There’s still lots of time to grab your Shad Raps and tap into the walleye and sauger trolling bite on the lower end of Lake Pepin. This is one of the more reliable bites that I enjoy every year, and I wanted to pass on a few tips that will help put a few fish in the boat for you this time around.
Walleye
We’ve been finding eyes either suspended well off structure or roaming on top of shallow flats. We’ll fish suspended fish using planar boards, running SR5s 8-10 feet down over 20+ feet of water. The 23" fish shown above is a typical fish that you can target using this presentation. Alternatively, if you have a good chop on the water, an overcast sky, or low light conditions, get right up on top of the shallow flats and run baits just above the bottom.
Sauger
Sauger probably account for 3/4ths of the catch right now. During the day, we target sauger at the base of near-shore breaklines and on the deep flats (20-25′) that extend away from the breaks. This is primarily a leadcore situation. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve noted a smooth transition from JSR5s to JSR7s, with the larger baits accounting for more fish as of late. I suspect this is related to the increasing size of the forage. Loose schools of saugers are roaming around these areas right now….if you’re not getting bit in an area you were finding fish on a recent trip, don’t be afraid to move a mile or two in each direction along the break…you’ll likely come in contact with those fish again. Lots of nice eaters with an occasional bigger fish are showing up, like this sunset 20+ we tangled with the other day.
"Others"
It’s getting hard to not tangle with a bunch of other fish while cranking for eyes and saugers. By others, I mean sheephead, white bass, buffalo, and carp. I’m constantly amazed that a carp or a buffalo has the gumption to chase down a crankbait humming along just under 3 mph. The golden trout shown above popped a white glass shad on leadcore, and in the process of coming to the boat, found a way to involve all 4 of our lines…what a mess it created!
Baits and speeds
We’ve been running a mix of baits, including shad raps (5 and 7), jointed shad raps (5 and 7), glass shads, jointed wally divers, and hot-n-tots. I tend to start with a blend of "loud" colors (firetigers, red craw, fire craw) and "neutral" colors (all white, shad, blue, purple) and then let the fish tell me which colors I should focus on. I never run more than 2 of the same pattern when running 4 lines (2 guys in the boat)….I am constantly swapping out two test baits, looking for other patterns that will work and trying to anticipate color preference changes. Colors will switch on a day-to-day and hour-to-hour basis, so it’s important to not get married to one particular color or one particular bait style.
Speeds have been running between 2 and 3 mph. This can change in a difficult-to-predict manner. For example, 2 weeks ago we were getting all of our fish at the upper end of this range, with water temps in the low 70s. This past week, with temps much closer to 80, we couldn’t get bit unles we were between 2 and 2.2. The lesson here is to vary your speeds until the fish tell you what they want.
LoL well it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I’ll start working on making this look right after this post.
Thanks Jason!
jason, well done as always. you sure get that bite dialed in each summer.
Golden Trout
I like it 
Thanks for the report Jason, Fantastic as always
And you have a super cute little girl
She made me giggle at the GTG 
Nice report Jason! That is one nice looking sauger!
I have a couple of questions for you.
It’s been a few years since I have fished on Pepin and I have seen some varying opinions on the subject recently in some other threads here on IDA.
I’m not trying to start anything controversial here, I just want to hear it from someone who’s fished the area a few times and knows what he’s talking about.
1) Would it be legal for me, or anyone who holds a valid Wisconsin fishing license to troll with three rods at one time on Lake Pepin or is two the maximun that I could use?
Do the regulations change if I’m fishing on the Minnesota side versus the Wisconsin side of the lake?
And finally;
3) What about the rest of the Mississippi that borders Wisconsin and Minnesota both north and south of Lake Pepin?
Are the rules for the number of rods or which side of the river your fishing on any different?
Thanks Jason!
Joel Ballweg
Good questions Joel.
A glance at the border water regulations for WI (WI/MN border waters) says nothing about # of allowed lines. It does say that you must obey the regulations for the state in which you are fishing.
WI allows 3 lines statewide, MN allows 2 lines on the Mississippi. That seems to suggest that as a licensed WI angler, you could fish the WI side of the river with 3 lines per angler, and then pull one per angler if you crossed over to the MN side.
I’ll tell you what I do: 2 lines per angler. If I have one partner, then I’m running 4 total. 2 partners (3 guys total) I’ll sometimes go up to 5, but often stay at 4. Any more lines becomes a total fire drill when a nice fish gets hooked up or we have to fight wind or waves. This keeps me nice and legal, no matter where I fish, or which state’s CO checks me.
Thanks Jason!
Jason, never fished this pool open water, what boat landing would you use from the wisconsin side? I don’t have planar boards, should I get some or can I get it done with one rod off each side in a rod holder? Any hints on where to go, more specifically from the standpoint of someone unfamiliar with this water?
Darrin, at the time of the year I launch out of Pepin WI. They have a great (free) landing with a bathroom and even a fish cleaning house. My spots are all within a short ride of the landing. To start you off, may I recommend that you work the drop off that parallels the WI shore from the Pepin Marine uplake to Deer Island. Most of my fish, especially midday, are coming from deep water at the base of the break and on the deep flat extending away from the break. I’m not giving away any secrets here….this is a major community spot for trolling up saugers and eyes.
Jason, thank you very much, will give it a try this weekend and it sounds like I won’t need planar board just yet, maybe I will hint to my wife for a birthday present. By the way, what kind of boards would you recommend and any special rigging tips I should know? Thanks, Darrin