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There has been a lot of buzz going around about the incredible smallmouth action on Rochester area rivers and that “rocks”. Smallmouth are arguably the best fighting fish around.

I had a chance to hitup an area river last Friday night, but I had my heart set on catching bigger and arguably better fishing fish than the smallmouth. I brought 4 carp to the shoreline in about an hour and a half with the largest going 6.5lbs. Man those things fight and are a blast to catch. I even got my first MN mirrored carp. Notice the scales. A hook full of corn and a medium heavy rod spooled with 12# mono did the trick.

ty_carp2.jpg

ty_mirror2.jpg

The highlight of the evening was a record tying personal best largemouth @ 19.75” that slammed a larger pike/northern style lure.

ty_largie3.jpg

ty_largie2_cropped.jpg

This just goes to show that that the saying “dawg days of summer” really doesn’t apply to the Rochester area rivers. Gosh a guy can have a lot of fun in this area.

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Geez...that bass is a pig! Nice catch. I would round up and call it an even 20"

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Those are some great fish...I haven't been out much this summer and this weekend is going to be open for me. I was wondering if you could guide me in the right direction to where I can catch some fish like that. I love smallies and largemouth bass. Any help would be appreciated.

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Chad,

The best place in the area the offers consistent smallie and largie activity would be Lake Zumbro or the Backwaters near Wabasha (well, I’m sure there’s others as well). For numbers of smallies, you can’t beat the Zumbro River and you can certainly find sizeable ones in both the ZR and Root. For largemouth, don’t overlook Foster Arends as there are some monsters in there. I’ve been going to the backwaters about once a week, so take a look at the Mississippi River forum – Pool 4 for more details on that.

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That mirrored carp is nasty! It looks like its got some terrible disease that is making its scales fall off. Fish leprosy or something. Let us know if the skin on your hands starts to fall off. If this happens you'll have to get someone else to type the message.

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Ron - LOL,

I've caught several mirrors back in SoDak and some of those were much nastier than this one. So far, so good... with the skin on my hands.

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Tyler - My dad always told me they were German carp. Whatever the name, I think they sure are purdy! Ever try using dough balls for carp?

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I've tried loads of things for carp (including dough balls), but found whole kernel sweet corn to be the most productive. Sometimes I add extra scent to the corn (like vanilla or peppermint extract), but I have the most confidence in plain old sweet corn.

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