Well, the original plan was to fish Lake Zumbro late this afternoon and evening, but with the weather being so nice I opted to hit Chesterwoods instead as I figured the Zum would have the pleasure boaters out in full force.
Started out fishing the shoreline coming from the boat landing to the first bay and picked up multiple bluegills and bass. Bluegills came on minimites as did a few of the bass. I also picked up a few bass casting a floating rapala towards the shorelines and giving it a few twitches. Most of the bluegills caught here were on the smaller side, but did manage a few in the 7.5″-8″ range.
Just before I got to the first bay, I decided to make my way across the water to another location. On my way another angler called out and said he had been hitting great bluegill action at his present location and asked if I wanted to join in. Seeing we were both fishing by ourselves I figured it would be nice to fish and have a conversation as well. Turns out to be Troy Pike. Spent some time catching and releasing many bull-sized bluegills in about 8′ of water with weeds in the mix. I was working a minimite under a float about 3′ down. I started out with a purple minimite and a black jig tipped with a Powerbait Crappie Niblet. After a while the gills destroyed my minimite and since it was my last purple one I switched over to black and continued to have success. After Troy left, I worked the spot a bit longer and then moved on.
With it getting further into the evening I proceeded to another shoreline and pitched the rapala with no hook ups. Got to a nice wooded area and I decided to throw the black minimite/crappie niblet combo back out. Ended up coming across two areas the put out about a dozen nice crappies. Actually had gone back to the rapala between the two spots but at the second location I saw a very dark fish dart out momentarilly towards the rapala on the retrieve. So, down goes the rapala, and out goes the Minimite and WHAM, first cast a crappie.
Granted Chesterwoods may not put out the size of the Zumbro, but they simply can’t be beat for the color. All of them were a beautiful dark color. Here is a photo:
Andy
I hope we can bump into each other again on a hot bite. Troy 
Stick around and have some fun talkin fishin with us. 
I agree, no excuse. 
You have been missed. And so have you little brother as you have been pretty quiet yourself.