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As promised, just a short update for our long weekend trip to OT country. The weather was a force to deal with...lots of rain lighting and wind Wednesday and Thursday night's storm was kind of wicked at about 1:00 am until 2 am with a little hail lots of rain and tons of lighting. We got out on a smaller lake on Friday and hit some pannies and a couple of bonus eyes that surprised us, but the bite was tough. On Saturday, we got out on OT and did really well all day long. Found most fish anywhere from 7 to 29 fow. The only presentation that worked for us was a crawler harness with a silver spinner on a bottom bouncer - seemed like a 4-5 foot snell did the trick. Our biggest fish was caught in 7 fow - 22" (realeased) and we caught a number of 17-18 inchers that made a nice meal...also caught a good number of very decent sized perch...which was fun as some were really brutes.

On another note, Wednesday night we decided to light a fire and drain some cold ones...did anyone else hapen to catch a glimpse of the shooting star that was traveling out of the southwest at about 10:30 pm? It was the closest one I have ever seen and the colors were outstanding. We were staying at a place on the north shoreline of Walker and it was right over us...very cool!

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Yes, caught the shooting start traveling to the north. Long trail for what seemed like three or four seconds. Thanks for the report.

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On the lake I fished Saturday it took me 3 hours to find the walleyes, then 15 minutes to catch my limit. First keeper at 3:31pm, 6th at 3:43pm. Very concentrated school. I stayed for another hour or so just to enjoy the catching. About 1/3 of the time my bait didn't make it to the bottom, or got eaten as soon as it hit the bottom. cool.gif

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The wind did suck a little bit. I put out 2 20 lb anchors and it still wouldn't hold, so I had to run the kicker to hover over the fish. Got a little wet, but the Wave Whackers did their job!

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Nice report...Had some buddies out on OT over the weekend and they didn't do squat...8"er city...What sort of depth were you fishing fishermatt? Will be coming up for the weekend and plan on hitting it hard...

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Mr. Pegpants has learned he likes to chase something that can actually be attained.. grin.gif I haven't seen squat for ducks or geese working any of my usual hunting spots and most of my buddies don't hunt...If you are interested in a cold one and a bonfire Friday-Sunday swing on over...Sounds like we have some big eats planned too...Don't know if Chuckles will be around but he claims he may make it...(Usually shows up around the time dinner is hitting the table) I think you have me cell number?

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I personally think at least some of lakes have turned over, so the fish could be anywhere at any depth. I got fish from 13-38 on my spot.

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Yeah, usually we hit anywhere from 7-75 feet of water this time of year too....Just curious as to what you had found..It surprised me to hear some of the lakes may have turned up there..I was out on Minnetonka on Monday and the temps were still mid to upper sixties...

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Hit OT last Wednesday and water temp was 63. No turnover yet, I think 55 is the ballpark?

Jerky, call me when the food is about to hit the grill and the beverages are cold. wink.gif What's on the menu? I'm not eating raw venison this year...looking forward to some king crab though. grin.gif

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No raw vennison? That's one of Pete's staples.. grin.gif The beverages are ALWAYS cold...I haven't talked to my fish guy yet so I don't know what will be on the menu for seafood...We will be grinding up some pike one night for sure....Don't want to miss that...

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Can anyone who has been on OT talk about the water levels, and which boat launches to use? I am really close to Riviera Ranch but I know that one can be a problem when the water gets low.

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I used the river access on the SW side of the lake and I didn't have any problems with my glass boat/bunk trailer last week.

If you have a bunk trailer, try to avoid the Pelican Bay access...you will need a lot of help getting the boat off and on the trailer. It's shallow.

No idea on Riviera..

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I would not mess with Pelican or Riviera right now with a big boat or bunk trailer as ChuckN mentions. I was at Zorbaz last week, and the water was down substantially.

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Thanks for the info guys. I ended up using Riviera Ranch and had zero issues with a big boat. The water level is as low as I have seen it in years, they must have made some improvements to that access.

Fishing was decent when we weren't getting tossed about by extremely high winds. Saturday was pretty much unfishable, did get a few for the frying pan though trolling cranks in 6ft during the day. Did well when we could mark fish, anchor and then vertical jig. It was hard to find decent minnows in Ottertail so you might want to check around before you get there if you go through town.

Forgot to add, water temps were 59.5 to 60 on Saturday the 29th.

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Hey thank you Azenmstr am going to give it a try this week end if the weather dosn't keep me off. Did you have your best luck with minnows.

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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
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    • 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
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    • jim curlee
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