How to fish a weedless flowage

I’m looking for a little help learning to fish a different type of lake that I’m not used to

Our camper is on a flowage that doesn’t hold a lot of weeds. I’m so used to lakes in northern MN, deep centers with weedlines in the 10-14ft rage. I can troll over those weeds, fish their edges etc. The lake we’re on has incredibly thick weeds in about 4-5 ft, then nothing. The deepest point is about 16 ft in the middle, but when you cruise around there you don’t mark much of anything. So, where do these fish live? We’ve randomly caught a handful of walleye in 11 ft or so with absolutely no structure, weeds, timber or anything showing on the Garmin, but we’re struggling to replicate that. The only thing we’ve done consistently is catch crappie, most of which are coming on crank baits.

So, any help would be appreciated. This is just a new lake type for me, and I’m seeking the advice of those with more experience. Thanks in advance.

I should clarify, it’s obviously not weedless, it’s just much less and different weeds than I’m accustomed to.

They may also be cruising around the lake. Generally they will be relating to some type of structure, be it they edges of the weeds, a break line, a transition of bottom make-up.
Sounds like you have been using crankbaits, have you tried other methods? Persistence in presenting the same presentation does not often yield good results. Keep changing it up and let the fish tell you what they want.
Drift a variety of live bait. Try the same variety of live bait slow trolled behind a spinner rig. Use a sip bobber presentation along the weed edges and at various depths.
If the lake is clear, dropping a camera down may help locate a structure change you are not seeing on your sonar Bouncing a heavier sinker in front of a floating jig will give you a clue as to bottom type. This way you can “map” the bottom while also fishing. Once you have a good idea of the bottom changes you can lighten up on sinker weight and be a bit more effective on the catching.

Fish the edges of the weeds 5-6ft or as tight as you can get to them there will more than likely be fish in them.

Huntindave wrote:

They may also be cruising around the lake. Generally they will be relating to some type of structure, be it they edges of the weeds, a break line, a transition of bottom make-up.
Sounds like you have been using crankbaits, have you tried other methods? Persistence in presenting the same presentation does not often yield good results. Keep changing it up and let the fish tell you what they want.
Drift a variety of live bait. Try the same variety of live bait slow trolled behind a spinner rig. Use a sip bobber presentation along the weed edges and at various depths.
If the lake is clear, dropping a camera down may help locate a structure change you are not seeing on your sonar Bouncing a heavier sinker in front of a floating jig will give you a clue as to bottom type. This way you can “map” the bottom while also fishing. Once you have a good idea of the bottom changes you can lighten up on sinker weight and be a bit more effective on the catching.

I’ve tried a variety of things, but not everything yet. Crankbaits have thus far yielded the best results. Slip bobbers have been awful, leeches on spinners have found some crappie and bluegill, nothing else. Working my way through a variety of presentations

Pepin is basically a flowage with little structure-mostly what people do is cover lots and lots of water-they troll, they troll fast. Lakes like this people sometimes plant structure, sometimes legally sometimes not. Look for that with SI if you have it.Good luck

I would stick with crankbaits. Maybe try a shallow running husky jerk along the weed line. If they’re not there then maybe try some sort of side imaging if you have it and just scan areas until you mark fish then mark them and target specific schools. If you don’t have side imaging, cruise as fast as your locator can read at, 15-20mph is a great speed to find fish at. You’re fast enough that you won’t spook the fish as badly. They’ll usually stay put. I do this on clear lakes where we’re targeting them shallow. This allows you to cover water fast and keep the fish in place. I usually drop a pin on the fish when I mark them, then drive downwind/upwind of them and cast to them. With a shallower lake like this (depending on clarity) you might have to treat it like an early spring bite where they’re in shallow/clear water.

This time of year, fish are pushing off of structure and into basins. I think your best option is to use side imaging if available and create your own lake map as a way to find any subtle changes in the bottom. A lake name would help a bit so we could look the map of it up.

How fast should I run crankbaits? I usually fish between 1.5-2 mph but maybe should be running faster? I’m using mostly flicker shads and other similar cranks. Shallow shad raps in less than 8 fow usually

Speed it up, I’ve caught walleyes as fast as 3.5mph, so I would try going 2-2.5, change it up, speed up, slow down, don’t go straight, go in and out. See what they like!

matthewkolden wrote:

How fast should I run crankbaits? I usually fish between 1.5-2 mph but maybe should be running faster? I’m using mostly flicker shads and other similar cranks. Shallow shad raps in less than 8 fow usually

You should be exceeding that speed by the time the water temp is above 60 degrees.

Weedline is a weedline no matter what depth, and with that shallow of weedline it’s safe to assume the water is real dingy.

Problem with normal tactics on weedlines in that shallow is the spook factor. Your boat goes over fish they will get tight to cover if they aren’t their already, and when your presentation passes by it goes unnoticed. Plus it’s real hard to get baits away from boat and yet keep real tight to weedline where the fish are hanging, dingy water requires baits real close imo.

In such waters I’ve had good luck casting spinnerbaits into the weedline from afar. Shallow eyes crush them. You can make your typical walleye spinners into castable units as well, just shorten up and use bullet weight right in front. Works great

matthewkolden wrote:

The only thing we’ve done consistently is catch crappie, most of which are coming on crank baits.

matthewkolden wrote:

How fast should I run crankbaits? I usually fish between 1.5-2 mph but maybe should be running faster?

X2 on going faster. I’m gonna guess the fish are 1) either tight to or in the weeds, or 2) they’re out roaming in the open basin chasing food. IMO you’re catching crappies because you’re going these speeds, I’ll bet if you go faster you’ll start catching walleyes.

This is a flowage, correct? I assume there is some current both in and out. I think these are all great ideas but my guess is the fish will relate to current as much anything. I’d find the current and structure and start throwing cranks or plastics at it. Pitching live bait into those areas would also be a good idea.

There have been a ton of awesome suggestions here. Faster trolling, finding current, shallow weeds and how the fish will spook… This gives me a lot of really useful info to try out next time I’m out there. Unfortunately it’ll be a couple weeks, but I’m really excited to give some of this stuff a shot now. Thank you all.

Some flowages. lakes can be strictly a night bite. you have not mentioned if this is actually a lake holding a lot of Walleyes or just a marginal population.