Lake Pepin Newbie

[Wallyeyes]

I don't know much about the Ole Miss south of St. Cloud, but this looks like the place to maybe get some info on Lake Pepin. My mother just bought a place down by Lake City, and having never been in that area of the state, I know nothing about it and it's lakes. I am an avid walleye and smallie fisherman but all my fishing takes place in the central and north central part of Mn. Any info provided would be appreciated. All I know about Pepin is it's huge! 40 square miles with an average depth of 18 ft. is what the watershed website said. I am really looking forward to getting down there and fishing this lake.

[JBMasterAngler]

Geez, where to start? Trolling cranks or livebait rigs along the rocky/rip rap shoreline (MN side) along the hwy or railroad tracks can produce some nice walleyes and saugers. Casting spinners and cranks in these same areas is where to find some nice smallies too. Because your on the border and can use 2 lines I like to cast for smallies and then leave a nightcrawler drift along the bottom on the other side of the boat. Keep your eye out for flocks of sea gulls flying around and diving into the water, that means a school of white bass are feeding...on a good day you can easily catch 100+ silvers, and they are FUN to catch! The main food source is shad, so I prefer to use silver or white lures. And in my experience, the hotter the weather is the better the fishing has been, it's weird but true. Best thing to do though is to just get out there and explore. The city access in lake city is really nice, very lit up at night (by the way, night fishing is excellent too), double ramp, fish cleaning house.

[pcguide27]

The Lake City area is a great place to fish with multiple species readily available.

There are fish to be had throughout the lake from late April through late August. I usually like flipping jigs with minnows or leeches to the abundant rip rap south of the LC landing. Cranks such as Shad Raps and Thunder Cranks are also pretty reliable for both eyes and the smallies. There can be some good topwater action for smallies and white bass as well starting in early June. Early Morning is best to avoid the numerous pleasure boaters and other fisherman as well.

As JB stated, trolling is a favorite tactic by may locals. Some run boards and many also use Lead Core with cranks right through to fall patterns. I am not much of a troller, but will do pretty well dragging three ways with leeches and crawlers as the summer moves on. Both floating jigheads and spinner rigs can produce fish depending on the day. If you have kids that like to catch fish Pepein will produce lots of action from panfish to Pike and most rough fish you can think of if you dont mind dragging some live bait near current breaks, wing dams, points and deep ledges.

The boat traffic will be heavy however, esp during the weekends and Holidays. Fish during the week if you can, but if not, there are plenty of fish holding spots withing aa few miles from LC.

Good Luck

[joeltjen10]

I've had several great days fishing right in the bay of Lake City. I've caught anything from Sheepshead to Northern in there. However I primary catch walleye and sauger.

I like to get out starting now and fish all summer. Early in the summer I tend to fish near shore in about 10ft of water or less pulling cranks while the water is high in the bay. As the water drops and the fish stop biting I tend to jump across to the WI side and troll the small bays starting south of stockholm and trolling north to Maiden Rock. Again I stick to about 10-15 ft of water.

Let me know how you do. I'm hoping to get out for the first time in a couple weeks. Its been a hectic spring and I haven't had time to get back to Lake City yet.

[james_walleye]

I would say on average the best fishing is mid-late may too mid June. This is when you want too make sure too get some fishing in for the eyes and saugers coming up. The fishing can be nothing short of great in this window of the year. I like too start out pitching shallow with jigs and crawlers and if i cant find the eyes doing that i troll cranks too find some fish. Then you can keep trolling or get out jigs/rigs with crawlers/leeches.

[Wallyeyes]

Wow! Now I'm really excited to get down there. Thaks everyone for the outstanding tips. Like I said, I've never been down there before and with such a huge body of water I had no idea where to start. I think now that's changed. I do have kids who LOVE to fish. It should be a fun and hopefully productive summer of fishing Lake Pepin. Thanks again to all for the tips and info.

[james_walleye]

You can also cut down alot of water when you realize that 99% of the fishing is done within 100 yards of the shorelines. The fishing will be done from shore on out too the channel edge.

[droptine300]

I haven't heard any reports on Pepin. Does anyone have any reports? Hot, Cold, ??

Thanks,

Droptine

[PDOGG]

Got blown off the Lake last saturday fishing near the south end by the camp. Picked up one sheaphead and one small eye before we left. They both hit on a orange hair jig and crawler. We did how ever pick up some nice crappies in the Lake City marina after that it wasn't quite as windy there.

[Tony Holland]

We limited out in about 3 hrs pulling cranks today. Couple nice 23 inchers also. Probably caught over 30 eyes in the 6 hrs we fished. 14-18 ft.