Lake Zumbro Report

I had the opportunity to take a couple of my Pastor’s fishing on Lake Zumbro today. Our goal was to find good sized crappies and bluegills that the lake is famous for. We had to hunt around a few areas, but did finally manage some nice fish.

We used mini-mite jigs tipped with a waxie and fished under a bobber about 2-3 ft. Best colors were white, orange, and purple. The bluegills were very shallow, while the crappies were slightly deeper and further away from the shoreline.

The wind made boat control somewhat difficult at times and limited our choice of locations. We found most of our fish on steep shorelines. Finding wood in the water was also a key to look for. Most fish really bit well taking the bobber completely under.

The crappie spawn does not seem to be going today as we caught several larger fish with obvious signs of still having eggs. The males are close to being black in color. The male sunfish are also turning very colorful. The largest bluegills were 9+ inches and the largest crappies were about 12 inches. All fish were released. Sure was a fun day to be on the water! Hope you get a chance to get out for some great fishing soon!

Pastor Jim with a nice crappie.

The fishing Pastor’s.

Here are 3 of the hot colors in mini-mites.

I’m thinking after a good report like that and the high price gas its time to explore my own home waters ..
Thanks mike

Nice to see the fish are getting bigger with the nicer weather. The night before was alittle slower but still fun. Thanks for the report and pics Bud.
Thanks, Bill

The lake has started to show signs of livening up today. I found some 67 degree water down at 8 feet in a protected area and a section of shoreline buzzing with fish very close to it. This 300 feet of shore provided a fish per cast, mostly smaller black males. The hens that were there were small as well. In a couple instances I was able to watch the spawning ritual take place. The wind has been a factor of late and if we could get a couple calm days with some sun we’d see the lake pop.

I also found some very large hen fish which have spawned out already and were located off points in deep water. They were spread out at about six feet and hit a free-lined Culprit Paddletail Minnow on a white 1/16 head. The hits were solid, so I know these big girls were porking up. Blue Shad and Black Shad seemed to work the best color-wise on these fish.

Toothie activity today was something….6 of the critters, but all were only in the 3-4 pound range. One very nice LargeMouth played today too. All of these came off the Culprit Paddletailed Minnow in Chartreuse Shad….same white head.

Baits didn’t really matter today. I gave the mini mites another go and did so-so with them , mostly gills. I even dug out the tubes and played with them. The gills really went for the purple/chartreuse 1 1/2″ tube and crappies pestered it pretty good too. The Junebug Paddletail was the crappie hammer though.

The wind cut short my fishing time today, but what time I did get to spend was quality.

Has anyone seen the striper action yet? They should be making a showing pretty darned quick.

Stopped out to see Mike Smith at HOF and Mike Fischer was working which means Mike S. must of been out fishin? How did you do and which lake were you on? We have a 3 day weekend coming up guys so be sure and get stocked up at HOF, hit your favorite lakes, and we all look forward to your reports on how you did and where you went. Gotta love these 3 day weekends. They are meant for fishin.
Thanks, Bill