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"Banker's Hours" - Lake Pepin


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One never knows what to expect when venturing out on a new adventure, especially when it's ice fishing. The anticipation always seems to be, at least for me, just a touch higher when your vehicle or ATV rolls onto the "frozen tundra" for the first time in a new location. While Lake Pepin wasn't "new" to our group this past week, it was from an ice fishing stand-point, so the learning curve was steep right from the get-go.

We arrived in the "big town" of Maiden Rock late Thursday morning and took a look at ice conditions, etc for the first hour or so. We decided on a location on a large flat in 17' that had received very little, if any, fishing pressure. Good sign? Well, we weren't sure but with the nice weather, we knew we'd have a good opportunity to "snoop around".

First 10 minutes after settling in; Good sign? whistle.gif

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Well, it turned out that mobility was not key; patience and focusing on electronics was. We ended up sorting through a nice mix of saugers, saugeye, and walleyes right up through this morning. Our best fishing was from 9:00 am - Noon and then again from 2:30 - 5:30 pm every day. In fact, you could almost set your watch to the fish. It was nuts. A night bite? Um, non-existent.

Thursday afternoon/evening and Friday morning had us feeling pretty good about our location grin.gif

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Despite our positive results to this point, my ADHD (Ha!) kicked in and I went looking. But every time I'd come back to the houses to "check in", there would be more of this...

Piggie, Piggie; oink, oink \:\)

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So, I decided to stay put, hang with "the guys" and really put the screws to 'em while watching "Meet the Fockers" and sippin' on a cool one. The 'gig was to watch for very quick "blips" on your electronics, reel up to where you saw the "blip", jig like mad for about 30 seconds and then close your eyes and hang on. All fish we caught came through suspended ~2 - 4' down and would just smack anything and everything put in front of them that was jigged but not a set line. Well, we did get 1 on a set line...

23+" BOAR

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Lure style or color didn't seem to matter much but we typically used Northland Buckshot Spoons, Chubby Darters, Jiggin' Raps and Rattlin' and Pro Varmints, each of which could be used with or without meat.

Saturday, when the weather changed and people started leaving, that really ticked the fish off.

Blowing and Drifting Snow Advisory? crazy.gif

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Crazy Bite Advisory?

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Oh, when fishing this area, the scenery is darn tough to beat, so I have to include a sunrise and sunset...

Rises in the East

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And sets in the West

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In summary, just a great trip with friends! Got home today and already set to go back for more. Note to self; make spot on calendar for same trip next year, barring decent ice conditions.

Oh yeah, ice conditions; perfect. 22 - 28" everywhere we drilled.

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T.O. Wow nice looking pic's nice looking fish and what a great trip it must of been. The fish have been going from the Redwing dam to the Genoa dam. I fish all these area's plus the lake and i new you where in for a great bite i was up there earlyer in the week and had great luck.The times you mention have been the times it seems this year good morning bite the a late afternoon bite been that way for me all year on the river. Anyways glad you got down this way and had the chance to see some of the true god's country it is great and the fishing is hot year round. cool.gif Thanks for another great report.

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Hey Jamison nice fish. I'm thinking of heading that way next sunday. Give me a call when you get a moment.

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Thanks WC. No problem about sharing a report. It's something I love to do following a trip such as this. It's nice when a plan comes together. Glad you enjoyed the read.

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Chris , the sumo sauger bite is great on open water right now too. Can't go wrong on pool 4 right now.

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Thanks Chris. It just depends if you want to be bundled up and fishing in a boat or sitting in a T-shirt in a wheel house having pizza.

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Otter my friend was up at Mille Lacs thursday and friday and did decent all things considered. They had a few walleyes between 23-26" and they had a bunch of jumbos in the 12" range. You going to head up at all before the season ends? I'll be up the weekend after this.

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Hey could anyone give me some directions to the access on lake Pepin planning on heading down there on Saturday, (team otter your post got me excited to try a new lake) I live in the north Metro/Champlin. And was wondering how long of a drive is it?

Thanks for any info,

Jeff

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TO - Was heading that way this weekend and was wondering if you can access the general area you were fishing from the MN side?also can you drive out with 4x4 pickup? Were the fish on or near the edge of the river channel or in the middle of the flat? Just trying to eliminate some water before I start drilling holes.

thanks

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nice fish man was thinking of going tomarrow any advice I dont have gps but i do have vexilar

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There are multiple accesses on to Lake Pepin, both on the MN and WI sides. Some of the more popular locations are Frontenac, Lake City, Bay City and Maiden Rock. Grab a map and have a look.

Just to give you an idea, Champlin to Lake City is ~105 miles.

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Vehicle travel was not an issue and no, the area we were fishing must be accessed from the WI side.

The fish were in "no man's land" in 17' of water.

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well thanks for the report i will let you know how i do oh by the way did you hear about that 12.7lb walleye they pulled somewhere on the lake pretty crazy

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thanks TO for your input. DOn't know if it will be ice or boat adventure, but want to keep the options open.

thanks again for the report

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 Originally Posted By: markkstanley
Chris , the sumo sauger bite is great on open water right now too. Can't go wrong on pool 4 right now.

Sure wish I could do that. I've got back to back weekends at Upper Red Lake coming up. I have had the itch to get after some Eyes on P4 though.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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