Zum this morning

The lake had a nice chop on it what with the wind, but actually the wind didn’t hurt the fishing for me a bit.

The water temps took a down-turn from a week ago and lost about 4, 5 degrees in every area I fished. I am thinking that this was why the fish had moved off the water they were in last week and were found today in water that was maybe five or 6 feet deeper. They were not hitting all that deep though, with the majority of my fish being caught only a foot to 18″ from the surface.

The crappies were C/R’d today. I didn’t see a sunfish but then I wasn’t fishing in water that they’d be found in now either. The smallies were on a tear though and most of the 10 or 11 that I caught made me get the net. I can’t get over that color of the smallies right now….really beautiful fish. I did see one nice northern this morning I had just about finished a retrieve when a small crappie came charging up behind the jig and right on its heels was this big pike. I lifted the jig from the water and the crappie simply stalled and that was the end of it. That pike had the crappie before I rewally knew what was happening. Its always wild to witness something like this.

The water temp was between 55.4 and 55.8, depending on location. The water is also quite clear right now. We haven’t had enough rain to dirty things even a wee bit and most places I fished I could see bottom in 5 or 6 feet of water, something I haven’t seen out here for a while.

I un-hooked maybe 35 crappies today. Most were the generic 9 to 10 inchers but a half dozen were dandy fish running up to almost 13″ on one big black.

Themale crappies haven’t begun to darken much yet, but the females sure had some pot guts on them. A couple of the males sprayed while being handled so things are starting to change towards the spawning yet to come. Another week and hopefully a few degrees of water temps and they will be making the first shift to the deep break.

I saw more boats out today. They all appeared to be heading to more distant location of the lake. In my last two trips to the Zum I have gathered enough tackle from trees and laying up against shorelines to fill a five gallon pail. I take this stuff to a local baitshop where the owner gives it to kids with big eyes and little money. They’ll be getting to choose from some really nice floats and jigs/plastics. I must have 500 yards of line in that pail to recycle.

The wind at times made today a challenge but the lake is always a fun time. Today was no exception.

Thanks for the info Tom. I’ve struggled to do well on the Zumbro crappies. (any crappies this spring actually) Any rigging, bait or color tips? I’m especially curious how folks rig to “troll” in the open basin. I see the fish down 10′ over 15′ fow but slip bobber rigging is too hit or miss. Thanks

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Thanks for the info Tom. I’ve struggled to do well on the Zumbro crappies. (any crappies this spring actually) Any rigging, bait or color tips? I’m especially curious how folks rig to “troll” in the open basin. I see the fish down 10′ over 15′ fow but slip bobber rigging is too hit or miss. Thanks

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I fish under a fixed float that slides easy for adjustment and seldom fish this more than five feet deep, six is about tops. Slipbobbers and I are not good company.

About all I use is a 1/32 head under that float. For the most part I use a purple or blue head and occasionally tie on a chartreuse or pink.

I am not a troller, but those who are trolling are doing so very, very slowly using fairly light lines and light jigs with plastics or minnows. Basically they mark fish, throw out and try to keep the bait at the level the fish were marked. Most are using the hi tech trolling motors, like the Terrova so they can hyper adjust to what the fish want.

I like to pick apart different types of structure. I have a locator but use it only to tell me how deep the water is, whether there is some sunken structure and occasionally to check to see if fish are present. This morning I found fish atop of deeper water but not on a main basin type of location.

Tom, do you have a package for Crappie made up of your plastics for sale ?