Nets on lower Pepin

Fished Wisconsin side of lower Pepin Tues-Wed. Noticed some white flags and Dad and I were thinking maybe they were sail boat race markers or something. Wednesday they turned into orange flags. Dad lost $10 in rapalas before it sunk into our thick skulls that they were gill nets. I’m assuming this is the DNR’s work? Anyone know if fish survive gill nets? Looked to be a handful of them stretched out up and down the shore.

All the small saugers & to a lesser amount some small eye’s you want to catch in 10′-15′. Blue 7 rattling raps worked for us. Couldn’t get anything to bite any deeper. One hybrid sauger up to 16″. Largest eye a shy under 20″. Half dozen small northerns & white bass in the mix. All in all pretty good fishing.

More than likely commercial nets. For carp, sheepshead and the like

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For carp, sheepshead and the like

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…and sturgeon or whatever else swims into them. They are required to be checked daily.

Sounds like you had a good time fishing though!

I remember the first time I discovered gill nets four cranks………gone!

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…and sturgeon or whatever else swims into them. They are required to be checked daily.

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Do the fish typically live if they get removed within a few hours of being netted? Just curious.

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I’ve seen them in P2 in past years. And there were lots of floating game fish in them.

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I remember the first time I discovered gill nets four cranks………gone!

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atleast it was only four cranks, Ive seen entire downriggers ripped off trolling boats by nets staggered around the apostle islands before. not a pretty sight hearing and seeing one of those setups go over.

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…and sturgeon or whatever else swims into them. They are required to be checked daily.

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Do the fish typically live if they get removed within a few hours of being netted? Just curious.

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They die within an hour or so of getting caught. The net grabs onto their gill plates and when the fish thrashes to get loose they get tangled to the point that they are stuck. The typically get their gills torn/caught during the process and die. They are outlawed in a lot of places. Most commercial fisherman don’t use them, they typically use hoop nets.

The flag color changed because they have to check them daily. So they typically alternate colors so the DNR knows they checked them.

Same here but I got lucky and only lost 1… Couldn’t believe they placed the nets right in the middle of prime cranking/drifting passes. 18 – 21 fow from deer island down river to pepin. talk about a way to rile up anglers….

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I remember the first time I discovered gill nets four cranks………gone!

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On Lake Michigan the nets have resulted in the loss of life from tangled equipment. Seems like commercial fishing always beats out the sport angler. Be careful around nets.

commercial fisherman gill nets or hoop nets take millions of pounds of carp and sheep head out of our waters, and they dont kill many game fish because of the size of there holes n the gill nets are bigger for bigger fish…… such as common, big mouth and small mouth carp. yes sturgen and paddle fish may suffer though but i have talked to some of the commercial guys and it seems they do not kill as many of these fish as one would think. there is only 1 guy that actively fishes the mn side of the mississippi and he has the DNR ride with him often. all in all its just another way of life that they have been doing for a long time and pool four has not seemed to be hurt by them yet……. only a few fisherman’s wallets from loosing cranks…… you will only loose them once though.

Those commercial fisherman must be getting rich off of $10 rapalas. That net probably has more money in lures than carp.

I would love to spend a day working with these guys. What a great way to see how the other half lives and learn a little bit about the netting operations and how to do it. I bet you could learn a ton from these netters about the waters and how it effects the fishing

If I was younger by about 20 years, I would be all over that too Farmboy.

I’ve seen these guys work and the word “easy” never comes to mind.

PS I’m not against netting, in fact I’m for netting. I’m against the netter that breaks the laws.

I hope they never stop netting. Where else would I be able to buy “slightly used” rapala’s for $1.00 each

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I would love to spend a day working with these guys. What a great way to see how the other half lives and learn a little bit about the netting operations and how to do it. I bet you could learn a ton from these netters about the waters and how it effects the fishing

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I always wanted to do the same. There is a father son crew that net in P2 here and seem to olny run nets for a limited time (week or two). Its always fun to talk with them. One thing I did notice is the young guns are willing to talk with you but the old man would rather you didnt even see him during the whole process. I fish back by the “area” while they are doing this and never really noticed any floater or marked up fish. Seen some tore up gill plates on P3 but dont remember any on P2.

It is amazing how may carp the pull out of there in quick order!!