Lake Pepin Carp?

I spent 6 weeks in the Pepin WI area recently and was out fly fishing frequently. Had a great time fishing and caught lots of fish. I fished mostly the backwaters areas and caught lots of panfish, pike, bass, and a few walleyes. I was surprised I never saw or caught any carp, or for that matter, any other rough fish. Catching carp on a fly rod is a blast but it’s primarily a visual thing and involves throwing flies in front of feeding fish.

I am sure there are plenty of common carp in Lake Pepin so not sure if it was a time of year thing, the areas I was fishing, or the poor clarity of the water. If carp are feeding on or near the surface its usually pretty obvious, regardless of the water clarity.

Anybody have any Lake Pepin carp insight they are willing to share? I’ll be back in that area next summer. Hoping to get some use out of my carp flies.

Well, regarding pepin, the shallows along the can line LOAD UP with carp in the spring. I don’t venture down there much otherwise.

On the croix, i see carp upstream of Kinni Narrows often, and feeding on surface – them White Bass Fisherman love to cast spoons to them like they’re white bass feeding on the surface, but a little knowledge with the SI and i know they’re big mouths. With that said, there are several areas on the croix that hold large amounts of suspended fish.

Mississippi wise, when the water cools i see them stack up in eddys on the slack water side – rough fish don’t like current and cold water in my experience.

Mid summer the lock at hastings loads up with them too.

In the short, i find them consistently on “Edges” of current and/or deep/shallow which is often the same thing.

I enjoy reading about someone out chasing something few do so thanks for sharing!

Last week Jon we had carp rolling where we were fishing backwaters. Today the water temp was about 12 degrees cooler and no carp were rolling. Fishblood’s observations are correct regarding carp and temp and where they can be found.

We watch those carp eat mayfly like crazy when the hatch is on. I always wanted to toss dry flies at them this time of year. Just a couple carp on a fly rod would be awesome.

I used to work on the gas docks at on Pool 2 when I was young and you could get carp to surface back in the marina by tossing bread out to them. Then just had to put a hook in a piece of bread and with a few tries you would get one. That was fun but never tried it on a fly rod.. Its on the bucket list!!