Ice update/finger lakes?

Hey guys. Anyone know/heard if the finger lakes by Kellogg area had any decent fish in them this summer (wasn’t sure with all the low water), and what the ice situation is on them?

I haven’t been down lately to know if there’s ice. I know the water was really low and compared to other years the fishin sucked. I work with a guy who gets down there quite a bit and had the same story. I’m guessing 2nd will have water and some fish but it’ll get hit hard and fished out soon after they can get on it. 3rd will be really shallow and I doubt much in it. 4th will have water but I’ve never had much luck on it. I’m not expecting any of the backwaters to be very good this year…low water doesn’t do them any good. Let me know if you hear otherwise.

Not much chatter during the fall about any of the fingers. As mentuioned, any decent fish in the lakes will be gone in a blink.

Thanks guys. That’s sort of what I assumed given all the low water this last summer. Bummer. It was a fun place to take my son and relatively safe cuz it was so shallow. As you know, most of the other options around S.E. MN are pretty meager in terms of decent pannies for ice fishing – at least where I’ve gone. Thanks. If I do end up going and find anything I’ll report back.

There are areas around Winona that will give you decent pannies for a while but the ice in those places isn’t good yet. Moseman, below Alma is a solid bet for early ice panfish but the same thing will happen there as the Fingers.

Wabasha Marina, the larger open area where you enter the river but still in front of the docks, will have some early crappie and perch action. The real early ice crappies can be huge in there but they are a first light bite then they shut down. Lake City’s sailboat harbor can yield sonme nice fish even after ice up.

The less popular the area, the better the fishing will hold together. So many of the good locations get pounded to death and the large fish are stripped out in a weekend. Sad, but that’s the nature of it.

All the backwaters in those area get cleaned out in the first two, three weeks it seems. There’s a couple holes I like off the Dike Road so I try to keep close tabs on them. They had about an inch so far but I’m sure a lot of that will be gone by the end of the weekend.