MississippiPool 7 Bass-Getting the Skunk Out

I fish the lower end of Lake Pepin on Thursday and Friday with dismal results. On Thursday, all I could muster were 4 small smallmouth. Friday, I Fished with Captain Bob Pauer. Bob and I haven’t shared a day in a fishing boat for over 5 years. Plus, I’ve been bragging about the smallmouth fishing on Lake Pepin so Bob wanted to sample the action. Friday was the first time out in my new (used) boat. To make a long story short, the fishing was worse and WE GOT SKUNKED! It’s hard to explain why the fishing has been so tough because historically Lake Pepin is on fire this time of year. When we moved along the rip rap you would see huge schools of 1-2” shad and shiner minnows. The baitfish are there but the bass haven’t moved up. To complicate things the water is still dingy, the water temp hasn’t come up much (around 50 degrees) and the water is falling. There was a localized band of heavy rain about a week and a half ago that hit a lot of the feeder streams that dump into Pepin. That may have something to do with the poor water conditions. Sometimes a guy is completely out of sync with a fishery but everyone I talked to reported the same report.

Now I have a dilemma, I’ve goat a skunk in my new boat and if you don’t get it out right away things can get worse! If I didn’t chase those bad-fishing daemons out of my boat right away they could get a foothold and stay all year. Knowing conditions in our area were less than optimal I started thinking about the options. Going to a lake is out of the question so where would the best water conditions be? Well Lake Onalaska has the ecosystem that lends itself to clear water. The recent fishing reports on IDA from Slop Bass and Blueflake were good, plus, Crawdaddy called and said he did well on Friday. The choice was simple. Brent Haimes (fishnut) and I got to the lake around 10:00 and started looking around. We found 58-60 degree water temps, newly emergent vegetation and bass. The problem was the guy in the back of the boat was catching all of the fish. The first 2 photos are of fish the Brent caught before I put one in the boat. I’d missed several strikes, I was worried that I wouldn’t get the “skunk out” and I was getting a little testy! I finally broke the ice and all is well. The skunk is gone and the daemons have been chased away.

We ran into Slop Bass and several other guys fishing in the area and everyone had smiles on their faces. Slop reinforced what we had found and we and helped us refine the pattern. The bite revolved around finding the green vegetation, getting a lure hung in the plant and than popping it free. We caught fish on crankbaits, spinnerbaits, but plastics caught most of the fish. A Yum tube in black and blue did most of the damage. I also got a chance to try out my new St Croix Avid AS68MXF spinning rod. Man is it sweet, it’s a limber enough tip to throw a 1/8 oz. a mile and enough backbone to set the hook that far away. Both bass and walleye fisherman will appreciate this rod.

The message I hope everyone takes away from this report is conditions vary from pool-to-pool on the Mississippi. Events like to localized heavy rain we had around Lake Pepin has temporarily made the fishing conditions tough. However, an hour drive away we found clean water, warmer water temperatures and emerging vegetation. Fishing the Mississippi can be tough to figure out so pick an area that stacks the odds in you favor. Pay attention to the weather conditions, know which rivers were effected and where the hit the Mississippi, and most important, watch the IDA fishing reports.