High Wind Question

Since this year has been a windy one for me in four trips so far I have a question about Lake Pepin. I have been coming up to Lake Pepin for about 20 years and most of the time it has been calm enough to fish safely. One year we got caught in a Squall and it scared the stuff out of me and my wife. Needless to say we are now overly cautious about the weather. Anyway, if the wind is blowing really hard and the lake is not fishable does the top P-4 river portion get as bad? We have never gone into the river itself to fish and rather than sit on shore or go shopping I would like to find some sheltered water to fish. Any Suggestions?

I’ve been north of Pepin when the waves were big enough (on Pepin) that I was sizing up the swim to shore in case of capsizing.

Anyway, fishing the river north of there was just fine except it was tough to slip the river in the wind. Boating was fine. My one and only experience there however…

The north can be a great area in the wind although ti takes a ton of wind to blow me off the lake if the trolling bite is right…..there are several backwater sloughs and cuts you can work along with fish on the back channel and main channel as well. It all depends on the time of year and where to fish have moved too than.

I dont fish pipen at all but would think as with most river wind blowing against the current can make some huge wave. Ive heard where the main river dumps into the north end of pepin at the red cones can get real choppy at times. Would think you should be able to find some place in the upper rive to hide out of the wind. You could always motor up to the upper end of pool 2 and fish in the narrow bluffs. Not to often does the wind get in there.

I just try to fish the water in which the wind is coming from. Pepin can get rough in a matter of minutes. I had to park the boat at the Lake City Marina once and my friend walked about 3 miles to the Hak-Si-La boat landing to drive the truck over so we could get off the water.

I wondered if Lake Pepin ever really gets rough. I have been on lower pool 4 several times when there is a south wind and the channel is really rough between the lake and Alma. When I pull up into the lake the water turns much calmer. It is as if the lake spreads the current out so it is not fighting the wind as much. Downstream on the channel the wind is funneled right up the channel fighting the current and making big waves. Last year it was so rough down below Wabasha but when I pulled up into the Lake I couldn’t believe how much calmer the water was.

Eyehunter

I can guarantee you that it gets really rough. The squall that I talked about was so bad that my wife and I had to lean forward ’cause we thought the boat was going to flip over. I know that is an unusual situation but it sure scared the crud out of us, and mad us pretty paranoid.

Yeah the lake can get rough at times. If it does happen and you are still wanting to fish the rest of the day either go up into the river on the north end or go down to the river on the south end, depending on where you are at on the lake. Most all of the times you can find a section of river that is much calmer.

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I wondered if Lake Pepin ever really gets rough.

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I’ve only been completely airborne in a Ranger 620 a limited number of times in my life…ALL of those times have been on the upper part of Pepin in an E/SE wind.