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Hello! I had yesterday afternoon off and a buddy and I decided to float the zumbro in his canoe from the green bridge to Zumbro Falls. I have floated from zumbro falls to hammond on numerous occasions and have done very well and was excited to fish this section of river.

The river was a mess! It was basically unfishable. There was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much floating plant vegetation in the water it was incredible. Any lure used was immediately fouled with vegetation. The water was not brown / cloudy like after a rain it was just full of floating vegetation. You could not see the bottom in 3 foot of water because of the incredible amount of crap in the water.

The current and flow also seemed fast / high........we floated this section in 4 hours! Fast.

I think we managed 4 smallies between us. But we did see 6 deer and 3 eagles.

Any ideas what happened? Did they chop up veg on the lake and open up the dam or something? I would guess this will clear out in a day or two but boy did i ever pick the wrong day to fish the zumbro river.

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Just my opinions here so.....

We floated on Saturday same stretch. Wierd, but it took us 7 hours. 14ft boat pulling three tubes. blush.gif I really don't remember seeing it that bad? We could see the bottom of some really deep holes. One in particular was along the cornfield in the first 1/4 of the way. Very deep and I could see fish on the bottom. Also quite a few very shallow places requiring us to get out and push. Don't get me wrong frydaddy, I'm not saying that it wasn't good for you that day. I have seen it bad too.

However I have seen it before where it's exactly as you described. Chopped up green vegitation. Fouled every cast with a green weedy stuff. It looks like the same green weedy stuff that clings to rocks. Not really a grassy weed but more of a slimy moss.

But it's not always like that. Last Saturday from 1 till 8 it was pretty darn good.

I wonder if there is a high demand for electricity in Rochester they crank out more water through the turbines. Busting the stuff loose off the rocks?

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It rained heavily over parts of the watershed late Sunday night. Likely it took a day or so for some of that water to reach the Zumbro and dirty things up.

Clumps of grass and big chunks of river bank being washed away with every day rain events are more and more common these days, but I digress...

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The reason for the high water and all the junk in the water is the Zumbro da..m is used to generate electricity. On days like we have had this week, they open the gates wide open to generate the max amount of electricity. The fishing always seems to be worst under these conditions. I always felt like the smallies get used to this flucuation and just hunker down until they close the gates back up at night and they can swim around without expending so much energy fighting the current.

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i have heard the opposite about fishing in heavy current. I have heard that it predictably places the fish and makes them group up and easier to target if you know where to target them. However a few sling shot haphazzard casts out of a canoe as you go buy yes won't produce much. usally guys wading or yaking do a little better under these conditons due to boat control and precision. These are my two bits. I also know a couple of guys that go down there during the really hot days and fish early in the morning like 4 while it is still dark fish roaming is at its highest and flow is at its lowest. They have had 50 fish on before they could see the sun above the trees. Just few thoughts and ideas

ike

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Fished from the Green Bridge upstream last Saturday morning and the water was very clear and low. Caught many 8-10 inch smallies, very enjoyable morning.

BTW, is the that section of the Zumbro catch and release on smallies?

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ZUMBRO RIVER (Wabasha County) smallmouth bass: catch-andrelease

along a 12-mile posted section from Highway 63 at Zumbro Falls upstream to the Zumbro Lake Dam.

Just what I thought, good for fishing although it is not posted at the green bridge.

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it is not posted at green bridge cause someone hit the sign with their truck a few years ago.

ike

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