fishing reports 2020 Ottertail-Battle Lake-Perham-Fergus Falls area Fishing Reports

[Chill62]

Moved the perm house on Big Pine on Monday morning.  Saw a big group had set up 50 yards from me so I thought I would be nice when I went out to the house to go around them since they were parked on the trail leading to my house...bad idea #1 of the day.  Snow is deep and I got hung up with 3/4 ton pickup.  After digging and rocking for about 20 minutes I finally got free. Had an audience of 4 drinking and smoking watching me as I dug.  Got the fish house up and off I go just to get stuck again.  Another 40 minutes trying to get it out with the audience members watching.  Got out and when I got moving I said screw it for driving around them and if you are going to be stupid enough to park on the road I'll drive by within 10 feet of you with my house.  Got set up in a deep hole started drilling holes and I can't reach through without an extension...got that fixed holes drilled start the heater now I can finally relax...I was wrong!  Wires connecting to the battery were broken, no clue how that happened so off for parts to fix that.  Gather every tool and accessory I might need because I'm tired of running back and forth and the graph is LIT UP with fish!  Catch 4-5 quickly all 5-7" crappies.  Start working on lights and fans as schools came in and out of the area.  Almost done and my wire crimper slips out of my hand down the hole it goes!  Rod was thankfully already down the hole and I started making circles trying to grab the wire crimper and wouldn't you know it I got it!  I was shocked as heck I caught it as it was falling with a small jig lol.  Get lights fixed everything working good in the house clean up my mess to finally start fishing.  We didn't catch a single thing the rest of the dang afternoon!  Highlight of my day was catching the wire crimper lol.  Tough bite but with the weather being so extreme I can't blame the fish.  

[IceHawk]

Great Reports Chill like the detailed reports. Have to hook up sometime I fish that area quite often. Shoot me a Pm sometime. There definitely is some snow to deal with up there. Not bad but those hard drifts wow. 

[Wanderer]

@Chill62

Wow, what a day! 

[Chill62]

13 hours ago, Wanderer said:

@Chill62

Wow, what a day! 

I was ready to start drinking at 11 lol  I'm hoping to get out this weekend just nervous of the snow on Sunday since I'll be in the cities on Saturday for a Wild game.

[hoppe56307]

@Chill62

 

I thought I was the only one who had luck like that.

[Chill62]

I'm glad I could produce a lot of laughter on my day I had lol.  I'm not excited about how much snow is on the ice right now and they are talking more tonight and more on Saturday.  Hoping I can get out chasing tuilibee's in the mornings.

[Chill62]

Went tuilibee fishing in the area on Saturday morning graphed a ton but only had a few bite and only a 3 hooked up.  I landed a 19" one right away then instantly afterwards I hooked a big one!  Fought it for the longest time and then I heard a huge SNAP!  Looked at my rod the fish SPOOLED ME!!!  Never has happened before.  Snow was extremely deep and it sucked getting out there.

Sunday we went out to big pine to get our fish house off the lake.  The roads were flooding and getting worse as the day went on.  Took a lot of plowing and pushing snow to get to the house which is odd because I was hauling snow in to bank the house up prior to that point.  Then coming off the lake I had to gun it to get it off the ice.  People were getting stuck all over the lake and so many people are thinking they can just go anywhere they want and that's not the case out there.  Visibility sucks because you can't see the old roads and then you get sucked into the shoulders and snow banks if you are not careful.  If you have a house out there hopefully there isn't an open hole around you or your house may be flooded.

[BisoNation]

question.  had game warden swing by, it was slow, so i was jigging a 2 rods back and forth trying different lures and had a sucker on a rattle reel.

there's no law about me mixing back and forth with rods is there?   he didnt like my answer, but he was nice enough not to give me a ticket...  i said 0 fish times 17 lines is still 0 fish..  (it was slow that day)

 

 

[Chill62]

I got this same issue with an USFW officer one day. 

You have multiple rods out how do I know you are not running multiple rods and just reeled one up before I came into the fish house?

As I told him you didn't see me using multiple rods and the last time I checked there wasn't a possession limit on the number of rods that a person can bring with them fishing.  Second I told him do you go hunting with only one bullet when you only have one tag?  He got huffy and puffy with me and was telling me that he thought I was breaking the law.  I told him after about 20 minutes of this to either write me a ticket and we can fight it in court or don't write a ticket, either way you are now no longer invited in my fish house and I want to get back to fishing instead of arguing with you.  He promptly left the house.

[BisoNation]

sometimes they just want to get you to show their bosses they are doing their job....  id' say if they went the whole day with 0 citations that they ARE doing their jobs by attrition.

if my 3 year old son is there in house or in boat, can I have 4 lines down and 2 lines out of boat?  i believe I can.

 

ps- crappie bite on battle lake slowed to a crawl, there was hundreds of houses on there by shoreliner, think they fished it out? haha

[Chill62]

Made it out this weekend again with a bunch of friends on Saturday morning.  Ice conditions at shore were great condition, ice driving around was just fine especially since I was only in 2wd.  Fished a deep hole from 6:30 till 2 pm around Dent.  Fish were active and everyone was able to land a few fish.  Fish ranged from 12-16" with average being in that 14-15" range.  Tons of people out there.  Coming off the ice the access was no longer in great condition but was still very easy to get off the water.

Fished over by perham in the afternoon for crappies hit a deep hole that usually holds good populations.  Graphed a ton but only 3-6" crappies.  Fished till graphs died, guess LX7's with a 9 amp hour rating wont run 12+ hours lol.  Access on that lake was getting very sketchy to say the least.  Everyone kept driving on good ice so the trails coming off the lake were sporadic at best.  Lots of snow on the lake and lots of slush and flooded spots on the lake.  We were throwing water with 4wd in the pickup locked in.

Fished Sunday morning again, buddy I took is worse than most 5 year olds so it was an interesting morning.  Got one around 7:15 right away.  Was trying to set his rod up and graph and hooked one in the process he gave it too much slack and lost it.  5 minutes later he's fighting one and I can hear drag flying off so I thought I went too light of gear for him, he landed an 18.5" tuilibee!  Biggest one of the weekend and ended up being his only fish.  We fished the rest of the morning and ended up with about a dozen of them.  Range was from 5" to 18.5" average being about 14" again.  Access coming off was same condition but you drive through a "Beach" on shore and the beach is getting really dug out and soft.

Unless we get tons of cold weather soon I might be done for driving on any access that gets hit by sunlight.  Sun has tons of power and I got a nasty sunburn on Saturday while hole hoping!

[Chill62]

Sorry for the delay, I've been in Iowa for work for the past three days and came into a bigger mess than your brother in law using your bait caster!

I was only able to fish on Saturday due to work.  Weather had most of my friends hesitant on going out but three of us went out chasing tuilibee.  I rarely ever release a lake I'm fishing due to protecting that lake from all the people who internet fish BUT I will be changing it on this post.  I fished Loon Lake by Vergas on Saturday morning.  We walked out from shore on the north side since the narrows by the culvert are sketchy most of the year.  We got onto the lake by 6:30/45 and it was perfect conditions.  NO Wind! 28 degrees.  Half inch of snow on the ground.  Felt amazing!  Fish were INSTANTLY Biting!  It was awesome!  I easily caught over 20 fish, sadly lost an EASY dozen at the top of the hole!  It was a BLAST!  We ended up keeping 41 nice sized tuilibee all before 11 am.  We butterfly the tullibee to all the brine to get into the meat more and this is where we started having issues.  Of the 41 tuilibee I cleaned and yes I cleaned every single one because I was raised to not waste a fish, I was only able to salvage 12 fish.  29 of the 41 fish had a round worm/tape worm thing in the meat.  I'm not talking those dark black specks I mean 3" worms in pockets throughout the fish.  Some would only have one pocket but some would have 6-10 pockets and the pockets would have a ton of worms in them.  If you are looking for catch and release head out there have fun but if your looking to weed through 70% of your fish like we did go ahead keep them but it's a waste.

I've fished Loon Lake and Rose Lake and both have worms in them!  Did we happen to get bad fish and you could go out and not get them sure...but do you butterfly your fish and inspect every single one?  Or do you notice the worms as you go to grab a bite of smoked fish?  I'm not running the risk of keeping a fish that has worms.  If I go back to either lake I'll be doing catch and release only.

Sorry for being the Debbie Downer but just sucks.  We were soo excited because they were 41 15-17" tuilibees and only able to keep 12 of them.

[Chill62]

Was debating on trying to get out on Good Friday and decided I would stay home.  Buddy had 8" of snow at his place around DL and with 6-12" being forecasted I decided to stay home.  Buddy went out and fished from 5:30-7:50 and got 7 tuilibees.  With the weather forecasted we stayed put and waited till noon to start moving around.  Got to the lake around 2 and there was an easy foot of fresh powder on the lake.  He had to plow a path with his vehicle and I followed in line to get to the fishing spot.  Still had over 24" of ice on the lake though with a foot of fresh powder.  Got the house set up with the two vehicles blocking the wind and parked using the receiver hitches to secure down the fish house.  Got set up around 2:30 and within 5 minutes I had my first one on and sadly lost it.  We were in 45 feet of water and the fish were coming through 30-42 feet of water.  We ended up catching 4 monsters (19.5-20"), 2 huge ones (18-19") and one baby (10").  I had two personal bests with the 4 fish I caught on Saturday and I lost one after it straightened my hook.  I've never had a fish fight like that before!  People who've been following my posts know a few weeks back I got spooled and I was afraid of getting spooled again even though I put a TON of line on this time!  Was a great bite from the time we set up till 5:30, from 6-7:30 we got one fish.  Hopefully try it again next weekend.

[BTL]

That's awesome. Those are some huge tullibee, congrats!

[Chill62]

Thanks dude.  Picture sucked but I could barely pick the fish up it was soo thick in the shoulders.  Buddy was out today and got a 15.5" at 2.10 pounds.  Think looked like a football.  I'll hopefully have the cameras out this weekend and try and see if we can get them to cooperate for a video and some better pictures!  I would not be shocked if my big ones were near 4.5 pounds.

[otterman91105]

That really sucks that some of the lakes have fish with worms in them. I would not eat them either if they had worms in them.

[Chill62]

Otterman it does suck but the only way to tell is by taking a filet knife to the fish.  Wish you could tell externally but you can't.  

[slammer]

Kinda quiet here.  Ive been out a number of times and have had a hard time finding anything consistent for active fish,  crappies or eyes.  Did ok this past weekend but fish were" one here and one there".  Cold front Sat. didn't help.  Looking forward to the weekend with some stable weather and a better bite.

[Ben Mattis]

Headed to little pine the second week of June.  Usually I am there in august or september and troll with shiners or worms. Should I be jigging with shiners since i'm earlier??? Or something else?? Thanks in advance...I will glady buy ya a beet at zorbas for the advice!!

[huntnfish]

I am sure the presentations you've been using will work earlier in the year as well. I don't know about little pine but the lakes I've been fishing are starting to turn into the summer leech and crawler bite now. I prefer leeches over shiners because they're cheaper and heartier. 

[BTL]

Spent the last 2 weeks in OTC and had a great time. Mostly fished bass but caught some other stuff too. Sucks to be back home...

[Chill62]

Made it out Saturday for a little bit on a new to me lake by Dent.  Was seeking gills only but caught a few crappies.  Very negative bite but with all the weather activities going through can't blame them.  Jig and soft plastic is what we were throwing and landed a few but all were released chasing bigger ones for a tournament.  8.5" was our biggest one but got a few 11-12" crappies mixed into the batch.

[bowhuntermitch]

Fished Ottertail Friday evening last week. Walked out from the Pelican bay access and fished the first break on a sharp drop off. I was in 17' of water in one hole and about 19' in the other. I had small perch and bait fish swimming through all day. Seemed like when the baitfish showed up, the walleyes were not too far behind chasing them. There was 8-10" of ice depending on the spot. A group of guys were dragging their small permanents out with ATVs & SxS'. They didn't seem to have any issues. There were a couple small pressure ridges about a 1/4 mile out from the access. I could see them being an issue if they get any bigger as we gain ice. Carefully checking them, it seemed they were fully healed with no less than 7-8" on both sides of the ridges where I checked.

The camera showed me a few walleyes, and most of the walleyes I saw were very aggressive and got them to bite. Usually I have the opposite problem on Ottertail. See lots of fish, but have issues getting them to commit. Ended up taking 3 home for supper for the wife and I. Lost a couple at the hole (I must be rusty) and threw a couple more back. It's good to be back on the ice! 

 

Edited December 4, 2018 by bowhuntermitch

[Chill62]

Great update!  I've never iced Ottertail and I should one of these years.

[slammer]

How much snow on OT after the storm?   Was out b/4 xmas fishing on the east side but not much happening.  Only a couple eyes and a few perch.

[Bmann]

Was out there yesterday in the Ranger, went 3 or 4 miles SW of the 78 access.  Lots of good roads out there, but we didn't have any trouble in the snow either.  Trucks were also getting around pretty easily as far as we could see.  Bite was okay, decent perch and small walleyes seem to be on the humps, but also hearing of a good bite on the shoreline breaks in 10'.  

[Chill62]

I've been north of Ottertail we got 16 inches of snow with the storms last week but its fluffy.  I've been able to get around with the wheeler almost anywhere I want to go.  Near other fish houses there are some serious drifts that people need to be careful of but they are manageable. I have a rav4 so I've been using the wheeler in case I get stuck somewhere little easier to get out lol.  Hopefully with the 5 day forecast a lot of this snow will compact down and get harder.

[Chill62]

Anyone else tired of the cold yet because I sure am!!!  Friday night got down to the cabin l went out and got holes drilled and heater running. Fished an hour between 9 and 10 we landed 3 or 4 crappies, they were either 8 inches or 13 inches. Fished Saturday morning didn't catch a thing. Moved house and started fishing for evening bite and landed about a dozen crappies and we found them either small or huge no middle ground. Sunday morning no fish. Sunday evening landed 8 and they were 10 inches or over 13 again. During then later hours ended up a 21 inch eye on a rattle reel.    Crappies wanted glow jigs in 4 mm or 3 mm tipped with soft plastics with wax worms. Few did end up taking large crappie minnows. Had mixed bag of minnows and shiners, rainbows and fat heads never got bit. Weird.   

 

Hearing good reports of panfish being very active especially if you stay mobile. Guys fishing shallow are finding fish in the weeds.  Also hearing the elusive winter bass are starting to put the feed bags on. They are cruising the edges of weeds. Haven't heard any reports of walleye even with the full moon we just had.   

 

Attached are two different fish from the weekend put back into the lakes. 

[Chill62]

Well weather didn't look friendly so we didn't fish today. Yesterday we attempted to fish Star, drifts weren't friendly to getting off the plowed paths. Tried and ultimately switched lakes. Fished a little bay and caught a mixed bag of bass, blue gills and crappies. Group next to us caught a 21 inch walleye using a spoon. Was steady for small gills but moved to a deeper hole and the girlfriend was on fire. 14, 13.25, 12.75, 12.5 were her big ones. Fish were aggressive and glow was key. Bite was steady for over 4 hours. Heres pictures of her big one which is a WAM master angler. All fish were released 

[Chill62]

Sorry I haven't posted in a while we went chasing tulibees on Saturday morning.  Buddy "Scouted" the lake ahead of time and was able to get near to where we wanted to fish so we went out at sunrise...  Both of us got stuck in the process but found a place to wedge our vehicles into the snow bank to allow vehicles to drive by us on the "Road" that was plowed.  Fish were down there and a few were chasing hard core.  After switching gear and presentations up around 10 I landed 4 in a matter of minutes and then it was time for us to get going.  I caught 4, 1 dink and 3 medium sized ones.  My buddy caught 3 all were mediums.  Snow was stupid thick on the lake we were on and we had flooding the moment we drilled the first hole.  I'd love to get back out again but sadly unless there is an actual road or someone has tracks I'm out of commission till then.  Fish bit on a larger spoon with a 4 mm jig.  I tried my old reliable using a smaller spoon and only had lookers.  We should have stayed longer but we went home for a nap.  If anyone is looking for some videos for tulibee fishing a buddy of mine Scott Mackner has produced a few great videos for tulibee fishing and "Icing Massive Tulibees 2017" is a great video from one of our better days we had 2 years ago.  He also takes a little time prior to getting going in the video showing our secret technique for how we rig up our rods.  We had no snow so it made it very different than our current season.

 

We hit a second lake up for the evening for crappies because of the tournament the girlfriend was in.  The lake had been an evening bite usually 5/6 till 9:30/10 so we got out there around 5 and there was a huge group that walked out from their cabin fishing and they were landing fish like crazy.  Bite wasn't too great but landed a few nice crappies to add to her final measurement total. Currently the girlfriend is in 4th place in the Ice Queen Crappie tournament which I think is very respectable since 1st place is from Iowa, 2nd place is from Vermont, and we aren't 100% sure where 3rd place is from but for 4th place to be caught 100% in Becker/Ottertail Counties says something about he resources that we have around us.

 

This weekend I'm going to try and get our perm house off of the lake since nothing went right Sunday before the storm hit to get it off then.  I'm hoping I'm not spending 4 hours trying to plow a path out to the house because I'm about 2 miles from the access and both buddies who have plow trucks are on or will be on a beach somewhere instead of a frozen lake...can't blame them!!

 

Watch out for slush pockets...looked like some people on a lake were purposely drilling holes on a main road to stop people from driving down them causing the road to flood.  It's going to be a long few weekends if we don't get warm temps and this snow melts/settles.