With my tournament season finally over, except for the RCL championship, the last two weeks have felt great to finally be able to get back to my home waters and put together some of my old “go to” programs. Especially to do it with family and friends.
This last week was a different experience for me. I took someone out this weekend I thought I would never get in the boat. For those who know us, many of you didn’t know we had a little baby sister. Well, okay not so little anymore. For years when at home I had to change her messy diapers, being am almost double her age, and now I am changing her lures for the first time. Katie last week spent her week in Canada on a walleye-fishing trip. She ended up catching her first and only walleye up there. She was so excited to catch one she called home and said that when she came back she wanted to go fishing down here. SO I said let’s go. Being the horse lover she was I thought she would never take me up on the offer. Guess I was wrong!
Our trip started out on Saturday afternoon with rain in the forecast. Upon arrival on our first spot the monsoon rains began. It didn’t take long before she landed one of the biggest walleye and first walleyes of her life on the Mississippi River. Needless to say she was ecstatic. Here are a couple pictures of her first trip on the Mississippi River with me, and the fish she caught.
With the fishing in being at the best I have seen it this summer I thought I would be good time to get some neighbors out. With an early 5:30 start I thought the best bet would be to head right back where I left off with my sister. With the rods all set it didn’t take to long for Pastor Bacon, of Alma. WI. It didn’t take to long for us to pick up right where we left off. By 9:00 in the morning we had caught almost 20 walleyes and left for home by 9:30. To top the morning off he landed one of his biggest walleyes ever. It was a blast to fish with both of you. It was even better to spend the fishing with family and friends. That is something I just don’t get to do too much of anymore. I hope we can do it again soon.
What was our presentation? All we did was pull shad raps around all weekend. Most common depth for me this week was 15-18’. My goal was too just follow bait fish around all weekend. If I found bait fish I knew the walleyes would be near by. Some areas had tons of bait fish but no walleyes. The biggest key is once you found the school of bait fish it was time to focus on whether there were arches below the school. Once the arches were found we concentrated on that school until we found the right program. This is where the GPS became most critical. Every time we caught a fish I would hit a waypoint then turn around after a few hundred yards and hit that spot over and over. At one time we had three rods go off at one time making everything just a little exciting in the boat. One other thing that helped a lot was too spread out rods out as far as we could to cover more water.
This last picture is my buddy Austin. He too got to experience the rains on Saturday but didn’t mind when he got to catch this 22” walleye.
Another Picture of Pastor Bacon.
Friends,Family&Fish nothing in life is better!!Great report great photos!
Jarrad,
Looks like you guys had a great time on Lake Pepin over the 4th of July weekend.
Nice Fish!
JWB
Excellent report Jarrad!
We had a great trip on Pepin too and I can’t wait to get back. I think tomorrow the flu is going to hit!
jarrad-where did you catch them on lake pepin-
good job 
Jarrad;
How did you get the Raps down to 18′? Lead lining, snap weights?
D-ball,
The areas I concentrated on mostly were sand flats next to deep water of the main channel.
Big B,
I did run a few lead cores during the duration of the week to get down that deep. I do not like snap weights. They can be an excellent tool but not a fan. However some of the fish in 18′ weren’t exactly on the bottom.
fireflick:
Glad to see the fish biting somewhere!!! We are almost to summer patterns, just a month behind. Good luck in the RCL championship and hope to hook up this fall with you!!! Has little bro gotten into the smallies? I don’t get to check the board as much in the summer and am still not navigating the new format as well as the last one.
Mark
they were suspended-how deep? and those fish your co-angler caught..they had to eight lbs or better,nice going, do you ever use grapler shads
–the commercial is really neat,,i was thinking of buying some-but i don’t know if they work-i have been pulling lead with sonars-but i keep getting snagged all the time..i can hardly afford to go fishing anymore-thanks for any advice from anyone,,just trying to learn a little.. 
I’ve had good luck recently with the grappler shad, it is a cool commercial, but hotter bait. Running straight with fireline or with boards and fireline. Blue was the color on the fourth for us. Good luck.
D-ball,
Most of my time on the lake is spent with lead core. Usually when fishing the deeper water lead core seems to produce more fish for me. I don’t play with suspended fish much. But every body of water holds suspended fish.
I have never used Grappler shads. Sounds they are the next hot up coming lures though. I should just breaks down and go by some from the sounds of it.
jarrad, thx for the advice-I heard a couple guys from the wabasha-alma area are going to fish the rcl championship in ill…will you guys have an advantage being your all river fisherman?