Lake Pepin Bass Fishing

Hey guys, myself and a few buddies have a trip planned for Lake Pepin April 27,28,29. We tried to plan our trip around the bass tournament schedules. From what I could find online I think we did okay. We don’t really want to be in the way of any big tournaments or anything. Just a few questions. Is it going to be busy out on the water on Thursday/Friday while we are there? I haven’t been up to Lake Pepin in 15 years so I’m not really sure what we are in for. We would like to chase some smallmouths if we can find them in the lake. I would assume fishing around riprap in 5-10′ of water but I guess a lot will depend on the temps. Is there anything we should look out for or check into while we are out? Thanks for any replies.

Well the Lake Pepin Open walleye tournament is that weekend on pool 4 and usually that is a good sized event but I’m not a bass fisherman so I don’t know if the walleyes and bass will be in the same locations or not.

Watch out for bardges- I was fishing with a buddy and a guy asked us to move because he was in a tournament. My friend said “no” the purse on some tourney is not more valuable than my time on the water-Just sayin'( hats off to my friend Dave BTW)

Like I said. We looked at tournament schedules just to try to avoid a lot of other bass fishermen. I don’t think we will be in the way of the walleye anglers. Saturday will be our last day fishing. Hopefully Thursday and Friday aren’t too busy out there.

There’s plenty of water to fish. Granted not all is created equal. if it’s nice you won’t be alone. Bass Season is closed everywhere else in Wi & MN for the most part so expect some company and pre-fishing for the following weekends tourney.

It will still be quiet on Pepin.. 99% of the walleye guys will be in the river or close to it. Lake basin should be a ghost town till mid-May.. Might be some guys chasing Smallies but it wont be bumper boats by no-means

Cool. Like I said I’m not familiar with the area. Do most of the bass tournament guys target largemouth that time of year up there?

There was an episode of IDO last summer all about fishing the Pepin rip-rap for smallies. I think it was spring, too. Worth a watch:

Thanks pool2fool! I’ll check it out!

The lake is on FIRE for bass!!

Nick Meyer wrote:

The lake is on FIRE for bass!!

I hope it’s on fire in two weeks! Haha

Nick Meyer wrote:

The lake is on FIRE for bass!!

I’m the furthest thing from a bass fisherman. I generally fish for walleyes or cast weedbeds for pike.

Care to share any tips or general locations to look for on Lake Pepin? I’m not looking to keep any smallies or steal secret spots, rather get a few of my relatives who are around over the weekend onto some fish. They don’t enjoy the bumper-boat situation on the upper end of Pool 4, so it’d be nice to give a little C&R smallie action a try.

Riprap points, and shallow timber is key right now

I see the water level is going to come up to 12′. What’s normal pool there? Is that going to affect the smallies much?

Decided to try some smallmouth fishing this weekend. Never really given it much of a shot this time of year. I struggled a little. I put a couple in the boat but nothing huge. Man do they like to fight though! Got some studying to do before my next trip though.