Anyone Out On Pepin Lately?

Looking to try the crankbait trolling bite down there, just wondering if anyone’s had any luck, or lack there of, lately? Thanks guys.

I was out Friday and Saturday mornings last weekend. Ran a lot of Wisconsin shorelines. Wind kicked me off each day. 2.25-3mph. Left each day with 25ct, but each day 20 of them were shorts. Ran a variety of cranks. Had one triple, each rod a different crank. Out of 50 fish, 22″ biggest. I’m long from pepin master angler but everyone seemed to have some action that I saw. Best cranks were JSR5&7 and biggest jointed flickers, forget their size number.

we were out last Friday. pulled spinner/crawlers and did ok a couple 13-14 all walleye biggest was around 21. no sheep yet which was odd but the temps are still low 60’s. when the wind died so did the bite. left around 4 and so did just about every other boat. most of ours were in 8 feet or less running through weedy shorelines. it would be tough to run cranks doing this maybe with a snap weight to catch the weeds?

Was out on the 28th. Stayed north of Lake City pulling cranks in about 8-18’. Pods of fish on graph, couldn’t get bites. Had to keep moving but was able to get my four keepers, 15.5-20.5 but it took some time.

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Len do you dip the cranks in the Crown first before deploying them?

Hey John – nope, but the bags do make a nice reel cover!

Len Strapp wrote:

Hey John – nope, but the bags do make a nice reel cover!

Good idea!

Thought my dad was the only one to use crown bags as reel covers!

Coming down to pepin tomorrow. Trolling shorelines is the plan as many are doing obviously. My question is are guys trolling up toward the head of the lake or are the fish scattered everywhere by this time of year?

Never really figured out a good pattern so trying to lock it in a little more this year. Not getting a ton of time to fish definitely puts a damper on the amount of success I have on the river

How’d you do Tyler?

We came down on Monday and caught a decent amount of fish. Probably 20-25 walleyes and saugers total. Kept 5 with the rest shorts. Could’ve caught a lot more but did some exploring in areas that held tons of fish, just no walleyes. Was able to figure out why that was the case which is always fun. Size 7 flickers outperformed shad raps and JSRs by a wide margin. 10-14ft.

Absolutely gorgeous day

Glad you had some success!

Anyone braving the heat this weekend? Planning to come down and get scorched on Monday. Any recent info would be much appreciated

I’m taking kids camping on Wednesday somewhere down river. 2 weeks ago I was catching them pulling crawlers. I’ll likely be doing the same at the foot of the lake and around maple springs.

Let me know how you do. Few years ago it was in the 90’s mid day and they didn’t give a $hit, they still ate but I just about died.

Good luck!

I was out saturday best luck we had was on the minnesota side around 10 feet of water jointed firetiger we did ok not great. South of lake city. Talked to guys at access that were north of town that did better than us. Was breezy out there.

Was out Friday and did ok. Anywhere from 15-30 ft of water pulling spinners and night crawlers around Lake City. Bigger ones were deeper.

Numbers weren’t there today but scratched out my 4 between 1:30-5:30pm. The heat actually wasn’t bad out there with the stiff breeze. Little hairy getting across to WI side and back in a 14 foot boat but she made it.
Still in 10-14 feet but with water so far down from a few weeks ago I was a lot farther from shore. Purple shad raps today

Fiiiiiinally made it down there, and had a better day than I expected! We trolled shad baits in 15-22′ and managed 33 fish, mostly walleye, with a respectable dozen for our limits. Bite was definitely better in the morning before the rain came through, and our best baits were natural patterns with plenty of flash. Lake City’s ramp is pretty nice, although having to back the boat around some guy that parked his car a the top of the ramp so he could fish from the dock wasn’t exactly ideal! But what can you do?

TMF89 wrote:

Fiiiiiinally made it down there, and had a better day than I expected! We trolled shad baits in 15-22′ and managed 33 fish, mostly walleye, with a respectable dozen for our limits. Bite was definitely better in the morning before the rain came through, and our best baits were natural patterns with plenty of flash. Lake City’s ramp is pretty nice, although having to back the boat around some guy that parked his car a the top of the ramp so he could fish from the dock wasn’t exactly ideal! But what can you do?

Nice ! Were you using snap weights to get that deep ? Plan to wet my feet for the first time in Pepin next weekend.

We didn’t have to, thankfully. We basically just maxed out the depth of whatever Shad Raps, Flicker Shads, or Smash Shads we had out (10-15′), and that kept us in the zone.

Any updates from the 4th? Figured a few people snuck out? Would love a report

Any more recent reports? Planning on coming down again tomorrow. Might be stuck on MN side by lake city to avoid the wind. Anyone having luck in that area?

I was down yesterday. Caught 7 different species of fish yesterday. Blue and silver wallydiver was the biggest producer. Also caught several with a spinner and crawler. Best depth was between 14-17′. I was on the WI side though. Started on MN side and no bites.

mojogunter wrote:

I was down yesterday. Caught 7 different species of fish yesterday. Blue and silver wallydiver was the biggest producer. Also caught several with a spinner and crawler. Best depth was between 14-17′. I was on the WI side though. Started on MN side and no bites.

First time for me , caught walleye sauger pike crappie catfish and drum in 14-16 foot pulling cranks. Seemed like they liked Deep bandits for me in gold color but hell I just moved here so I dont know what Im doing ha. Had 6 keeper walleye .

Sounds like a good first trip to me Andy!

Came down yesterday and wind kept me off the lake. Managed 3 keepers in the river pulling cranks in 5-9 feet. Sure seems to be a bunch of 14 7/8” walleyes in the system right now.

SoDakangler wrote:

Sounds like a good first trip to me Andy!

Came down yesterday and wind kept me off the lake. Managed 3 keepers in the river pulling cranks in 5-9 feet. Sure seems to be a bunch of 14 7/8” <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes in the system right now.

Try flipping them over, sometimes they are like me….fatter on one side!

Going tomorrow evening, plan to pull cranks in 20ft -4ft as the evening progresses along Roschen Park. Bit of a time constraint so I’m looking to maximize time spent with lines down

Started on Roschen with myself and my girlfriend @6:08pm, pulled cranks in roughly 20 foot of water grabbing a small bundle of sauger & a pike. I was already pleased with the day 40 min in so we high tailed it to the rock finger off Stockholm. We made it half a mile through very wind blown trolling with nothing to show for it so we picked up to hit location x where we hooked up immediately, breaking my crank in half. I landed a small white bass on the half lure not knowing it had been damaged. Still pushing through waves my gf managed a healthy 16” walleye, the game was on. Instead of pulling lines up on the next pass I attempted a wide circle. The first turn my rod doubled over, a grueling 7min battle and a 20 foot run and we landed a 27” eye. One of the better july fish I’ve found in that puddle. I have been forgoing using a depth finder of any kind having some familiarity with the water paired with chart viewer navionix on my phone, very pleased. Will be getting back out xD

We have a wedding Friday in pepin, so I’m dragging the boat down to fish Thursday night, Friday morning and Saturday. Is dragging cranks my best bet for finding some active fish at this time of year

Bearcat89 wrote:

We have a wedding Friday in pepin, so I’m dragging the boat down to fish Thursday night, Friday morning and Saturday. Is dragging cranks my best bet for finding some active fish at this time of year

That or pitching wind damns.

gregory wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
We have a wedding Friday in pepin, so I’m dragging the boat down to fish Thursday night, Friday morning and Saturday. Is dragging cranks my best bet for finding some active fish at this time of year

That or pitching wind damns.

I have never fished pepin, any maps to look at that show the wing dams.