Any ideas?

[Dan Thiem]

This year on the lake has been unusual to say the least. With the ice not being good early on and another thing I noticed that was different this year than years before. Them shiner minnows. They seemed to be everywhere. Rattlesnake, the barn hump, and the highbanks. What's up with them things? Aint there enough predator fish?

Another thing I have been pondering. Why don't the perch get big? As in jumbo big. All the years I have fished Lake Zumbro the perch never seem to get big.

And lastley, have you guys noticed that there was more of a bluegill bite than previous years?

[CrappieJohn]

Stop and consider the past three or four summer. No rain, high heat that drives water temps to extremes. Then too the late, warm fall seasons. All of these things make it primetime for the junkers out there.

What worries me most is this bloom of white bass. For two years now the fall and winter fishing has been burdened with these suckers. They directly compete with crappies for food and the white bass will often kill for the sake of killing....are they doing this to the schools of young-of-the-year crappies too?

The perch get put-upon out there. I have caught crappies that have spit up six or seven small partially digested perch. I have seen crappies spit up perch in the winter for that matter!

Another troublesome issue is the weeds. What with the lake's water being cleaner through the summer months than it has ever been, sunlight penetration is allowing for and encouraging weed growth in water where weeds never grew. Many of the bays where one would normally find prime crappie structure and fishability from early pre-spawn until early post-spawn are now choked with weeds and fishing has gone downhill.

We need to remember that this is a reservoir and it is driven , in no small way, by the weather. The seasons are changing a bit as have some of the weather patterns.

Personally I'd welcome about three years of high dirty water that is cold throughout the whole summer. Vy high water, I am saying five, six, maybe even seven feet high. Sustained. Anything I fish for out there would benefit from such an occurance while some of the more "tender" fish would get croaked off or their numbers brough back in check.