Pepin, take 2… Mayfly madness????

New trip, new thread… I appreciate all of the posts on the last thread guys!!

Heading out on Thursday. Hope to do a little better than last week, although I’m really not complaining.. We still did halfway decent considering the big cold front that pushed through…

Ok, so my next challenge might be mayflies… Sounds like there is a hatch going on right now on the lake. Any advice on getting some walleyes to go in the middle of a big bug hatch? We will probably start with cranks, and then go from there if the the crank bite isn’t working for us. Might it be better to try bouncing with leeches or crawlers, or maybe just go right to dragging? Any options would be appreciated!!

BTW, thanks Dean for those Wild Rivers… We were bouncing this weekend for walleyes and my Bro-in-law hooked into his first musky… A FAT 42 incher. No problem getting it in with that rod.. Sweet!!

Mike

with the hatch going/soon to be do not be affraid to try trolling suspended fish chasing pods of larva/shad. The hatch is more mental than anything could count many times the hatch was full blown and we still had awsome days. It is summer time fishing some days are blah blah an the next day your a hero……there always biting somewhere remember

The fish on Pepin are still biting its not that the bite died off like some guys i talked to said about the fishing this weekend! its more you needed to relocate them! they have been moving and I’m sure they will move some more.

we started off in a few spots we pounded them last week and couldn’t mark a fish let alone get bit. we started running and gunning making one quick pass threw different spots over flats and humps.

we did end up finding a few pods of hungry fish. Just goes to show you that they are always biting somewhere! This is a nice 31 incher that we got! dont let them bugs scare ya off!

Wow, nice eye! Way to get the kids out there, too!

Sounds like fun — we didn’t get anything over 16″ last trip out, so we are hoping to up the average length a little.

Heading out on Thursday… Looks like another week of potentially goofy weather. Winds from every direction predicted, along with chances of t-storms daily.

When its all said and done, it will just be nice to get out on the water.

Whitt

Mike,

Skip Pepin and head about 3.5 hours East!

Spent the long week-end out chasing Kings and bows, and all I could think of was, how would a SI unit work out here?

Next time you are over, take some good screen shots!

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Mike,

Skip Pepin and head about 3.5 hours East!

Spent the long week-end out chasing Kings and bows, and all I could think of was, how would a SI unit work out here?

Next time you are over, take some good screen shots!

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Where were you fishing out of?

Gotcha covered on those screenshots.. I’m hoping to get a “boatload” of screenshots posted after my next two trips. I’ve got a 3 day’er around the 25th and a 4 day’er a few days after that. Hopefully, we’ll get a few “hero shot” fish pics to go along with the SI fish screenshots.

Meanwhile, its Pepin for me on Thursday – try to chase down a few eyes to get my muscles in shape for the king, coho, and ‘bow bonanza (hopefully) at the end of the month.

Mike

Was out yesterday and not a mayfly to be seen.

My first time on Pepin. What a great body of water.

How was the fishing?

kraig,
did u catch any? we plan on heading out this weekend

We long lined cranks(we forgot the bait)in 14 – 24 feet of water.

Light winds for most of the day.

Jointed shad raps and deep down reef runners worked for us.

It seemed like speeds of 2.6 – 2.9 worked best.

Just enough action to keep you interested. We came home with 5 keepers.

How did ya like the sheephead population out there!?!

Just caught one sheephead trolling a windswept point in 8 ft of water.

They do hit pretty hard though. Dissapointing thinking you have a decent walleye on.

Report from yesterday…. WINDY!

Slow day. Tried running cranks and did pick up some small eyes and saugers. A number of sheepies and white bass. Largest eye was ~17″. Did get some on crawler harnesses/spinners/bouncers, but didn’t try that for very long. Boat control was difficult. We launched at Pepin early, made it up into the river portion at the head of the lake, then came back (against a stiff south wind) around noon. Not a very comfortable boat ride, but do-able.

So, slow day for us, but nice to get out. Saw a few mayflies in the water, but not very many.

Saw a big black truck at the Pepin launch with a huge IDO decal in the back window. Big double axle trailer. Wondering who else was out there yesterday?

Pickle Factory food was good though!!

Mike

Mayflies were pretty thick this morning. Trolled cranks and picked up a few. Pretty slow and almost dead calm most of the morning.

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Saw a big black truck at the Pepin launch with a huge IDO decal in the back window. Big double axle trailer. Wondering who else was out there yesterday?

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Hey Mike

That was me. I didn’t fish the lake though. I ran down river to hit the wingies near Wabasha. Talk about a brutal wind. It all but made fishing the dams impossible but Dustin and I toughed it out. I’ll have a fishing report up later tonight that will cover the results.

Ya, we were dumb enough… AHEM…. “Passionate enough”…. to run about 23 miles up the lake with the building morning wind… Then ran another 23 miles back against a (by that time of day) quite strong south wind. Fun ride.

Looking forward to you report!

Mike