Going to be up to Pepin for 4 days next week. Normally troll cranks this time of year…but was wondering if anyone has had any action as of late. I haven’t seen too many reports and I am getting antsy to get fishing.
Thanks,
Brian
I went out last Thursday. I tried Lake Pepin and also near Covill Park. I was out and the wind got mighty fierce. The only thing I caught was a large mouth bass in five feet of water off of Long Point. Not a single walleye or sauger. The waves were big and the water was high and the current was strong. Lots of debris in the water so be careful out there! I have heard that they are catching a few in the Bay City Flats and Maiden Rock.
Here is a report from http://www.outdoornews.com.
RED WING AREA
Three-way rigs with plugs or willow cats, a jig and willow cat, or leadcore presentations are working best for walleyes on the Mississippi River. The best reports are coming from the back channels, wing dams, and rip rap areas in 10 to 18 feet of water. The shallow rock piles of Lake Pepin are turning out smallmouth bass and good-sized crappies.
Ike’s Bait and Tackle (651) 388-2111
Good luck and maybe I see you out there. Post a report when you can, will ya?
Hi Brian,
We were on the Maiden Rock flats for 4 hours on Saturday morning from 6 until noon. It was a beautiful morning with no wind until noon when the cold front came in and we headed for shore.
We caught a lot of fish, probably 30 or 40. Unfortunately, they were all small, and I mean small. We caught walleye, sauger, northern, crappie, and whites; all small. No sheepies. But, we did take home a meal for each family of walleye and sauger. The eyes were all about 17 inches. And, we caught 4 other eyes that were 14 and 3/4 inches.
We were long-lining with raps, both #5 and #7. The fish had no preference for color. They bit ’em all, and some of the smallest fish took the #7’s. We had planer boards out on the two outboard lines, and when we made our turns we would pull all lines in to check for weeds. But, it was not weeds that were the problem, it was the tiny sauger, eyes and whites that were on those lines. They were so small that we couldn’t detect a hit, and this was with a calm water surface.
Anyhow, it was a great lot of fun, and I hope to be back out this week. Hope to see you on the water. Look for the old guy in a little white boat with and E-tech on the back. Well, maybe it’s not a “tech”, but is is an E.
A fine old 20 horse.
Good fishing, Swede
Awright,
I know you are wondering about the size, so I will, with much consternation, give you an example of one of our Saturday morning saugers. I’m gonna hate myself for doing this. Here is the photo.
Swede
The bite up in the river has been good to excellent this past week with 20 – 30+ legal eyes a day the norm on guide trips. Dragging 1/16 ounce weedless jigs in the wood and 1/16 precision heads where snags aren’t a consideration have been an excellent producer. Leeches have been the dominant bait with crawlers and willcats each having their time and place.
Most days we’re seeing a handful of fish 22″ – 28″ in addition to the average sized walleyes which are running right around 18″.
Look for inside river turns or eddies formed behind obstructions in the current to hold fish until the river drops a few more feet.
Basically… the bite has been VERY consistent and reliable and looks to be good in these same or similar locations for a few more weeks. 
Thanks Guys for the info! This definitely gives us a place to start. James….not really an expert on dragging jigs…so do you drag up or downstream…and I am assuming it is SLOW? Also…what kind of depths on the current breaks have been the best? Thanks for any info you have!
Brian
We’ve been dragging down stream. Days when there’s no wind, turn the boat sideways to drift with the current. Fire a cast with a light jig back upstream and drag down current…. couldn’t be easier or more fun.
6′ – 9′ of water has been best for me.
We were on Pepin yesterday and it took a while but we hit a good pocket of nice eyes in 6-8′ of water pulling shads. All day long our hits came on firetiger and pretty much nothing else. Definately the hot color. The fish we ran into were in the 16-20″ range with 1 out of every 3 on the shortie 14″ side.
We were out Fri, Sat, Sun. We didn’t have much luck on the river; but didn’t give it a very good try either. We did however run into some real nice sized eyes slow trolling chartruse ringworms on the North end of Pepin. I caught a couple of 26″, a few around 24″, and some 20″-22″ eyes. I’ll try to post some pics.
dd
Here are the pics of the fish. I’m over at Marty’s house and he is helping me get the pictures on IDA. So this isn’t really Martin posting its Drewsdad. 
Marty also got into quite a few sauger and walleyes on the small side trolling shadraps north of Lake City.
More…
And another 20″ fish caught by my cousin Aaron… 
Here’s another nice walleye with Marty and his son and dog in the background… 
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
