Ice Condition on Lake Zumbro

[rockdog23]

Making my first trip to Rochester in a while this weekend, would like to do a little hard water fishing, how is the ice? Is there still some fish getting caught?

Thanks.

[Rainydaze]

Hi Rockdog,

The ice is in good condition for foot traffic down by highbanks/rattlesnake... I personally wouldn't be out there with atv/sled, but have seen a few. The fishing is good! Go light! There is a real nice Crappie/Sunny/Shiner bite going on right now. Yep! MIllIONS of little shiners, and boy are they nice Walleye bait size. I don't think you can go wrong in locations as long as you stay within one of the deeper channels, use electronics, and stay with a light action outfit. Waxies and spikes anywhere from 6inches to 6 feet off the bottom seem to be turning fish. Oh by the way Mr. Whiskers has been biting fairly readily this winter, so remember where your back reel is located. Good Luck!

[Dan Thiem]

Yep, still quite a nice bite going on out at the lake. At least it was good last wekend.

I really can't add more to Rainy's post. His reply is perfect. Deep water, inches up off the bottom.

Good luck!

[Rugbyguy]

Dan, any chance you're going to be out there Saturday morning?

[The Grebe]

Dans always on one lake or another!

[Dan Thiem]

Grebe's right I am on a lake or river every weekend! But Saturday Ill be hitting a different lake with Young Gun and my brother.

Sunday we'll be out at Zumbro though. Most likely along the high banks.

[CrappieJohn]

The fishing on the Zumbro was wild today. Shiners, perch, sunfish, crappies of white and black persuations, white bass and catfish all had their go at me this morning. The bite started right off with crappies and catfish. As things began to dwindle in that arena the white bass , shiners and perch really got nuts.

I started off with a 1/16 glo red Jigging Eye fron JBLures getting immediate action with crappies. Five fish bang, bang, bang. Then a catfish and a broken line. Tied on another Jigging Eye, waxied it and down the hole to find nothing more willing to hit. Sniffers but no takers so I down sized to a Custom Jig and Spins Jigging Demon. Waxied that up, dropped it down the hole and lost it to another catfish right at the hole. The things head was about enough to fill the eight inch hole! Not good on two pound line.

Marmooskas with red euros or a waxie was the ticket for the other fish. After a couple more crappies on this bait they simply went away and left me with a ton of junk fish and a couple of sunfish that didn't quite measure up.

Most all of the fish came within a foot of bottom except the crappies which all came at the 6 foot mark up from the bottom.

The shiners are a downright nuisance. They come thru in schools that are sometimes as thick as five feet from top to bottom and the locator looks like one of those fireworks fountains. When these schools pass you can feel them hitting your line.

We have weather coming again soon and I am sure that this was an influence on the bite today. There were two times today when I had a catfish hooked up on one line and a white bass on the other. Needless to say, I got to practice my knots in the dark quite often this morning. When things get this nuts I wonder why I insist on that second rod....force of habit I guess.

About the ice....walk.

[Tyler Holm]

Great report Tom.

I'd like to give it a go next week in the AM. There will be a few PM outtings as well, as my work schedule will flex given I put in over 50 hours this week.

[CrappieJohn]

Tyler....

I'll be in the Twin Cities working the CSI show on Tuesday. It'll be an all-dayer. Want to give Weds or Thursaday a go?

[Tyler Holm]

I'm thinking YES. I'll get back to you on the day, but either may work

[rockdog23]

Did the perch of much size to them? Are they worth looking for or just a bonus? Is there any walleyes in there at all?

[CrappieJohn]

Rock....

Nada on the waldos. The perch? They just show up whenever the action gets moving well and usually you are not catching line class fish. 6-8 inches is the norm.

The primary fish for this lake thru the ice are the panfish and crappie. Toss in some catfish action occasionally. The cats move a lot and will here-today-gone-tomorrow. The lake has a northern population along with a few muskies, but these fish, too, are more incidental thru the ice. One guy got a 30+ inch northern on Weds....not huge but a nice pickler.

Your best luck on this water will be with stable weather...a string of days with very similar weather. Fronts can mess up fishing in a blink there and it will take about two days to get activity levels moving again.

[Down to Earth]

Quote:

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Tyler....

I'll be in the Twin Cities working the CSI show on Tuesday. It'll be an all-dayer. Want to give Weds or Thursaday a go?

---

Is that at new show Tom? I know Crime Scene Investigators has a couple spin offs already. Now their doing CSI-Twin Cities? Do you get to wear the green hat in the episode?

Andy

[CrappieJohn]

Smart-arsed clinic employees...lol. No Andy, this is a distributorshow for tackle buyers. I'll be working with Bruce Mosher and Today's Tackle there. Mnpls Convention Center.

[dust58]

just wondering when hooked on fishing is open gonna give the zumbro a shot in the morning. an does anyone fish ryan's bay in the winter? that's were i usually do the best in the summer.

[Dan Thiem]

I think they open at 6:00 a.m.

I don't know why, but I don't see a lot of fishing being done in Ryan's Bay during the hard water season.

[smashmaster]

Hey guys new to the site. I'm from rochster my whole life and i don't ever do good on the lake zumbro. Is there a map or anything that labels the locations. I don't ever know what people are talking about.

[CrappieJohn]

WildGoose has a map of the lake.....I think 3 bucks. They are helpful. The areas you want to concentrate on are smack in the middle where you find the tightest lines. You won't have much trouble locating them.

[dust58]

was out on saturday but didn't have to much success got 3 little perch. saw some people racin around on there wheelers so i got a bit of entertainment out of it. was pretty surprise to see a few cars driving out.

[smg04]

some friends n i were out there yesterday we got on the ice around 8:45 n fished till about 3, we ended up with only 2 nice 11in perch n they came right away around 9am, other than that it was a slow day but we had fun grilling brats n washing them down with a few beers, there were alot of 4wheelers out there n i counted 3 cars, the ice was thick but i got a little nervious when a car drove about 20ft from where i was sittin n the ice sounded like it cracked 20 times