Mississippi River Pool 4 Fishing Reports Pool 5, 6, 7 , 8 & 9

[GRAND DAD]

You ain't kidding TSchultz, it can be a realy bear. I have never had to come in so fast on my trailer , but I did get it on my second try. I was feeling very lucky. and that was the last time I will try putting in there with high water.

[vman59]

I agree with you on that was a bummer trying to land the boat there last year. Are the eyes scattered or still relatively close to shore? Any spots where a guy could go from shore?

[blakeb]

it seamed that the sauger were close to shore today and scattered, didnt run into many

[MidCoast]

Fished today for walleyes. Walleyes were biting very good on minnows and jigs.

[MuskieJunkie]

Couple saugers early in the morning, 1 was pre spawn and shaped like a football, then everything shut down with just a few white bass in the early afternoon. Talked to another guy at the ramp that had about the same results. Great day to be on the water.

[hart0670]

Fished yesterday morning 6:30-12:00 with two others in the boat, only caught one small walleye, a few stripers and some dirty sheep heads. Fished on sand flats, up on the lock side, down river in the back channels, tried throwing all kinds of plastics at them, minnows, hair jigs, sonars, dragged three ways, basically everything, but just couldn't get them to bite. We saw a few get caught, but it sounded like it was just a real slow day for the most part. Did see one nice walleye caught that was still pre-spawn, probably 7-8 lbs.

[bigbucks]

We were down there as well. Three of us fished basically 8-4. Caught I think 4 small saugers, kept 2, also caught one little sheepy & one little walleye. Lost another keeper sauger at the surface, missed most of the few bites I had personally. They were taking the minnow from the back apparently, because I couldn't hook up. Most bites were pre adding a stinger, but then even with one on I only hooked one out of three bites & that's the one I lost. Very slow for us & for most people from what we could see. Beautiful day, but lots of boats. Probably saw 20-25 fish caught by other boats throughout the day & most were small with a lot of little sheep or some type of rough fish.

[blakeb]

post spawn question, do all the fish spread out and go deeper?

[rattleL]

fish are still gonna relate to bait and no they dont always go deeper they will spread out though to some extent.

[shintz]

A very large number of post spawners go back down stream and to Pepin.

[mudslinger]

I've experienced a tough bite down there this year. The thing I have learned is dont get trapped fishing where everyone else does. Make your own luck. Try something and if it doesn't produce move on. Dont get hung up on tried and true ways. It was a drastic year and fishing should be flexible in tough times.

[Tanker]

Has anyone been fishing pepin latley. think those spawners have come back down yet?

[GRAND DAD]

Very good question hope to have a awnser on that this weekend.

[jigginjim]

Maybe start pulling more cranks, to find the fish.

[John Mickish]

Fished Pepin today, trolled cranks around hog point and over at the head of the lake. Didn't see much caught for the amount of pressure on hog but did pick up a few at the head of the lake. Picked up more farther up river on the MN side. Haven't hit the Wi side of the river yet. By next weekend it should be pretty good on Pepin. Water temps where 55 or so degrees.

[james_walleye]

Pulled cranks all over today and didnt have anything but a 5lb northern to show for the first 5 hours. Finally hit a stretch in the last hour where we caught some nice fish. Tossed back a few saugers in that 20" range and kept 6 in that 14-16" range. Last fish of the day was the only eye, 16".

[TapsBug]

The wind finally died...and I found some bass. First cast into a favorite spot produced a single 18" smallmouth. I later found a group of smallmouth on a sandy point (pre-spawn?) including a really heavy 19" fish.

Just before dark the largemouth showed up around the emerging weeds in about 4' of water.

I caught almost all the fish on a 4" dark green/black specks stick worm ...rigged wacky with a small wacky jig (so it would sink slowly to the bottom).

[Andy Loos1431189100]

Pool 6 bite has been pretty good. I do believe a lot of the lg and sm have spawned out now. At least the 20 smallies I had yesterday were all males where a week ago it was all big females. Talk with a friend and all he caught were males.

[fishn]

Hey tapsbug is the largemouth bite heating up in the backwaters now or was it just off the channel. Did you tie into any big females?

[TapsBug]

Yes, it was in the backwaters. I landed one female that was a tad over 4lbs and anther about 3 (didn't weigh that one). The rest were probably males. The females looked like the where pre-spawn.

I did get two really nice female smallmouths also!.

[fishn]

Thx for sharing, I'll be out there tomorrow so hopefully I can find them.

[CC Hurl]

Hi everyone, I have a question on the walleye regs for Pepin. Is there a slot and can a guy keep a walleye right now with a MN licence? I took this next week off work and would like to try Lake Pepin for a day before it gets warmer out and the big boats show up. I only have a 14' with a 25 yamaha so would you guys recomend any area i should go too to keep it safe but yet still have a chance at a fish? This will be my first trip on the water in Red Wing ever so that is why i am asking. I do have an H2O with that part of the river on the chip so i am hoping that will help. Thanks for any help and good luck this year.

CC HURL

[rattleL]

You will be fine with a 14 foot boat just watch your water as far as where to start up towards the head of the lake the points and maiden rock have been producing fish either rigging or trolling lead or long lining cranks im sure others will pitch in with more advice.

[JIvers]

There is a 15" minimum size limit on walleye in the MN-WI section of the Mississippi, including Lake Pepin. The mimimum size requirement does not apply to sauger; there is no Mille Lacs-style slot limit.

A Minnesota license allows you to fish everywhere on the Lake Pepin and connected backwaters, so long as you stay west of the railroad tracks that run down the Wisconsin side of the lake/river. For fishing regulations, the RR tracks on either side form the dividing line: in between the tracks is where the regulations for the MN-WI border waters of the Mississippi are in effect. (Yes, the last I heard this is not how it works with waterfowl regulations on the Mississippi.)

East of the tracks on the Wisconsin side you need to purchase a Wisconsin license, and abide by their rules. West of the tracks on the Minnesota side, and regular Minnesota in-land fishing regulations apply.

People with either a Minnesota or Wisconsin fishing license (you do not need both) may fish anywhere between the tracks, but they must obey the border water regulations of the state for which they are licensed.

If you are a Minnesota resident, you must obey Minnesota's Mississippi border regulations on Lake Pepin, even if you buy a Wisconsin license. (I knew people in Winona who found this out the hard way--they lived in MN and had Wisconsin licenses, so they thought they could use three lines per person. Wrong.) Wisconsin allows three lines per angler, while Minnesota allows two. Wisconsin is also more lenient in terms of what sort of fish one may use for bait.

The one exception to the above rule is that on Pools 5, 5a, and 8, all people fishing on the Minnesota side of the river must obey Minnesota stricter bag limit on bluegills, even Wisconsin residents. On the Wisconsin side of those pools everyone with a valid license, including Minnesotans, may keep Wisconsin's more liberal limit.

Yeah, I know--it's confusing.

[JIvers]

I have a 14' v-hull with a 5.5 HP motor, and I use it fairly often on the main channel of the Mississippi...

You say this is your first trip to Lake Pepin ever: do you have much experience on the Mississippi in a boat that size?

On a calm day without too much current, a 14' boat should be safe for Lake Pepin, with a little caution. (Keep your eyes open for powerboat wakes and the like--if those catch a small boat off-guard it can get dicey--trust me.) I would advise sticking to smaller waters on windy days, as it doesn't take too much to kick up three to five foot waves, and those are too much for my boat. A sunny weekend afternoon may not be best either, due to the large boat wakes I mentioned, although with a little care they are manageable.

[Birks]

I'm saddened to say but I'm heading out for my first time this year for some walleyes. Darn two jobs, three kids, and wife. Oh well at least I get all Saturday. Looking for some advice. My plan was to launch north of the Hok-si-la campground at that public landing, and work the MN shoreline on that sand bar. Any recommendations on what to use, cranks or three ways? I was thinking of starting with a floating jig head, three way, but it sounds like cranks are doing well right now. Any advice on color, flathead / crawler, crank size, depth would be greatly appreciated.

[Mille Lacs Guy]

I would start fishing right where you suggested and I would suggest trolling shad style crankbaits from very shallow out to the deep break. I've had luck both long lining crank baits and trolling leadcore on the deep break. You shouldn't have to go far from where you are starting to catch fish.

Good luck.

[JIvers]

I'm going to be fishing a couple dams down from Lake Pepin on Saturday--what is the water clarity like after the rain? Lots of grass and mud (more than normal) in the water? Looks like the water levels are about perfect.

[Roadhunter]

Fished Pepin pulling cranks on Tuesday 5/18. Action "slow" with only 3 sauger boated. Looked like similar success from other boats observed. Tried Wisc side w jig / minnow in area that was successful before and skunked. Maybe the this year is not ahead so - so far from other years. Things should pick up in the next week or two - I hope. GL

Reports have been slow - so I thought I would put my 2 cents in for an up-to-dater.

[rattleL]

Thanks for the report.