Norski,

I am from Minnesota.

I live in SE Minnesota - I live close to the Mississippi River and fish Lake Pepin a great deal. But I have fished from Pool 2 all the way down to Pool 8.

I lived in Brainerd for a few years, and fished almost all of the lakes around there.

My other MN bodies of water that I have the most experience on are:

Leech Lake
Cass Lake
Winnie
Vermilion
Lake of the Woods
Miltona
Mille Lacs
Pelican
Bemidji
Red Lake

Beautiful walleye!

All the fish looked great - thanks for the pics and congratulations!

Great picks Leo!

Brad looks great - say hello to him!

Nice!

Crappies are awesome, and one of the very best eating fish in fresh water!

That is a BEAST!

Thanks for sharing the picture!

Nice job Marion.

Looks great Leo, tell Marion I said hello and she does fantastic work!

Bill

That was Lake Pepin Leo

Smallmouths= Senkos for Wacky Rigs, Jigs and soft plastics (paddle tails and split tails), some top water lures, and a few crank baits.

Pike = Take some leaders if fishing specifically for them. You will catch a few on Wacky Worms, but everything else mentioned for SM will also catch pike! You could also bring some spoons like Silver Minnow or Daredevil, or Swim Jigs with soft plastic trailers.

For some real top water excitement, take a couple Whopper Ploppers … you will catch both SM and NP!

FYI - you may even catch a few walleyes on the jigs and soft plastics or cranks!

Good luck!

Awesome - congratulations!

I look forward to grand kids!

20” on the money - no weight - I released it after a quick measure

Not all wing dams hold fish, and the best ones change with water level changes and flow rates, but start fishing them (especially mid and late summer).

Right now the flow isn’t very strong, and waters levels are low and I am finding big bluegills on top and in front of most wing dams. I have been having great luck with a drop shot rig with and Aberdeen panfish hook about 8-12 above the drop shot weight (this keeps the bait above the rocks). I put 1/3 to half a crawler threaded on the hook.

Walleyes and smallmouths are also on the wing dams, but they are more selective on the water levels and flow rates (gills are on almost all of them right now).

I would start on the channel outside edge first and work your way eventually toward the shoreline. Like Flyguy said, if you find a break or even hung up log in the wing dam, those are often good spots.

For walleyes and smallmouth, use whatever your confidence lures are (jigs, crank baits, Lindy rigs, top water, etc). But know that you may lose tackle in the rocks … try to stay slightly above or on top of the rocks. You can sometimes catch fish in the hole below the wing dams (especially catfish), but usually the active feeding fish use the wing dam to bottleneck bait and ambush just above or on top of the rocks.

I caught one of my biggest smallmouths on the Mississippi River yesterday.

We were fishing for walleyes. I was using a jig with a Storm Largo Shad (electric chicken). We were catching some walleyes and saugers, but white bass and smallmouths were also in the mix.

When I tied into this dandy, I knew it wasn’t a walleye!

I just had to share this picture …

Big bluegills are right on top of the wing dams right now.

That is a very consistent bite at this time.

Walleyes are tough right now.

Bass are a decent bite now too, but these dog days are tough on the eyes - low light periods are the best if you try for those, but yes - it is slow right now

In Minnesota, a 5 lb. Bass is a trophy - 8 lbs. for both largemouth and smallmouth bass is about the ceiling here.

In the far south, they can get more than twice that size due to the length of growing season, etc.

I troll with them anywhere from 0.8 MPH to 2.2 MPH (although 1.1 - 1.5 MPH is my go to speed zone).

When deeper than 8 feet, I troll them with lead core or a three way with a weight ... no problem getting 17-22 feet down with those methods.