Fished Lake Zumbro with Mike Smith [HOF] Saturday and once we found the fish it was ”Fish On” and lots of ”Hot Action.” Gotta love this fall weather and fall catchin.
The day started out slow in our first spot we tried so it was time to search for fish. After alittle searching we found them and Mike sure had the hot color on. I expermimented with several different colors but after watching Mike haul in fish after fish I had decided that was enough color expermenting and settled on Mike combination and was soon catching them as fast as he was. While I enjoyed checking out other color combinations to see what else they will bite on that day a person can only watch someone catching them like crazy so long if you know what I mean. lol.
The picture with the fish in Mikes hands will give you an idea of the size of these fish. Alot a very thick gills were in this area we were fishing. We were using Mini-Mites tipped with a waxie to catch them. Surprisingly there were quite a few perch also caught. This is something I haven’t ran into much on Lake Zumbro but they were a welcome surprise.
The first fish caught in this area was the crappie I am holding and strangely enough the last fish I caught in this area was also a crappie. They were only a few crappies caught but lots of nice gills and perch caught in between all in the same area. The weather was fantastic even though alittle windy so we finally anchored to keep us in the spot on the spopt we had found. Fall is a great time to be on the water so keep the boat out and get into the great fall fishin bite today.
Thanks, Bill
For more pics click here
Nice to see you gettin out and
the panfish Bill! Nice report and great pics 
Thanks Rob. With the boat ramp on Lake Zumbro only 12 1/2 miles from my driveway and being a great place to fish between chasing eyes on the Mississippi River. [Gotta have those fishin fixes ya know.
] Its a great panfish fishery and also has some nice largemouths and smallmouths too which I hope to chase some next year. I have found that getting back to basics with the big gils has been a blast. They fight like crazy on light St. Croix rods and keep your reflexs sharper when jigging for them. I want more time on the water and this fishery offers alot on different species to catch making it alot of fun. Mike Smith [HOF] and I just got back alittle bit ago from doing some multispecies fishing on the lake which I will post a report on tomorrow nite. I can hardly wait til next year to really get into the different species and ways to catch them that Mike and I will talk about in reports. We are trying and finding baits that you wouldn’t think of using for certain fish will work great to catch them. 
Mike, RHW and I are trying to bring to the attention of other fishermen in the Rochester Area that there is alot of good fishing to be enjoyed here. This is why we started the Rochester Area Lakes Forum and have been doing reporting on the bodies of water in the area.
Thanks, Bill