Lake Zumbro Hot Action Bullgills

The bullgills, and I mean big and fat and colorfull are on the bite at Lake Zumbro right now. Mike Smith and I spent the day on the water catching some of the fattest gills I’ve ever seen. We were fishing depths of 14-26 ft jigging [still jigging] to catch these fish. When the whitebass would move in you would catch a bunch of them too. But if you wanted to still catch the gills just hold your jig still. Any movement and the whitebass would hit it but a still motion would still catch the gills. Mini-Mites with the added tease of a waxie was all that was needed to keep you catching gills all day. Saw only 3-4 skiers out on the water and with very little pleasure boaters on the water [and it was even on a Sat.] and great weather with little wind and no humidity it was great to be on the water.

Look at the thickness of alot of these babies.

Heres one of many with a very beautifull gold color to it.

Look at the size of these gills when they are held out so the size can be seen.

Two hands to hold these heavy gills with the small mouths they have.

When you add the ingredients of a fall fish bite, a good fishing buddy, much lower boat traffic, beatiful weather, and being able to be there on the water you have a bit of heaven to spend the day in. Couldn’t ask for a better day.
Thanks, Bill

ps. Dave, 50 fish per Mini-Mite is a very good buy in my book. I can’t think of a better time I could ever have for the price of one jig w/plastic. And yes, HOF still has more in his store. We didn’t take them all.

Bill how has the average size been over the years I was out last night and caught a 10.5 inch crappie and a few 7-8 inch fat sunnies is this a normal size or is this just an excepional year.

thanks Clint

The lake has been a good lake for size but, in my opinion only, the size has improved very nicely. Several years ago zebra mussels somehow got into the lake. This is something that scared alot of people but the positive effect, which is the same one I’ve seen on pool 4 of the Mississippi River, is that the water quality has greatly improved which really helps a fishery to become a much better one. There are some very nice panfish, bass, northerns and some muskys in this body of water that seem to be doing very well. There are also a ton of small whitebass in the lake now too which tells me they are coming back. Many years ago there were some really nice size [and hard fighting] ones in there but they seemed to have disappeared [people keeping them?] but now they seem to be coming back in huge numbers so give them a few years to grow and you will hear alot of ”fish on, help me Daddy” cry once again. The lake is getting better very nicely and so are the fish. If we use selective harvest we will keep it a very nice fishery in the future too.

Thanks, Bill

Nice bluegills Bill! Big enough to fillet and its hard to beat the taste of deep fried bluegill fillets. I do the same thing you do sometimes and just fish the quiet spots and enjoy the day, sometimes i even fish the local creeks for chubs and take the big ones home to eat. You can’t beat a nice day around the water.

Thanks Bill
I just bought a boat this year so I haven’t been on the zumbro for a few years. I usually fished with my dad in his boat. He likes the Fairibolt area lakes but I don’t ever remember catching pan fish this size.
Clint

Yes it was a lot of fun to get out there fishing with you Bill!
It may be difficult to really tell what size these fish were, since I am a rather large person. I think almost all of the bluegills in the pictures are over 8.5 inches and I am holding one that measured a true 10 inches. The thickness on some of them was pushing 2 inches and although we did not weigh any, I think at least a couple of the gills must have been more than a lb.
We didn’t keep any. They are all still swimming and ready to be caught again.

Good Fishing,
Mike

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Yes it was a lot of fun to get out there fishing with you Bill!
It may be difficult to really tell what size these fish were, since I am a rather large person.

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Mike, You look a little smaller next to me… will that help them feel bigger??

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Yes it was a lot of fun to get out there fishing with you Bill!
It may be difficult to really tell what size these fish were, since I am a rather large person.

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Mike, You look a little smaller next to me… will that help them feel bigger??

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Hey Sarge,

I’m not sure you and I could ever be a boat together! We are a couple big dudes! Would hate to meet us in a dark alley!

Good Fishing,
Mike

that looks like the day my buddy and i had down on pool 8 today we threw them back so we can keep them tomorrow

Great report and I loved the pictures guys!

It is amazing to catch 50 fish on one plastic mini mite before they destruct. With other plastics I usually only get about half dozen fish before one grabs onto the tail and pulls it off, or it just gets chewed up. Maybe these fish are so hungry they gulp down everything they can get a hold of.

It could be the panfish are hungry because of the millions of 3” white bass are devouring much of the food that the panfish feed on. In one bay there are so many tiny white bass that we could not even get a spinner a few feet away from the boat before it was attacked by the white bass. We found it almost impossible to fish in those areas.

Whatever the reason for the hungry panfish, it sure is fun catching them. I did weigh a 9” sunfish and it was just over ¾ of a pound, so a fat 10” could go easily go a pound. Next time I will bring along my postal scale so we can weigh and release any real big ones.

Nice report and thanks for sharing.

PS: Did you see Bertha?

Dave Gulczinski

Thanks Dave. And congrats on the Walleye Searchers Tournament win. Unfortunately we might of seen big Bertha. We saw someone catch a very nice bass and he put it on a stringer. Hopefully it was Bertha. But getting back to the panfish, now you know why I have spent alot of time fishing them this year. On a light action St. Croix rod these fish feel great. You would swear you had something bigger on everytime. Next year I hope to spend alot more time on Lake Zumbro catching these big fun gills and crappies and also plan to do some bassin there too. This fishery, so close to home-only 12.5 miles from my driveway to the Ponderosa ramp, has really turned into a great fishery. If we practice selective harvest it will stay that way. And since I put ALL back you can have a fish meal Dave. lol. I sure hope we have a very longgggg fall for my fishing addictions sake.

nice Gill fishing Bill,
looks like a nice avg size. sure miss busting some camera Gills..
Jack..

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nice Gill fishing Bill,
looks like a nice avg size. sure miss busting some camera Gills..
Jack..

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With the river bite slower lately and Lake Zumbro so close to where I live I decided this year I’m getting in some fishing fixs out there. Plan to spend alot more time out there next year not only with the panfish but trying my luck with the bass. There are some nice ones in there I hear.
Thanks, Bill