Suspended in current fish

Hello,
Put in below Guttenburg this am tried throwing some cranks and jigs along the RIP rap rock hoping for some action and possibly a walleye supper.
Tossed plastic minnow bodies with 1/4 and 3/8 lead heads,
Tossed chrome and perch colored rattle traps
Tossed silver black then perch colored cranks diving to 5 maybe 6 feet depth.
Nothing.
Fish were feeding on surface, seen several times where bait fish were jumping up out of water, with the top water showing action we tried staying somewhat shallow with our presentations.
In motoring between areas we noticed if we had suspended fish, they were always at 15 to 17 feet suspended.
How would you recommend targeting these fish that are suspended?
Jigs, cranks, minnows on slip bobbers, trolling ?
Throw out anchor and throw cranks ?

Not sure what they even were, they were in main channel about 50 yards off shore, enough current to make it very difficult for a novice like myself to stay put to target them.

This river thing on one hand is great, lots of areas to try, lots of different fish to target, beutifull scenery, but on the other hand it is frustrating and also daunting at times trying to actually catch something.
Any suggestions would be appreciated
Thanks

I have never fished in your area. I have fished fish at those depths on Pool 4 in current an in lake Pepin My number one presentation is troll cranks at the depth the fish are an a
little above them. Both up stream an down stream. I have been
surprised before how heavy the current can be an still have suspend fish. . rrr

I too have not fished your area but I’ve ran into this many times on P4. You are likely marking sheep. Just this spring I was fishing a solid walleye bite and noticed large suspended marks. got curious as I have stumbled on this a lot and never messed with them. grabbed a jigging rap and dropped it on their heads. the jigging rap is great for this especially if you can mark, spotlock and drop it on top of the marks. size depends on the current and wind.

when you see bait popping at the surface there are many species chasing them. I seen bait balls so big you can cast a jig and pierce the shad there are so many. white bass, pike, largies, smallies and sheep too. Never caught eyes chasing the bait but I could see it happen in the fall or low light hours. I have heard using a kastmaster to target fish chasing bait. I have not really seen much of that this year on P4 tho….maybe fall?

eyeguy507 wrote:

I too have not fished your area but I’ve ran into this many times on P4. You are likely marking sheep.

Sheephead yes Walleyes also.
Cuz Been there done that. There was local guide here (that is no longer with us) that targeted suspended walleyes on lake pepin. Pepin more than the river an he did very well on walleyes.Those damn sheephead are every where from 2fow to 30 plus fow.!! . . RRR

I remember the guide you speak of Randy. Went with him one time and we did pretty well on the suspended ‘eyes out in the middle of nowhere.
WKW