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Zumbro River downstrea from Zumbro Falls


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I'll be moving to the area in March. We will be living in the Zumbro Falls area. Looking forward to exploring the waters in this area. Is there any good fishing inthe Zumbro river? I noticed you can put in a canoe near Zumbro Falls and float downstream for quite a ways. This is my favorite way to fish. What is this stretch of water like and how is the fishing? This chat is great, thanks for all the info. Oh, and don't worry, I only keep a few for the pan occasionally and enjoy releasing the rest.

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An answer to that question is yes. There are many fish in the ol' Zumbro. I have taken that canoe ride from Zumbro Valley Canoe Rental and caught lots of eatable size walleye and many many panfish. All i do is look for the deeper holes and fish them. My advice is to give it a shot a few times and see what you can get outta the river. Good luck!

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Hey Sockeye,

You will be plesently surprised with the Zumbro. It is an outstanding fishery! Especially if you like smallies. I have seen it listed numerous times as a top 10er in Minnesota. You will want to check the regs before fishing because I believe a large section of it is artificial only with C&R manditory for bronzebacks. Not exactly sure what the boundaries are as I haven't fished it since they implemented the new regs. What I do know is that the canoe ride from the dam at Mac's park place to Zumbro Falls is a really nice trip with great fishing potential. You can catch just about anything in there. So once it warms up a bit, you'll have a blast!

JA!

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sockeye,

Scumbro to some, but an incredible fishery to most who have floated/waded this wonderful fishery!! Several years back, believe it or not, Outdoor life labled it as the best medium sized river for walleye in the state!!
I recommend hitting the tributaries in the spring for bull brown trout!! Right in Zumbro Falls a trout stream feeds in and last fall I caught and released a 19 1/2 inch brown trout 30 yards down from the confluence!
Also, check where the Branches come together near Thielman! Good luck and please let us know how you faired! Keep the rods bendin'!!! Jim W

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Jim summed it up just right! The nite I went to post almost the same info that he did, The site went down in the middle of the post. But, It's definately a great spot.
{Jim, I'm starting to think that you & I must have crossed paths before????? We, know just about the same spots.. I might have ta stop followin'ya around, eh? LOL wink.gif ]

------------------
Good Luck & Watch your bobber!
MnSportsman
Proud to be a member in good standing, of the
"Church of the Divine Wilderness"!
;)

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Just to introduce myself a little. I am moving down there from Alaska. I have lived up here for about 12 years now and caught more pacific salmon than I can remember as well as quite a few rainbows, char, and grayling. I am originally from Western NY so I have fished walleye, pike, smallies, etc and I am actually looking forward fishing for them again. In my book, nothing beats float fishing for walleye and smallmouth. I am looking forward to the Miss and Lake Pepin too! We bought a house within 20 minutes of Lake City. I love to bowhunt whitetails too. The one thing I am concerned about there is finding some land where I can hunt and continue teaching my two sons to be responsible and ethical outdoorsman. Is it possible to find good public hunting land or get permission from a landowner fairly easily. I know this is a little off topic, just trying to get a feel for the place and looking forward to exploring. Thanks!

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To be completly honest yes it is easy to get permission to hunt. But also on the other hand we have great state hunting grounds. WhiteWater state park is one of them. This place has produced some very decent whitetails. Just recently i had a buddy who went hunting there and got himself a 13 pointer. I think it field dressed out at about 235lbs. Which is not bad at all. So i think that you will find many opportunities to hunt all the woods around here. Good luck!

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I know people that fish the Zumbro closer to Plainview and i have heard some good stories of some pretty big walleyes and smallies. I've meant to get out and try the area myself but just havent done it yet.
As far as the whitetail hunting...its pretty good. Its not too hard i have found to find permission. In fact some people give permission to everybody which is why i usually inquire after a good conversation with that land owner about how many other people i might encounter while hunting. I guess when bowhunting i dont like to be around too many people. And obviously the hunting pressure has a direct impact on the number of big bucks. Less pressure on the land you hunt and the land around it and the odds of seeing more mature bucks go up. I dont know if it has been the mild winters lately or what but the racks in SE MN the last 2 years have been HUGE. I watched 1 truly world class buck (figured he was 180+ typical) in velvet this fall...saw him 4 times...and to my knowledge he is still around. Of course he was on land that no one could hunt. I saw quite a few bucks in the 120-150" range and had some fairly close calls with a few. Ironically it was hunting during the firearms season with the bow in which i had the closest.

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