What a day on the water,this is the perfect time of year to get the kids out on the lake and have some fun. Today I had the pleasure of sharing my boat with walleye killer William Stussy and his dad, our morning started out with chocolate donuts, Doritos, fruit snacks and of course the secret weapon blue bug juice. The trolling bite on Lake pepin has been fantastic this year, after making a few adjustments we had the shorty rod buckle over and put William to the test with this nice Lake Pepin eye.
This time of year allows me to use several different presentations. Right now trolling, rigging, jigging, and pitching cranks are all putting fish in the boat. Today we pulled lead up shallow on a wind swept shoreline. The water seemed to be a little darker than last week and we noticed that crankbaits with brighter colors definetly put more fish in the boat. As the day got later the fish did want to slip out into deeper water, and thats the great advantage to fishing with lead core. It allows me to cover anywhere from 5 to 35 foot of water, by simply running out more line. When I was running boards on rocky shorelines in 5-8 ft of water I switched to a braid line set up on my board closest to shore. Here is one of the many saugers that fell victim to a J-5 firetiger Rap.
I have really taken a liking to my new shorty inside rods, they handle the fish excellent yet are still sensitive enough to tell if your lures are running true and weed free. I also like that they have a large top eyelet tip, I still like to run barrell swivels instead of tying my leader direct to my lead line. By having a larger top eyelet it allows you to easily reel through the barrell swivel. I also like the way I can position the rod in the holder placing straight out the back of the boat, by having the shorter rod it keeps the rod tip lower to the water giving me better depth control of my cranks and free of my main motor. Best of all you can purchase one for about $35, add an Okuma Line Counter and you have and excellet combo for $75. Here are a couple on nice fish that came off the shorty’s.
Right now Lake pepin fishing is excellent and will only get better. Recently the size of fish that are showing up in my favorite spots has been improving. Our biggest fish today was 26 inches with quite a few 20 to 22 inchers showing their faces, we took a picture of Williams big fish into the sunlight and didn’t turn out very well. We boated around 30 fish today and 1/2 of them were over 15 inches Don’t be afraid to work the shallow water and vary your trolling speeds and most importantly remember to take a kid fishing.
Tight Lines,
Joey
nice report! next sat or sun will be my first trolling trip ever to pepin. what general part of the lake did you fish or do you recomend? thanks for any help! forgot to add we will be coming from the lacrosse area if that makes a difference.
Right now you will find fish in the upper, central and lower part of the lake. You can honestly launch your boat, get turned around and start trolling.
not even a stretch either!!
Good to hear the bite is good Joe. I agree,the shorty rods are just plain fun to catch fish on and a bit easier for the kids to handle as well!
Great report Joe, looks like the little man in the boat had himself a good time!
Jami
Nice fish Joe and thanks for the report. I am hoping that I will be able to get out there and pull some cranks or even some bait this weekend. I have not been able to get up that way yet this year but looking forward to testing the dryness of my new-to-me rig on Pepin.
Dave
Nice job