or two of ice-fishing below 5a, but of course that varied from year to year. It’s been several years now since I was up here at the right time to catch walleye and sauger through the ice below any of the lock and dams.