The Flicker Shad is an excellent crank bait. It is the number one producer on Lake Pepin near me. It out fishes the Shad Rap (which is a good lure) while trolling on 4 out of 5 days for walleyes for me.

I have made quite an investment in them the past few years, because they simply work! Firetiger is the best one for me with the walleyes on Pepin / Upper Mississippi River, but I have caught fish on every color I have tried!

I have not fished those lakes (I have fished BWCA lakes west of Ely).

You will be in a very scenic area.

I was looking online, and it looks like walleye, northern pike, and perch are the target species of those lakes

Incredible trip!

It must have been a blast!

Nice rigs - those will produce!

19.5" - not 19 feet, 5 inches! I just saw my post - oops!

That is a true trophy fish!

Congratulations!

Well, it was a HOT and HUMID week here in SE Minnesota, but I had a buddy come down from the Twin Cities and we hit the river anyway.

It was a bit unexpected as we started walleye fishing, but were catching as many smallmouth bass fishing for walleyes and saugers and switched over to plastic swim baits and wacky worms and BOOM, the nice bass were on a feeding frenzy. We caught about 30-35 in just a few hours and the smallest fish was 14" with several being over 17". The biggest bronze back was 19'5".

We didn't start out fishing bass, but it ended up being a fantastic smallmouth day on the Mississippi River!

Lake Pepin (Lake City, Wabasha, or Red Wing) would be my recommendation for Southern Minnesota in July.

There are also lakes around Faribault and Mankato.

The surface water temp was 61 degrees even though we had two 90 degree days during the week.

It has been a late spring and the water was cooler than normal for June.

MuskyHunter,

I was fishing on Gullrock Lake - It is about 45 minutes north of the west part of Lac Suel.

This fish was caught in only about 9 feet of water.

We caught fish as shallow as 7 feet and as deep as 30 feet during the week, but the majority of our fish were in the 12'-17' range with the majority of the fish marked in the 14'-15' range.

We were there June 18-24.

Thanks Leo!

I have Marion in my thoughts and prayers. I am glad she has you for support and care!

Bill

Maybe I should not mention the pork tenderloin and New York Strip barbeque meals we had up there then!

I think I gained 10 pounds on my "fishing trip"!

Crossing the border was as easy as crossing into Wisconsin (to take a quote from the movie Stripes)!

Mitch wasn't with us on this trip - he was teaching summer school.

We had all filled out the ArriveCan app and had the vaccines, etc. - it went very well, and coming back into the U.S. did as well.

The nine of us caught over 2,000 walleyes on the week, and our share of pike too, but most of the walleyes were just nice eater size. We all had conservation licenses, so ate a few fish meals during the week and only brought back two fish per guy - almost all of our fish were released for another day. We only caught about 16 fish over 22", with the 29" being the biggest - but even those 14" - 20" walleyes were stout and healthy.

Great trip and awesome to be back!

I just got back from NW Ontario.

We caught lots, and lots of fish, but they were mostly eater size, and not a ton of picture fish.

I did catch and release this 29" walleye.

It sure is nice to cross the border again and visit our neighbors to the north!

But the Wacky Rig might be the only thing you would need.