Deep Jigging Up Stripers On Lake Zumbro

The stripers are easy to catch during the hot weather days of August but where do they go to when the temps drop dramaticly and they seem to be gone? Read on and I’ll tell you:

Another question in my mind was what happened to the big stripers that use to be in the lake? Since striper fishing seems to be one of the favorites on Lake Zumbro my self imposed mission was to find out where they went and to try find some of the ”missing in action” stripers that I use to see years ago.

I went to the places where alot of anglers don’t seem to like to fish-deep water. Deep water can be home to alot of fish and also different kinds of fish. Especially in fall deep water can be very favorable to the fish. The depths I was fishing, and found fish, were 18 feet to 26 feet. These areas have deep water very close to shore. These are areas that can be good year around as on the shoreline you will find rocks and wood which will attract minnows and other food which provides a dinner table to the fish. And with very sharp drops to deep water they are close to the security that deep water can provide them.

Fall is bucktail jigging time. In fact I like bucktails year round. They are very good catch fishers and do a nice job of looking like lively baitfish in the water. I did something I usually don’t do and thats to add a minnow to the jig. I chose a crappie minnow as I didn’t want to take alot away from the bucktail jig but yet wanted some smell and taste of some meat in the offering because I was searching in deep water. The choice of search lure/offering paid off as I found out where the stripers were hiding. I also found some nice size ones too. I can remember back when my youngest son Nate was two years old and we use to fish for stripers trolling a small maribou jig behind a 14 foot Alumacraft boat with a 6 hp Johnson motor and we caught anywhere between 60-88 big strpiers in an evening. The lake seemed like it was full of them. That was 20 years ago. Where did all those big fish go? My guess is that people caught and kept them. Last year there was a huge amount of 3-5 inch fish. This year those fish are 8-9 inches. Next year they will even be bigger. Please release these fish. They provide a ton of fun for every kind of fishermen and fisherwomen around. We need to let these fish grow and get big so ALL may have a blast catching them. It you want to feel a real good fight on the end of your rod then let these fish keep growing and you will be amazed at the fun you will have. At the age of 2 and 3 years old my almost 23 year old son was hollaring for help as the fish were hard and heavy to bring in to the boat. It sure got him ”hooked on fishing” for life. Bucktail jigs, a great fish catching jig, catch a ton of fish. I was deep jigging with 1/8 jigs and they were able to get these stripers to give away their hiding place. And some of these stripers were big ones, much bigger than the ones that were easily caught last August. Fall is a great time to be on the water. Fish are hungry. Fishermen, who are always hungry for catching fish, can catch some nice fish this time of year. Alot of people seem to not want or like to fish deep water. Sure theres plenty of hungry fish in the shalliower water but sometimes you need to go deep to find the bigger ones. Fishing the edges, the drops, the area where the edge meets the bottom of the lake can provide you with bigger fish. And you will be surprised what you can catch down there. This is one angler whose going to be spending more time fishing deep water. I want to probe different areas that alot don’t fish. I want to learn more about the lake and where the fish hide at times. With the boat ramp only being 12 1/2 miles from my driveway its way to good of a fishery to not spend alot of time fishing. I spent alot of years fishing walleyes on the Mississippi River but I must admit that these past couple years mixing my time fishing with Lake Zumbro again has brought back fond memories and also some very good and fun fishing. Its a great place to spend the day fishing and bucktail jigs will certainly help you put more fish in the boat. Hope to see you on the water.

Thanks, Bill