Fall Fishing on SE Minnesota’s Lake Zumbro

Fall is a great time to be fishing on SE Minneota’s Lake Zumbro because its when the bigger fish start showing up and putting on the feed bag to store up for the up coming winter months ahead. Its also a very peacefull time to be on the water as there aren’t as many boats and the leaves on the trees are starting to turn colors and the fish are hungry making for a very nice day to be on the water.

This report is going to cover two different days of fishing. Last weekend was a fantastic day of fishing. I started out jigging wooden structure and also sunken brush on the bottom of the lake with only a few smaller fish to be caught. With that bite being so slow I started trolling a Mini-Mite jig with a waxie added for taste and smell. I was able to cover ground using my electric trolling motor and found alot more fish using this technique. Trolling flats and even some channel areas brought fish to the boat. I added a splitshot, med size, about 18 inches above my jig and casted it out about 30 feet behind the boat. The deeper areas provided bluegills with some being med size and others being some really nice fish. Fishing alittle bit shallower areas provided some nice crappies.

Last weekends fishing was one of those days when you couldn’t keep the fish off your hook. The fish were hungry and feeding even though the water had dropped alittle over 3/4 of a foot because they were lowering the water level to get it down to winter pool level. It did scatter the fish but once you found them its was a blast.

Wednesday was a different day as things had changed some. We had gotten some rain the day before which raised the lake level. This was nice to see as it provided deeper water at the boat ramp for launching and loading your boat. When I got to the area that I was fishing before I had on a 12 1/2 crappie right away which made me think ”alright, here we go.” Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. During the next couple hours the fishing was very slow. I knew the fish were there and I was bound and determined to stick it out and get them to bite. We fishermen can be stubborn sometimes, lol. I tried different colors of Mini-Mites but it was still slow going. I finally decided to change to a darker color Mini-Mite but instead of adding a waxie I added a crappie minnow. Thanks Steve for giving me your left over minnows when we talked at the boat ramp when you and your wife were leaving as I was launching. Now this [when I started using minnows] was at 6:00 in the early evening and the time of day along with the adding of a minnow on a darker colored jig seemed to make all the difference in the world. The next hour was certainly worth waiting for as alot of nice crappies were caught. Catching these fish on a 6’6” St. Croix light action rod made for alot of fun. The right jig, right rod, right place and right live bait sure was a great combination for an hour of bringing in alot of fish. It reminded me of what RHW says: they are called crappie minnows because they catch crappies. And I’m happy to say that every fish caught was released to be caught another day. Please pratice catch & release/selective harvest and let the big ones go back to help maintain a great fishery that we have right here in our own backyard. If we take good care of the fishery it will in return take good care of us. Thanks.
Thanks, Bill