Went out on the lower river and Lake Pepin yesterday out of Colville marina. Water temps from 57-59. I fished the lower river again and picked up an eater walleye an an eater sauger that was still releasing milt. Action was slow and fish were caught relatively far apart.
There was a northwest wind so I figure that Pepin might be better against the shoreline with wind. I took a long boat ride down to Maiden Rock and saw nothing but mud and silt in the water. I trolled cranks anyway and caught nothing. I put in a lot of time yesterday on the cranks and really did not do that well.
Finally, I located a big pod of baitfish off a point eddy on Pepin. I trolled around to see if there were any takers and that said “it is time for something different.” I tied on a three-way with a worm and started getting bites slow trolling at .6 mph. I caught the biggest darn perch I have ever seen! 11 inches! I caught a couple small walleye and a sheepshead before thinking hmmm. . . James Holst says fish like Rippin Raps. I only had a small #5 Rippin Rap, but I threw it out there and it worked. Probably picked up 8 or 9 fish with a 19 inch Sauger being the biggest fish. I caught probably four Saugers at about 4 inches on that thing. Couldn’t believe they kept hitting it.
Moral of the story, the trolling bite was slow. Finding baitfish was key. Slowing down and presenting baits to fish was much more important than moving around.
He couldn’t make it, but I ended up doing pretty well with another buddy. Here’s what I found on Friday.