I’m happy to submit the first bass report of 2004. We spent Friday on Lake Pepin, fishing smallmouth. The conditions were ideal with light winds and plenty of sun. The water temp was 42 at the start of the day and up to 48 degrees in the afternoon. The water is about 3 feet high and moderately stained. A bit darker that the last few springs.
I fished with Jim Kowal from Onalaska WI. Jim and I went to high school together a long time ago. Jim was a couple years behind me in school and we played football together. Jim is an accomplished fisherman and very successful bass tournament angler. Most of the tournament fishermen in the area recognize Jim as a guy to watch out for.
We started on one of the piers in the lake with quick access from shallow to deep water. Our expectations were the fish would move up as the water warmed. Historically, the fish move to the bank within days of ice-out. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and we wasted a lot of time looking for shallow biters. What we found was the fish were staged between their wintering areas and the bank. We managed a dozen fish in the 13-17" range. The fish refused to chase so a carolina rig, dropshot rig and dragging a 5" Kalins grub produced all the fish. With so few bites it was hard to come up with a color preference. We caught fish on ever thing from a chartreuse grub to a black worm. The presentation needed to be sloooow, with lots of pauses.
The photo’s are of Jim and I with a couple of the average fish. The fish were healthy with no obvious affects from the longer than normal over-wintering season. The day didn’t live up to expectations but the company was great and the weather was pleasant. It’s good to get the season started!!!!!!!!!!!
According to the forecast the river has reached it’s crest and is receding. The snow-cover in Northern MN. is melted so unless we get a lot of rain the water should clear quickly. The water temp is rising and should be in the 50’s by next weekend. Thing can only get better.
I also fished the lake on Friday. Caught three smallies all about 14 inches. Jerkbaits worked extremely slowly caught the few I did catch. All three came from one 50 yard stretch of riprap. Overall pretty slow but great to be back on the water.
Also went out on Saturday but got blown off the lake by 3-4 foot whitecaps
Good to see you found some fish Riverfan
Great report John,
Thanks for sharing your day with us and I look forward to reading more in the future
im from pepin but im kinda land locked. i fished the piers probably about a half dozen times since ice out with no success. ive been fishing mostly suspending jerkbaits but nothing yet. and hey if u guys ever wanna take a kid fishen… im here lol im 17 and wanna join a bass club as a non boater this spring but havent found one yet. ide like to fish a few tournys this summer i think that would be great. well good luck. if yopu guys see any kid out on the piers in pepin with a giant brown tackle bag with 2 rods leaning up against it give me a wave
I know a lot of guys looking to feed that bass itch. Thanks for the report.
Fishermanpepin,
I sent you a PM, look for a blinking envelope at the top of the Entrance page.
Nice report John!
Thanks for sharing those beautiful bronzebacks with us!
Thanks for the Info, I belong to the Indianhead Basser’s and we have our first tournament on Pool 4. I have not fished rivers before, started with containments in OK and TX, then moved to IN and fished Lakes, moved to WI and fished last year but they where all Lakes. Need to learn how to fish rivers. Have never caught a Smallie. Will check back Later
chico,
Check out the ‘Croix sometime this summer. Your pretty close living in New Richmond. Nice smallie fishery.