Fished Pepin first time this year yesterday. Drift fished the lower end of the lake at the narrows, some short fish. Moved up into the lake and trolled shad-raps in 13-18 foot of water. Chartreuse color and on the bottom produced 7 fish, 18-22 inches in one hour. The color and bouncing the bottom was the trick that got you bit.
A buddy and I fished Pepin for the first time this past weekend. It turned out to be quite an interesting experience.
On Sunday, we took the buddy’s new boat out for the first time. Since I had never been down there, I picked up a Pool 4 hotspots map and decided to work the areas around Maple Springs, Kings Coulee Pier, and areas going north of there. We trolled cranks in depths from 8-17′ to no avail. Tried multiple colors and that didn’t get the trick done.
What happens next is the kicker. We got stuck in a nasty rain storm – so bad that we decided to beach the boat and hide under some trees. We were there for about 10 min. and all hell broke loose. A MAJOR hail storm. Stuff the size of large marbles were pounding us. Was freaked out that something bad was about to happen. When the storm subsided, we had about 4 in. of hail to get out of the boat.
I went back down on Monday and tried the same areas. Again, nothing. I then decided to head over to the WI side and troll in front of Deer Island. Ended up with 2 eyes – 17″ and 19.5″. Caught them in 6.5ft of water on a Pflueger Jerk bait in Clown color (same dimensions of a #11 Rap). The key was speed – 3.5mph or nothing.
I remember telling James that, being newer to the Walleye game, I was astounded at how hard these river fish hit. Prior to ever fishing them a few years ago, all I would hear on TV shows was finesse this, finesse that. Add to that the old saying that a ‘eye fights like a wet shoe. BS !! Those eyes were hitting like a freight train yesterday.
Was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to give me a few tips on pursuing smallies and pike this weekend. I have the itch to get back out. I don’t have my map with me, but I remember the area around Hanson Harbor (?) being listed as a good spot to hit the slimers. Does that area develop some weed growth? Thanks !!
If you are lookiing for smallies, the rip rap shorelines below Lake City are loaded with them. Finding out how to get them in the boat is usually the tricky part. I have caught several slimers trolling the same area below lake city in the past weeks on #5 shad raps. No big ones though.
The area around Hanson’s harbor you ask of does develop good weed growth in the bay above the harbor all the way to long point in the summer months. They should just be starting to come in as the weeds are starting to emerge on other parts of the lake as I write.
Good luck!
Went out Sat. afternoon. Ended up getting 3 sauger and 1 ‘eye in the Hanson Harbor area. Trolling 6-8ft with smaller Bomber A stickbaits. Firetiger was the hot color. Talked to a guy at the fish cleaning house and he did well in the same area, only in 14fow trolling Firetiger Shad Raps.
I don’t want to brag, but here goes. In 2 hours of fishing between the hok si la landing and hanson’s harbor on thursday last week I caught over 30 saugers. Everytime I crossed 11 feet of water there was a sauger on. I finally left after getting tired of catching them. I had to stop fishing 2 rods because I kept getting doubles and it was getting hard to keep up with them. Crawdad #5 and Clown #7, crawdad caught about 2 to 1, but both had their hot moments. I think it was more about which line hit the bottom first than anything else. Most of the fish came as you start to turn out as it gets shallow in front of hanson’s harbor, but pretty much all of them were in 11 feet of water. I tried shallower hoping that the walleyes were there, but no such luck. They have to be there somewhere. I hear the head of the lake is doing well for bigger walleyes. I was headed there, but ended up having to tow someone who was broke down back in. So if you are looking to catch alot of fish or a good meal size fish I would suggest this area and it was a blast for a couple of hours.
labsrule
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