Lake Pepin, July 4 Walleyes

My dad and I got on the water about 8 this morning and trolled #7 Shad Raps all day long on the Maiden Rock flats. The only color that worked for us was perch. It was only my second experience trolling with fireline, so I really had to get used to setting my drag light and playing the fish carefully. I lost 2 fish at the boat, 1 big one a ways out , and a few more right after they hit. You would think I would learn how to land a fish after 7 tries! We ended up landing 5 17-18 inch walleyes and 1 slightly smaller sauger from 8 a.m.-12. In the end we found the key was to troll at 2.9-3.1 mph. Slower we caught sheepies, faster we caught whities. The sand flat in front of the Rush River was the “spot on the spot” for us. Towards noon, almost every time we trolled over that spot we caught or lost a fish. Well I hope this helps anyone heading out over this holiday weekend! Thanks

Tony

Thanks for the report Tony!

Tony, was that you in the Alumnacraft? If it was, sorry I did’nt stop and chat. See you tomorrow..

Yep that was me. I was thinking about saying hello but I was afraid of the lines tangling. Talk to you tomorrow. Thanks

Tony

This morning I took Mike (Suzuki) Yager out for his first taste of trolling on Pepin. We had such a great morning I still think I’m dreaming. We launched about 7 a.m. in Pepin, WI and headed north. We started catching fish on a sand shelf in 8-11 ft of water and they never stopped biting. We trolled Shad Raps and Grappler Shads and both were effective. Blue was our hottest color by far. Once we found the active fish we shortened up our trolling run and kept running our baits through them. I learned from Mr. Holst that when you find them, you gotta stay on them. It worked like a charm. By 11 a.m. we were off the water with our limit of beautiful 17-19 inch eaters and had thrown back quite a few more. It was a great morning on the water. What a way to celebrate a holiday! I’m heating up the oil right now and can already taste them!

Sounds awesome. We eventually found a sand flat like you and actually caught almost all our fish in about 2 hours once we found that spot. We wasted a lot of time looking for those active fish, but once we found them we would get a hit every time we trolled through. Thanks

Tony

Definetly saw an awesome weekend too. We worked a few key areas on the lake too. Even during the big rain storm on Saturday. It is interesting that you say perch. I had one perch on during the start of our trip and by the end of the day all rods had perch #7’s on. However on Monday we could not get a bite on Perch and everything else came on Blue and Silver. Watch this week for my report from Lake Pepin I will have a couple bruisers that came to the net.

Crossin Eye-you took me? Who’s boat were we in? Who’s equipment did we use? You were just an informed observer. Other than the river map, parking directions and a couple of lures you were merely my unpaid client……