I’ve been waiting to get back out on Lake Zumbro and today was the day. There is about 6-8 inches of ice in the places I checked today, and it appears that foot traffic is a good idea yet. There are some snowmobiles and wheelers out there as well, but they are staying on established trails.
I set up in 20 FOW after drilling several holes to hop around. The fish were a bit tentative and the bite was very light, but you could talk some of them into biting. I started out fishing a mini-mite and was able to see several fish take a good look at it, but never detected a bite. I thought smaller might be better, so switched to a ratso tipped with a red spike, and immediately started getting bit.
The fish were fairly tight to the bottom with the majority of bites coming in the bottom 1-2 ft. There were a lot of river shiners interested in the bait and you could say they were pesky. Once they started picking at the bait it was time to move to a different hole.
I also had good success on a Custom Jigs Diamond jig tipped with a red spike. Purple and gold were good colors. It was great to be back out on the Zum! The fish are still there and can be caught even on a bit tougher day like today. Hope you get a chance to get out real soon!
