Had to fish a little deeper with some friends the first few days but when they got more comfortable with the jig then we moved shallower and have been smacking them pretty good. Haven’t caught many fish deeper than 13 feet the last 3 days. Jig with minnow and plastic have been about the same catch rate.
Went out this morning to try to learn more about my FFS and ended up out deeper (20-30ft). Lots of fish out there but size definitely runs smaller on average.
Have always caught nice fish this time of year doing that. But it’s not my favorite way to catch fish and I troll so much all summer on the river that when I come up here just don’t do it much.
Got up here yesterday and have mostly found them in 15-20 during the day on the mud edge off reefs and shorelines. They’ll move up on the shallower structure in the evening.
Guessing since you mention crappies that you’re out west so maybe this east end report isn’t the most helpful anyway
I’ll be up 9-20th so hope to hear some good reports through the weekend! Weather should be stable, really looking forward to my longest stretch up there in a long time
Has anyone been out lately? My annual fall trip starts next week. Weather looks awesome but almost a little too warm still. Wondering if the shallow fall bite has really kicked in yet.
Has anyone been out lately? Looking to possibly make my first trip out there this year on Thursday. Wondering if it would be worth the time
Anyone have a recent report on vermilion? Heading up on Monday for 4 days. Heard it’s been tough since the big rain but hopefully it’s starting to normalize now.
I was out last week on first day of the tourney so take with a grain of salt. Bite was ok for us not great with the amount of fish under us. Scratched out 8 nice keepers out of 15 fish total. 10-15 feet for us and the nicer ones were on the shallow end of that. The tourney guys were up real shallow chasing the big girls.
Kept changing baits constantly to get bit. Couldn’t nail down a specific color. Get a few on one then it would go dead, switch and get bit right away, repeat.
Well that’s not what I wanted to hear. Only option for fishing this week is Thursday. Was hoping for some peace down there. Guess it will be easy to figure out where guys think the fish are at least
Wheels down for water landing will do that to you. That plane should have multiple warnings to prevent that. Incredibly lucky to get out alive.
Water must be cooling down still. Has the fall bite kicked into gear yet?
I got a pm of a 29″ from a gentleman who went after em ‘out to sea’ fishing the cline over the depths.
This is a true story. Was trolling down 20 feet over about 50 feet. 95 degree bright sunny day. Unfortunately had to get back to work so haven’t been out since to try and replicate it. Hopefully get out sometime this week and see if they’re still biting somewhere out there.
My report from yesterday is much of the same. Managed a real nice sauger and a short walleye and that was it. Going to stick to P2&3 the rest of the summer. Just couldn’t get it figured out on pepin this year.
Anyone been out the last few days and have a report on depths or advice on cranks vs bait? Heading down in the morning and I’ve really struggled down there this year.
First trip down this year and sounds like I needed to go deeper this morning. Trolled through huge pods of fish in 9-13 feet but couldn’t get much to go. Tried 2.8-3.5mph. Only colors that caught fish were same as bucky. Sounded like the crawler bite was ok.
Great stuff. Picking up the new boat on Monday so hopefully more electronics than just a vexilar will help in the finding of fish as well. Then I can focus more on the things you mention to make them bite. Thanks!
Probably caught eyes on 25 different cranks in the last two weeks (profiles, sizes, colors) and I contribute that to speed only. Got buddies running specific cranks and colors at much slower speeds too with success but they cannot throw any crank and catch one going slow either.
Is this why I can’t catch fish on P4 after June ends? Just going too slow?
I was up a few days back. Thursday evening was good for numbers of smaller fish. Got a couple 17s for breakfast on Friday but otherwise mostly smaller fish 10-14” on jigs and minnows in 5-12ft.
Friday was a good mixed bag. I casted shallow rocks with a husky jerk while my dad jigged off the break. Both of us caught slot fish and keepers. I also picked up a handful of very nice smallies full of eggs. Guessing they will be bedded up soon.
I’ve heard shallow as well. Heading up tomorrow to fish with my source of info. You traditionally can go catch all the 10-12 inchers your heart desires in 30 feet this time of year but if you want quality stay shallow
Ordered one on my new bunk trailer so I’m happy to see these reviews. All the demonstrations on youtube are on bunks so I assumed it was made more for those. Glad to know the roller guys love it too
Figured I may be out of luck with waiting lists and such but I’ll give it a shot.
Yes Brian red wing is unfortunately out of the question although that would be my preferred pool to fish. I’m working afternoons/evenings in downtown mpls so would like to be able to fish mornings and still have an easy drive in.
20 footer. I will give hubs a call. That would be super convenient for me if they have space. Have you heard anything about the ones up the st croix in Afton area?
Awesome replies. Thank you everyone!
Uflex. Added a 9.9 as well for all the trolling I do on the river
I was in a 205 tiller last fall with a 175 Yamaha on it. It was about 48-49mph. Liked it so much I ordered one up for this spring with the same setup. Fired up to get in it
I am in the process of figuring out how I want to rig a new boat. My thought was getting a helix 15 in the bow to run 360 and live. But I don’t believe you can run both at the same time. Can someone confirm that? I can’t find a clear cut answer on google.
BrianF how do you go about fishing these things? What kind of areas and depths do you look for? Mostly shorelines or do you do this on main lake structure as well?
How do you use electronics to help out? Livescope etc
Would love to give this a shot
The walleye fishing was great and only going to get better. Caught them all the way from casting to shore down to 35 feet. They’re just everywhere right now and they are hungry. Only got to fish my preferred spots one day because of the wind but it didn’t matter.
