Trolling for walleyes is common, but have you ever tried trolling for whitebass and crappies. If not, then once you locate the fish you are in for a treat. This is a relaxed way of fishing yet LOTS of fun.
Pics one and two are of whitebass. What I’m basicly doing is trolling inline spinners with a combination of flash and a little bit of hair. The good old Roostertail inline spinners have worked very well in the past too. I’m trolling the spinners and watching my locator for suspended fish. I not only found fish but also schools of baitfish too which made for some competion for bites. My lure was a little enough different to help me catch fish.
An occassional welcomed crappie was caught too but the whitebass put up a much better fight. This is how I got my youngest son Nate hooked on fishing when he was two years old. They fight nice [we used a crappie hair type jig then trolling] and boy did he hollar for help when he had a big one on. Never guess who made him crank it in all the way. lol.
After a few hours of catching these I decided to try for some gills for awhile and found a spot that sure enough had some. They were caught on a good o’l bobber, splitshot, hook and piece of nightcrawler from Hooked On Fishing [they have the fattest ones]. Since I am only allowed 4 pics here I will do a follow up post below this report telling and showing more about what kind of set up I used this day.
Thanks, Bill
I was using my jon boat and trolling with a little Johnson 9.9 two stroke motor. I used a Okuma Convector linecounter reel trolling 100 feet back behind the boat. I had Berkley XT 10 lb. line as you never know what you may catch at Lake Zumbro. The rod was placed in a rod holder [remember I said its a relaxing way of fishing, lol]. I watched my locator [Eagle Fishmark 320] for suspended fish as the inline spinners are swimming through suspended water depths. In the pic to the left of the locator is a handheld Lowrance Ifinder H20 GPS with the new north chip that has the four states [Mn. Iowa Wisc. and Michigan] on it AND also has Lake Zumbro.
You have a lake map right in front of your eyes this way. Catch a fish, punch in an icon, go alittle ways and then turn around and cover that same area again. [works great for walleyes on Lake Pepin on the Mississippi River]. Next to the GPS on the rigfht side is a package of Blue Fox Flash Deep Runner inline spinners that I used. Personally, next time I will use the Roostertail inline spinners as I think they may work better as they sure worked good in the past. I thought I’d try these this time to experiment. You don’t need all this stuff to fish these fish. A simple spinning reel and inline spinners will work just fine. The fish like to suspend over deep water on Zumbro alot of the times. Its a great way to get your kids , wife, husband hooked on fishing. Its a great fun way for you to spend an afternnon fishing too.
Please, release the fish to fight again. There are not nearly as many of these fun fighting fish as there use to be when I took my son fishing for them on Lake Zumbro. Too many people have kept them and its really hurt the fishery for whitebass. If you catch and release these fish there will still be fish for your kids and for their kids too. We owe it to them. Thanks, Bill
Your right Bill, some days just take it easy and slow down a little. Just plain old slow trolling is a nice comfortable way to fish and put your catch on the table too enjoy without working real hard for your catch. Trolling gives you a mixed bag of fish alot of times and thats nice somedays.
Nice report Bill,
It looks like that jon is rigged nice for fishing. 
some great pics, and a real relaxing way to do what we all enjoy, fish
Keep em coming
dave
Nice detailed report Bill. Gotta love multispecie days
Glad to see you spendig a “LAZY” August day on the water! 
Great report Bill. I use the Little Joe spinners with success for crappies and gills.
Great report bill, looks like i was doing on bush lake in bloomington to find crappies. Looks like i should go back and try it again.
Jiggin Jim