Lake Zumbro SE Mn Panfish Report

If you are looking for some panfish action and love fishing in a boat then Lake Zumbro is the place to be. The first pic is my oldest grandaughter Brianna doing what she loves to do-catch fish.

We first started off trolling a Mini-Mite jig with a waxie added for taste and smell and caught a few smaller crappies. After making an adjustment in speed to slowing down more on the front trolling motor we were able to put more fish in the boat.

After awhile I slowed us down even more and we lowered the jigs down into the water about 8-9 feet of water and moved very slow and thats when the bigger crappies starting hitting our lures. We also were able to catch some gills at this speed too. I had wondered what happened to the gills since all we were catching were crappies and by making adjustments in speed and in depth of water [deeper] we found them.

The equipment we used were St. Croix Avid light action 6.6” rods with a fast tip and Mini-Mite jigs and a waxie. Slowing down the trolling motor to a #2 setting/speed on the electric trolling motor provided us with more fish. They wanted it very slow and weren’t about to chase a bait. Experimenting with speed made the difference between just a few bites and more bites.

Please remember to practice catch and release when fishing so there are always alot of fish around to be caught by all of us. Fishing is a sport that we all love and the best way we can have fish available for our kids and grandkids to be able to catch is to keep some smaller fish if you want for a meal and let the bigger ones go so they can pass their genes on down the line to more fish. Its kind of like having our cake and eating it too. We ALL benefit from it. THANKS

Thanks, Bill