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Spring Time Fishing In Ottertail County


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Another spring open water season is upon us and I can’t help but get pumped! What a great time of the year when everyone is excited to get there boat out of storage or a brand new boat all rigged up and ready to go fishing: The Minnesota Twins playing, the ice is thawing and the snow is all melted. There are much longer days, and the start of what I consider the start to my fishing season. Typically, normal ice out, in the middle of April, early season crappie fishing is one of my favorite types of fishing. It is a time to spend some quality time on the water with a fishing buddy or just some time alone. For me catching crappies ranks right up there with walleyes, salmon, trout, and the few weeks before walleye opener can be great for slab crappies and sunfish. It takes some patience, some changing of tactics, bait and staying mobile to find where the fish are, but when you catch one crappie you can bet there are a lot more there. Here is what works for me:

Crappies and Sunfish normally move into the reed beds to spawn when the water temperature reaches around 50 degrees or higher. The lakes and rivers that I spend a lot of time fishing in the spring peaks around 51 degrees. The areas that will receive the most activity early on are on areas of mud on the northern end of the lake. The northern end of the lakes receives the most sun in the spring time, and the dark mud bottom will absorb the sunlight. I like to try to target these mud bottom reed flats right away.

I like to go to the reed lines in the morning or before sundown. I will use my electric trolling motor and be a quite as possible in the reed lines and work different depths, but as sunset gets closer the shallower I will fish. Boat control is the key to any fishing! Try to keep your boat positioned just far enough away from where you locate the fish. Then cast into those reeds or break lines without spooking the fish. If you do this you will increase your opportunities 100%!

I tend to use a slip bobber and a jig tipped with a minnow or a small jig or fly tipped with larva or a grub. I am always in search of what these pan fish are feeding on, at the time. As the water temps increase you will see different forage hatching. That is why it is important to have multiple bait presentations with you at all times.

I mainly use the 1/64 to 1/32 ounce and have found that the best colors seem to be yellow-green-red and white. Of course each lake and river is different with water clarity and the fish may take another color better so I usually have a variety of colors and see what works the best. I feel that it is also a great idea to rig up and have three or four rods with you. The reason is that pike, walleye and bass can hit your jig and take the whole works with them. Nothing is worse than finding and getting into crappies and then having to take time to retie your line because jaws just hit your rig. The other reason is to be able to try a different color of bait presentation without having to re-tie your line every time.

Another key element I use is the wind. When I am searching on where to start fishing I will target the reed line that the waves are going into. There is a pretty good chance that the pan fish will be in these reeds searching for the baitfish and other forage that has blown in there by the wind. One of my favorite situations is where I have had a 15 mph wind all day and it dies to almost nothing in the evening hours. With light tackle I like to go into these areas very quietly. If crappies are in these reeds you will know after a few casts. More than likely they will be there. If there is a lot of wind, I will use my anchor and let my bait drift into the areas that I want to fish. I do this because it will be much easier to manage the boat rather than trying to fight the waves with the trolling motor.

On a dead calm night you’ll want to again use the trolling motor and move just a little bit to find the fish. Again, you want to be quiet because a lot of noise in shallow water can really scare the fish. And always don’t be afraid to go back to places you tried and hour earlier because sometimes pan fish will move in from deeper water and you might have left 10 minutes before they came in these areas.

The pan fish fishing gets better each week in the spring and can stay that way well into May and June as far as fishing in reeds goes. There are other methods that work well such as casting beetle spins but I seem to have better luck in June when it comes to spinners etc. There is something about watching that bobber go down that really gets exciting and fun. There are some nights in the spring when you really can’t get the line out fast enough. So when the ice gets off the lake and get out there and give crappies and sunfish in the reeds a try, it can be a great time. Listen, take your wife/girlfriend and especially a kid out fishing this time of year. There is lots of action and it’s a great way to introduce someone into our greatest past time and that’s fishing! Oh yeah, don’t forget to bring warmer clothes, facemask and gloves with because that ride across the lake early in the spring can be a cold one.

For those who do not know that Ottertail County has some of the best fishing there is in the State of Minnesota. Especially when it comes to panfish. There are some just unbelievable crappie and sun fish lakes near Perham, Minnesota in Ottertail County. Lakes like Big Pine, Little Pine, Lake Lizze, Lake Lidia, Ottertail Lake, Battle Lake, Lake Rose, Long Lake, Pelican Lake, Dead Lake, Star Lake and the list goes on and on. There are 1000 lakes in Ottertail County alone!

For those fisherman and fisherwomen who have never been to this area to fish. I invite you to Perham, Minnesota and fish and stay at the Cactus Resort & RV Park. Take a tour through the Cactus Resort. See any of the four cabin suites or learn more about a Park Model RV Cabin. This area has some of this states premier fishing and hunting! To learn more Click Here

Fish On!!!

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Good information Cranker.

Personnelly, I have good to plastics and leave the minnows are the bait shop. Once you try plastics you will never buy minnows again, save your money for gas.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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