It's a good thing there is Walmart or I would starve to death....

[MalawiMD]

I am not having any luck fishing on lake Pepin. I have been up there 4 separate times and the only thing I have done is hooked one crappie (it got away). I am new to lake fishing in MN. I have caught a lot of lake trout in Utah, but it is a different kind of fishing there.

Let me discribe how I have been fishing. Maybe someone can see some holes in my game and give me a few tips....

1. Dock at the public dock near camp Hoksila.(not sure on the spelling)

2. Motor my boat out until I see a few fish on the finder. They are usually single fish about 8' deep in 15' of water.

3. I drop my line with either a minnow or a leach on a floating jig which floats about 2 foot off the bottom.

4. Sit there for a while and inevitalby the fish is disappears from my finder.

I just bought a shad rap and a lindy rig. I am thinking about trying that. I just haven't seen that many fish on my fish finder. Am I in the wrong location? Is there a better place to dock? Maybe Redwing?

[Brad0383]

I went to Pepin for the first time yesterday and my North Dakota walleye methods worked great, launched at Lake City and used jigs with twister tails and minnows, 18-20 feet of water. I trolled real slow and bounced the jigs off the bottom. We got about 15-20 walleyes and saugers.

[MalawiMD]

That makes me feel good Where were you fishing?

[Brad0383]

Flats to the south of hansens harbor

[g'eye pilot]

I'm guessing you're not too far from success... The presentation you mention will definitely work at certain times. These river 'eyes can be a tough nut to crack. You first want to find some structure, i.e. a point, drop-off, sand flat, rip wrap shoreline, then look for the fish. Don't get too excited about a single mark. But rather look for some pods of fish. If you're marking and not catching, do something different - perhaps get the bait moving by backtrolling, etc. Try a different color of floater. Or, completely change your approach and try trolling a crank bait. Don't be afraid to check out what other boats are doing, i.e. depth and presentation.

A couple ideas: lindy rig with a spinner. Chartruse is a solid bet, keep the bait moving and try different speeds. Personally, I like to cover some ground on Pepin with the hardware. Try long-line trolling a #7 or 8 shad rap, in fire tiger or crawdad. I catch 90% of my fish on those colors.

Pepin/river fish seem to move around a lot. So you will need to do the same.

Sometimes hiring a guide for an outing is well worth the price of admission, especially if you're new to the river scene.

[Mike Walerak]

Diddo what g'eye said.

Wind has made the difference for me. I have only been fishing wind blown structure and shorlines. It does not take much wind but it is required. That being said I have been doing very well on Lake Pepin the last week or so. I went to the upper portions of the river Sat. evening and caught fish but the numbers were not there.

mw

[HateHumminbird]

Quote:

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Chartruse is a solid bet

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G'ye reminded me of an old river-rat I ran into at the ice-show last year. He said that any color works down there as long as it was chartreuse.

The river/pepin can be frustrating, but I think that it can't be stated enough, that often, you're one small adjustement from success!

Joel