With the beautiful weather today, I just had to make a trip to Lake Zumbro. The water was very clear and 65 degrees. I had hoped to find more crappies today than I have been finding recently, but the big bluegills had different ideas.
My lure of choice once again was a mini-mite jig tipped with a waxworm. Last time I was out (2 weeks ago) the fish had come up into the shorelines and were shallow. I started in the same location today only to find the fish had moved.
They had gone much deeper away from the shorelines and docks. The best depth today was 10-14 ft. down over about 20-25 FOW. I simply straight-lined over the side of the boat. I let the wind move me and stayed positioned with the trolling motor, but slow was the only speed they wanted today.
Once I found them, it was a lot of fish and a lot of fun! The size of the bluegills is just amazing – lots over 8 inches. A few crappies did show up and the largest were pushing the 12 inch mark. I have large hands, so the pics may not give a good indication of how large these fish were. It was another great day to be out. Hope you get a chance to enjoy some of the great fishing soon!
HOF, great report. Purchased some of your mini mites recently, sure a lure of choice on Zumbro, especially when tipped with a waxie. Tried with pieces of crawlers and they were 15:1 in favor of the waxie.
Thanks for the update
Hey Mike it was good to see you out on the mighty Zumbro today. We fished over 20-30 foot water and at a faster pace trolling live bait and other experimental stuff. We were attempting to target roaming active big gills.
My wife, Jeanne, did the simple live bait on a hook thing and caught enough 8-9” gills for two nice meals for us. I did the experimental thing and did not have much luck with most of my other presentations – that’s my excuse and I am sticking to it! We did not try mini mites or waxies today, as I wanted to see how other stuff worked. Above is a picture of Jeanne with one of her typical sunfish. It was so nice out there today that it didn’t even bother me that the women out-fished me again.
Mike,
Nice bulls! Already looking forward to pulling some brutes like that through the ice in a few months.
Chris
Nice looking bluegills!
Bluegills like that are a blast to catch.
Thanks for the report.
JWB
Nice going on the Gills- Ladies and Gentlemen.
Jack..
While we love mini mites especially glow white ones, panfish assassins are my favorite fall lure. Also find that tipping keeps many of the real big boys from biting. The bite is just starting to pick up here….
Thanks for the report and pics. Keep em comin.
Thanks, Bill