Ottertail

[bowhuntermitch]

A little ottertail report from Sunday 1/29.

 

Fished a mid-lake hump out of Riveria access Sunday afternoon/evening. Ended up catching 20 or so fish. Most being small walleyes and perch. By small I mean 5-8". I did catch a meals worth of 12-14" walleyes. Fishing was slow up until about an hour before dark. Fish were very finicky biters. If it wasn't for my underwater camera I wouldn't have caught most of the fish. They would suck in the minnow to the point where a bobber wouldn't even go down. 

 

Lots of fish swam through and didn't want anything to do with my presentation. Dead stick and jig stick were about equal for bites. Fat heads on a perch talker and diamond jigs from JR tackle. 

 

Didn't see a single "nice" fish on camera. Nice being over that 12-14" mark. Thinking maybe I was too shallow in 25' of water. Next time I plan on fishing more the deeper part of the hump and hopefully getting some of the big girls to play. All in all a good afternoon on Ottertail! 

[slammer]

Fished Sat. afternoon/evening also along the west side.  Tried to get away from anyone the best I could.  Setup in 15ft and just sat there the whole time.  Hoping for a few bigger perch but all were small.  About 4 pm the eyes started to show up.  Same story as bowhuntermitch said.  Fish were not too interested in biting.  Did manage 3 in the 14-15 in range.  Got 2 on jigging rap.

[slammer]

So I see the tournament frenzy has begun on OT.  How many this year?  Not a fan as you can probably tell.  Don't see the need to pressure a lake so someone can pound their chest and say they can catch fish.  Oh and don't forget about the invasives being transported.

[BTL]

Thanks for the report. Those 14" fish are my favorite for eating.

 

If I had one of those underwater cameras I'm not sure I would be able to pull myself away from watching it, that sounds like a ton of fun!

[BisoNation]

10 hours ago, slammer said:

So I see the tournament frenzy has begun on OT.  How many this year?  Not a fan as you can probably tell.  Don't see the need to pressure a lake so someone can pound their chest and say they can catch fish.  Oh and don't forget about the invasives being transported.

 

Yup, its a Joke.. i've complained many times.   some small time radio station thinks they are sooo important running it, so they can get a whopping $2500 profit off sponsors maybe.

 

Plus I stood at the weigh in on day 1 and watching at least 15-20 Walleyes DIE in the net.   Many 18-20inchers.  the waves were so bad that the walleyes just banged around in the live well for 8 hours.

 

Ban these already! 

 

there will be 3 tournaments this year.

[Wanderer]

Contact the DNR if there are serious concerns.  Tournaments have to be permitted through them.  If they're not handling the fish correctly, they might lose their permit.

[sea_dog48]

No need for tournaments- just creates  dead fish and spread of Zebs.  Ottertail  is full of them