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I vote Zumbro (11/8/06) (several pics included)


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I couldn’t sit and wait for the ice anymore. I grabbed my Vexilar and ice gear and joined forces with my buddy Tom and hitup the Zumbro this AM.

The water temps roamed from 44-45 degrees and the outside temp touched the upper 60 if not 70. The breeze was just enough to break-up the surface with a ripple.

Our first spot yielded 2 bites and I decided to donate around 8 jigs to the sunken wood. The fish simply were not relating to this wooded area. A change was in store which brought us atop the mother load.

We setup shop in moderately deep water within casting distance of the rocky shoreline. At first we did a little vertical jiggin with Scenic Tackles Go Devil (1/16oz) and Custom Jigs and Spins Demons tipped with a waxie (although finesse plastics worked equally as well). Bull gills were the result.

Go-Devil Taker(s)

ty_gill2.jpg

ty_gill1.jpg

Casting plastics towards the rocky shoreline yielded the crappies. 1/16 oz collarless jigheads with 2” Power Minnows and Culprit Paddletails turned the most fish.

ty_crappie2.jpg

ty_crappie1.jpg

We basically caught fish with about every tackle combination we threw at them. Fishing under floats took a few, but free-lining and vertical jiggin is preferred. Several “bonus” fish supported our habits today as well including Rock Bass, White Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Largemouth Bass, and Perch.

15” Largie & 15” smallie

ty_largie.jpg

ty_smallie.jpg

All in all, I know I released a few limits of gills over 8” with at least two pushing 9.5” (pictured above). I’d say I put 20 crappies in the boat with the smallest going 9.5” but most were nearly 11” with a couple stretching 11.5” (pictured above)

Q: Will I do it again?

A: Very Soon!

In short, we pretty much got’er done!

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awesome pics.Looks like a great day on the zumbro! I tried what hanson 1287 did by going to lake city and was he right.Big Crappies. It sounds like it peaked a couple of weeks ago,but by fishing tight to the poles 9ft down ,yes dock poles,thats the structure the larger fish were relating to. Three of us on that part of the marina hit 20 slabs from 12" to 14".Mine went back! Talk about tight to cover.We actually were fishing through the rings around the poles and trying to land them up through them also.Sure was alot of fun.Still searching for that elusive 2 pounder though.Sounds like from talking to the locals that 2 weeks ago they were averaging 50 hook ups a day for a week and half were over a pound. smile.gif

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