Anyone Out On Pepin Lately?

I didn’t do much better sodak . Last 3 weekends been lack luster for me.

rode the struggle bus at pepin yesterday. one legal sauger and a few shorts, not even a ton of sheep. lots of bugs and very warm water. lead core/#5 berkley shad.

Saw the results of the AIM tournament on pools 3&4 yesterday and man, I have a looooong way to go to be a proficient walleye fisherman on that system

^Winning bag was 47#

Haha yeah I saw the results and thought the same . Someone’s always catching them somewhere.

Went down Saturday morning early, had my limit of 15″ to 16.5″ eyes/saugers in a couple hours and let a half dozen or so shorts and keepers go. Trolling cranks did not work well for me this time and ended up trying some other ways to get them which was fine with me. Got off the water by 11am or so as the recreation traffic was getting a bit busy.

Super impressive the wining team had a 26 3/4″, 30 1/4″, 29 1/4″, 2-24″, 27″ and to finish with 7 fish 28 1/4″. That was just first place. The other contestants brought in large fish as well. I guess I have to spend more time on this lake but it constantly ends up in more frustration than anything else for me.

I will be down on Saturday morning. Any tips? Better south or north of Lake City, depths, etc. I know it changes everyday and we will search for fish first, but thought we may get a head start.

TIA

Gerty

Made it out Saturday. Pulled cranks the whole time. Focused on anywhere from 14-25 feet of water. Ended with 7 fish. 3 box fish and 4 shorts. Did not see a lot of fish caught. Sure someone was catching them somewhere! Did hear and see on the Facebook of a guy catching a 32″ fish on Saturday. What a great fish.

Not sure if anyone else has noticed, but man are the fish skinny. Guess maybe I am just used to the spring time fish, but these things looked really skinny.

skinny fish in Pepin????? you might be the first person to ever say that about P4. I have not been out since early June so can’t confirm but there is so much shad in the system, it amazes me the fish even bite anything else.

^the “skinny fish” are the shorts. A lot of the 12-14” fish look skinny and always have.

Once you see the gut on some of the 17-24” fish (both saugers and walleyes) it will make you think most lake fish in MN are starved.

I still think that if the MN walleye record ever falls, it will be from Pool 4 in the Spring.

Was out Saturday afternoon as well battling the wind . Wasn’t fun . Pulling cranks 18-20 foot . Caught some 15-16 inch sauger but nothing bigger . Anything shallow kept fouling my cranks

Any help for a beggar ? Trolled crawlers cranks 10-25 foot today . Not much to be found . Got guest in town trying to put them on a few .

Anyone been out fishing lately? Let’s hear about it!

Can’t put anything together last 2-3 weekends worth sharing. Usually scratch a fish or two over 16 but been slow for me compared to last year.

I was out Saturday. To my surprise we did well trolling cranks in 6-8 ft on the WI side. Nothing huge but 40-50 fish for the wives to reel in! Tried deep with lead and crawlers first with not much to show.

I am going out Saturday for the take a vet fishing event. It sounds like the bite has been pretty tough. Has anyone found any glimpses of a bite? Hopefully the locals will have some advice for us. I haven’t been down since April.

mojogunter wrote:

I am going out Saturday for the take a vet fishing event. It sounds like the bite has been pretty tough. Has anyone found any glimpses of a bite? Hopefully the locals will have some advice for us. I haven’t been down since April.

How’d it go mojo ? I thought about participating in the event but didn’t want to blank on the fish . I was out yesterday throwing a jig up shallow for small mouth and was catching walleye in 2 -5 foot . Thought it was wild .

projects are done and the wife and kid are back to work/school so another month and I can finally get the boat out of summer storage! few years ago I ran into super shallow eyes in July doing the same thing Andy. i think a lot of em hide in vegetation during the dog days, saving their energy for the fall trip back up the river?

It was really slow for us. I caught a flathead, and that was it. I saw one other small sauger caught. When at the meeting they asked if anyone was on a good bite that they wanted to share with the group, there was nothing. Not a good sign. We went north, that wasn’t a good call on my part. I did see Drew E that went south did very well. I normally can keep guys busy catching something, but it was brutal for me. It has to be better next year. I will say that the guy I took out a couple years ago went out of his way to find me again this year and thanked me for doing it again this year. That was very nice of him to do that. Great group of guys with that organization.

isu22andy wrote:

How’d it go mojo ? I thought about participating in the event but didn’t want to blank on the fish . I was out yesterday throwing a jig up shallow for small mouth and was catching <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye in 2 -5 foot . Thought it was wild .

mojogunter wrote:

It was really slow for us. I caught a flathead, and that was it. I saw one other small sauger caught. When at the meeting they asked if anyone was on a good bite that they wanted to share with the group, there was nothing. Not a good sign. We went north, that wasn’t a good call on my part. I did see Drew E that went south did very well. I normally can keep guys busy catching something, but it was brutal for me. It has to be better next year. I will say that the guy I took out a couple years ago went out of his way to find me again this year and thanked me for doing it again this year. That was very nice of him to do that. Great group of guys with that organization.

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>isu22andy wrote:</div>
How’d it go mojo ? I thought about participating in the event but didn’t want to blank on the fish . I was out yesterday throwing a jig up shallow for small mouth and was catching <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye in 2 -5 foot . Thought it was wild .

Yeah – I know I shouldn’t be that hard on myself to not do it but way I am somedays . If they were short on boats I told a member I’d do it . If they could do it in June they’d get a good crank bait bite I’d think . Looks like a few people on Facebook caught some .

want a P4 trophy? go in March/April and October-November

want great fishing? go in May-June

want to suffer in the heat and struggle? go July-Sept. Sunsets are pretty epic tho

Looks like temps climbing again this weekend. I would be in the river casting for crappie pike or bass.

The reason we do the take a vet fishing event in late august is for a couple reasons. 1. weather typically not to hot and not to cold any later and rain is much more common any earlier and heat plays a role. 2. lots of the boats that help with the event are tournament anglers and typically speaking most tournament series are done by now. 3. I personally have ran this event for 8 yrs and have talked to every single veteran that has took part of the event and 90% of them arent to worried about if they catch fish they just want to get on the water. either way this yr was a monster success with 69 boats and 82 veterans if you were there i thank you and our club thanks you!

Thanks for doing this Nick! Great Success!

I’m not sure if I’ll be anchored near the dam, or in the lake but I’ll be floating a minnow under a slip bobber and/or resting a crawler on the bottom.

eyeguy507 wrote:

want a P4 trophy? go in March/April and October-November

want great fishing? go in May-June

want to suffer in the heat and struggle? go July-Sept. Sunsets are pretty epic tho
for crappie pike or bass.

July is some of my favorite fishing on the river. Not as many guys out, current is low and stable, seems fish are easier to pin down. Multiple species are in play.

HATE the prespawn circus bite. Million guys around, fish are sluggish, yes they are fat, mud water, moving constantly. Favorite time for me is late April-first part of August.

Anyone getting that early fall bite yet?

I was heading to RW but FYI 61 is evidently still closed from LC to RW! does not show closed on Google maps so had to hit Pepin today and it was rough AF. not just the fishing but my windfinder app said 10-13 mph tops and it had to be blowing 20 plus out of the East and it did not let up until 6.

Lets just say when my 72″ Terrova is coming out of the water every 20 seconds, it is too rough but i sucked it up like an idiot since i had the day off. not much to show for it other than a couple sheep and a snagged sauger probably from the rod bucking after each roller.

I will be up in the river at least a dozen times before I put the boat away between now and Thanksgiving…..good luck out there and feel free to send a report and i will reciprocate any info as well. PM works too!

Looked like a 60 degree day in March out there today . Anyone find any bigger fish? I did find some over 15 but lots of sorting . No can line or dam crowd for me today .

were you in the lake then? did the cold temps last 4 days do anything to water temps? i will be out later this week but definitely in the river

eyeguy507 wrote:

were you in the lake then? did the cold temps last 4 days do anything to water temps? i will be out later this week but definitely in the river

I drove the boat up from the lake to the river but didn’t go north of everetts . Water temps were 63 today . Down 6-7 degrees from Wednesday. Clicker said 25 fish today for my boat pulling cranks in sand dunes .