Zumbro or Cannon?

[Scudly]

Looking to do some wade fishing this weekend. I fished the Cannon south of town and caught one 13" sauger and a smallie. Looking to explore further. Cannon IMO seemed difficult to wade in many spots - deep and plenty of current.

Zumbro a safer alternative? Zumbro have sauger too? The Cannon sauger was delicious. First time catching one and indistinguishable from eyes in taste. Have camped by Zumbro Falls before and saw a few suckers and perhaps one or two trout but not much else. Seems like a more shallow and sandy river but I'm guessing it has a ton of potential too since it is fed by numerous cold water tibs.

Just asking for general info on fishing quality, water quality (including depth), and type of fish.

[crazyice]

I have neve fished the Canon, but I have fished the Zumbro. There are both walleyes and sauger in the Zumbro, along with plenty of smallies, but keep in mind there is a special reg on the smallies from the Lake Zumbro power dam to Zumbro Falls, it is now in a C&R only time. But there are plenty of other species that you could come across, pike, eyes and sauger just to name a few. There is the occasional trout caught too, but those are more common in the cold water tributaries like you mentioned.

[Scudly]

Thanks crazyice. I'm leaning on the Zumbro since I just fished Cannon last weekend. Nice to learn there is a variety of species and thanks for the C&R reminder on the smallies. I never keep bass anyway. Do smallies taste much better than a largemouth? IMO largemouth meat never firm enough for my liking. Trout, sauger, and walleye -- those are great to eat!

[crazyice]

I wouldn't know for sure on the bass question, as I never keep either of them myself.

[Jesse Drummer]

Smallies from "up north" (ely area) taste amazing . bass down here (south central) (not that I have tasted [PoorWordUsage] before ) they taste like [PoorWordUsage] smells there. If the water is clear or cleaner then they should be alright.

[Scudly]

Well I fished the Zumbro near Zumbro Falls Saturday morning for three hours. No bites. Lots more sand than the Cannon. Seems to be faster and not as deep as the Cannon (downstream of Cannon Falls). Threw shad raps, spinners, and worm dunking with lots of weight. Thought for sure I'd catch a sucker or big carp (big carp were jumping around). No dice. Then I scooted up back to the Cannon to last weekend's hot spot only to find three trucks parked so I headed home.

Anybody have luck late fall fishing Zumbro or Cannon? May try again. If I do most likely Cannon because the Zumbro was an hour drive from the TCs. Cannon is more like 35-45.

[Scudly]

Yesterday was 70 and sunny if you can believe that. So nice that I decided to take the day off and go fishing on the Cannon River, just downstream of Cannon Falls. This really made my day!

23" Cannon River northern

23" northern caught on a fluorescent orange/yellow/green count down Rapala. He took about six feet from shore. Quite cool to see the fish flare his gills and inhale my lure with much enthusiasm.

[youngie22]

Nice work Mark, did ya have any other luck? How far from cannon did you make it? Any other catches? this time of year is way to busy, hope I can make it there soon.

[Scudly]

Thanks. Probably my last trip of the year. Getting cold. Snowing this morning and no warm days in sight. I should have taken off Monday as it was another 70 degree day. If we get another warm day I'll heat out. Otherwise sit tight and prepare for the pre-season trout fishing for MN -- Jan 1, barbless catch and release on designated streams.

[Scudly]

Zumbro is by far the best.