P4 May 5th 2022

9.29′ in Red Wing right now. Cresting but not dropping until Monday at 9.50′.
River is high and rising. Watch from those trees (more so the ones just underwater).

Although that cold, rain and wind of last weekend slowed the fishermen down, there were some that were out. All day Saturday and Sunday morning I watch a couple fishing across the river from me and when the light drizzle turned into a pouring rain, I thought they would be long gone. Nope! Hard core guys there!

I’m heading out to Lake Pepin someplace around the Rush River to drop the anchor and spend the night. If you happen to swing by, toot your horn!

Hopefully Saturday evening I’ll be having some kind of fish on the grill…if not, Hamm’sburgers it will be!

Brian Klawitter wrote:

Watch from those trees (more so the ones just underwater).

Great heads up^^^^. There are a lot of trees in the river at this time. I was looking for them yesterday and still managed to hit one pretty hard. Also had a sturgeon jump and hit the side of the boat. It might of hit the bowmount blades 1st. Not sure what happened but it got both dogs excited.

We slalom skied out of Wabasha last night up the channel, past Lacuopolis, and turned around near Maple Springs. My relatives are pretty hardcore with their Nautiques that only hit the water for skiing and nothing else. We took the old one knowing there’d be some crap in the water. We saw 2 trees in that relatively short run along with quite a few branches and boards that would still do damage. I forgot to look what the water temps were, but my hands and feet said it’s still extremely cold. Unfortunately there were a bunch of annoying bass boats zipping around stirring up the water before a big tournament this weekend, otherwise it would’ve been a perfect evening.

Be careful out there and wear your PFD. Until it truly crests and shows a steady receding pattern, more debris will keep coming down.

buckybadger wrote:

We slalom skied out of Wabasha last night up the channel,

Gutsy! I plan on a slow “potato chip” (where tater chips don’t blow off the table) cruise to the point of anchor.

Brian Klawitter wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>buckybadger wrote:</div>
We slalom skied out of Wabasha last night up the channel,

Gutsy! I plan on a slow “potato chip” (where tater chips don’t blow off the table) cruise to the point of anchor.

We’ve slalomed the river in all 12 months, and even did it in a flooded field in 2018 nowhere near the river just to prove we could do it. I wouldn’t call it gutsy. Many posters here take more risks in TC Metro traffic on the daily.

LOL! Good point!

should be a busy weekend with the temps?????

Made it out for a few hours on Wednesday. Not a tell all but I will say someone’s advices to not fear the shallows was rewarded.

^ SCORE!

Were you pitching jigs and plastics?

You musta seen me out there. We can leave the other details to the birds. I’ll be out next week again. I have a hunch things will only get better

I gave it a shot this evening. 4th cut, back channel. Shallow, plastics, crawlers, cranks, dragging. Not a fish to show for for it. Unbelievably great time to be in a boat at least!

I almost did the same as you Mnfishin but i decided to chase crappies locally and got skunked but man was it beautiful, i ain’t even upset! this warm trend should fire them up next week and if it don’t, i will enjoy every minute of it anyway!

Well, I got out this afternoon for a few hours also (May 6). It was a beautiful afternoon to be on the water. While recent trips have not been too spectacular, this one went a little better. I started out with 2 small sauger, then a log – at least I thought it was a log until I felt it move a bit. After 40 minutes I finally got it to the surface and it was the largest carp I have ever seen! (By the way I had 15# braid on and it was close to breaking the whole time!) In hindsight now I wish I had weighed it but frankly I did not want it in my boat! Then I picked up a nice silver/white bass. All on the same gold colored 1/4 oz blade bait pitched 1-2′ from shore.

FYI Water temp this afternoon was 56°F.

Love it. I feel my trip was similar, just slowly putting the puzzle together. I love how the river give-eth’ and take-wth’ away in this fashion. Although some consider her a world class fishery I compare is to more of a worddle where some days you get it and other days it gets you. All about improving strategy and method each time while not being afraid to try something new or new-to-you to get on em while others simply follow the crowd

riverdewey wrote:

FYI Water temp this afternoon was 56°F.

And with that all the eggs drop and the fish start to hunt. Tempting to try getting out this week. Just wish Rochester was an inch closer

ProStaffSteve wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>riverdewey wrote:</div>
FYI Water temp this afternoon was 56°F.

And with that all the eggs drop and the fish start to hunt. Tempting to try getting out this week. Just wish Rochester was an inch closer

It is on a smaller map. I have two hours to Red Wing but worth every minute. Saturday was a fantastic day to be out.

sji wrote:

Saturday was a fantastic day to be out.

Not so much at 12:15 Sunday morning! The waves hitting the bow of my anchored boat sound like a canon going off and needed to hang on to something when trying to walk. Slightly more then a walleye chop. LOL!

Catfish chop?

Exactly!

Fish biting any better? This should be the week

Anyone have a recent water temp?

i had as high as 68 yesterday up in the river, not sure in the lake but i would say 65ish after today. you could really see where the mud met the clear water. i am trying pepin next time, it should be good! visibility was awful just about everywhere in the river.

anyone fish the lake yet? i only saw a handful of boats out of hoksila.

I was out this week one evening and this morning early. As always, I’ll share every report I can if you reciprocate. To those who have swapped in the past or want to swap reports shoot me a PM if interested.

I marked some in the lake and nabbed a few pulling #5 Shad raps today but they were dinks and scattered. I should’ve probably looked around there more but was limited on time. We moved to a couple long current seams between 2 wing dams and pulled flickers up, and drifted back with leeches. We landed 6 or 7 more doing this with the biggest being 19.5 and all legals. We kept 3 total and called it a day after 2.5 hours as we both had work to get to. The debris is picking up though and will blow out some of those areas (it’s already up a foot since we were there Thursday).

Rising water temps turn the fish on, but it happened really fast and left them in more of a funk today with the chocolate water. I’m looking forward to the consistent weather this week.

sounds like you made the most of your time bucky! i only caught a couple sheep back in the muddy and its a miracle they saw my lures. i drove by the lake and almost turned around and kind of wished I did. very strong current just about everywhere made it hard to do anything but pull cranks up stream but it is not my strong suit especially with all the debris in the water. thinking i may pull some with snap weights so hopefully the grass gets caught on the snap and keeps the baits clean? it was a great day and the following week should be perfect.