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


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Has anyone been out yet this year?  I haven't even put the boat in the water yet, I'm hoping to change that this weekend! 

 

I don't know if people saw but a boat burnt up on Big Pine this past weekend.  They left the access going to their dock and the driver smelt something so stopped shut down the engine and found the fire.  Extinguisher was used but didn't put the fire out.  Other fisherman came and rescued the driver thankfully.  Take away is please check your fire extinguishers and make sure you break in your motors nice and easy in the beginning, you never know where a mouse has left a present for you to find later.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got out this weekend.  Hot bite going on a lot of local lakes.  Bait shop said bite has been great in the 5-7 foot range with a jig and shiner minnow.  We got out Sunday and fished with Lindy's off of suggestions from the neighbors.  Saw guys pulling leeches and they weren't having any luck, saw some pulling cranks and they were getting snot rockets.  We kept the Lindy's going and had a great Sunday.  My boat was down for the weekend so I was in a backup situation so was different but we were on the fish.  11-14 feet was best depths.  Shiner on a lindy rig was the ticket.  Due to the slot we could have kept 5 fish but one was too big to eat and too small to mount.  Fished mid morning to mid afternoon in flat calm conditions and the fish didn't seem to mind one bit.  Probably ended up with 30 eyes between the two of us and we kept 4 fish for a shore lunch.  Average size was 19-22" which was protected with the slot so I went through a lot of hooks.  Biggest fish was 26.25" which I released.  Had doubles on at the same time and both were over 20" which I have never had happen before.

 

White Glow #4 hook, Soft Green Glow Bead, 8 ft leader, lightest sinker we had in the tackle box (Due to wind being calm), and a spot tail shiner.

 

11-14 feet but graphed more fish in that 14+ feet of water but they didn't want to bite.  

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  • 3 weeks later...

Got out this weekend to chase crappies and gills. Mn dnr lake finder showed a ton of them. Tried covering water and we got into the walleyes. Tight to weeds with leeches and got mixed bag but didn't get any panfish! Biggest was 28", 25", 22" and a 32" pike. 

 

Fished Sunday different lake hopped everywhere a sheeps head, northern, and a fat gill in 23' of water. Switched lakes and found a few walleye from 1-4 PM on edge of breaks. find fish fish hard if nothing move. We sat on fish over an hour no luck. Moved found 2 on graph instant fish then move keep repeating. 

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Wow the bite is on fire.  Between Saturday and Sunday we released an easy 20 eyes over 20 inches. Leeches on plain Lindy were holding tight to the weeds. Big fish was landed Sunday at 28" and second was Saturday with a 26" eye. 

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Fishing action was hot for walleyes this weekend!  Granted I didn't get any big pigs but my boat sure did.  Fished southern OTC one morning and landed some nice eating fish for dad and a fish fry.  On the last drift he landed a beauty of a 23" eye (Pictured).  For the next few days I stayed near our cabin fishing different structure.  Started close to shore found some then as day went on and boat activity increased mid lake structure produced.  Night bite was even picking up with a big 27.5" being caught and released by the brother in law (pictured). Following day a buddy and I started fishing some mid lake structure and found a big 26" (pictured) up on top of humps in the middle of the lake.

 

Leeches were still the active bait and produced a bunch of fish and we probably went through a half pound again.  Trolling lindy rigs of plain hooks with a bead did trick for us.

 

More detailed report is in the members only page and is well worth the membership.  I will have reduced posts in the near future due to work schedule so please be patient.

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  • 4 months later...

Well the ice fishing season has started for me on Friday.  Fished a lake in northern Becker County and averaged 6 inches of solid ice but it ranged from 4 inches at the access to 7.5 along the way out to our fishing spot.  Fishing was hit and miss and I personally didn't do well but my brother who doesn't fish often did pretty well on the trip. 

 

Saturday I fished down by Dent in the morning had 6 inches of clear ice on a very SMALL lake that's been frozen over for 10 days BUT when we got to 12 feet we found a huge crack and the ice was only 3 inches on the other side of the crack.  We followed the crack 200+ yards up and down the shoreline and we didn't find safe ice on the other side of the crack.  Yes I know some people fish on 2.5 inches of ice but when I'm 350+ and my buddy is bigger than me the answer is NO!!!!  We got off the ice and took off for a different lake closer to DL and that had 7 inches of ice.   Buddy took a big group out the night before and supposedly caught 200-300 gills and crappies.  All I could find was 8 inch crappies in 35 feet of water.  The only big fish I caught was a 12.5 inch crappie that when I was dropping down out deep chased my jig 12 feet down and it inhaled the bait instantly when I reeled it back up to the 12 ft mark (24 feet off of bottom).  Blue gills did pick up closer to dark and I started catching some 5-7 inch gills with a mixed snake in the batch but then it started pouring on me and I really didn't want to get drenched and I also didn't want to get all my gear wet on the second trip of the season.  

 

Sunday I couldn't find a fishing partner and I will not hit early ice without a partner till I know its safe but I saw a few guys hitting Big Pine on the north side.  First guy I saw was really close to the access for my liking walking out and I looked 30 minutes later and he was all the way down to crappie village already.  Looked an hour later and a guy was setting up on the first break from the north shore in a 2 person flip over.  I'm waiting for a partner and more ice before I hit the big lake since I was told it only froze over 100% on Tuesday and I don't want to find a thin spot.

 

Hearing reports of wheelers and snowmobiles out already on some lakes.  I personally think they are crazy as heck with what I'm seeing on some lakes for ice conditions but I've also not been on a lake where I have seen another person fishing yet either.  Please use extreme caution because we need one more week of good ice making conditions for me to start hitting all of my favorite spots.  Heck Long and Sybil Lake's by Vergas you could have been in a boat on this weekend.  Long is frozen on the east side but the NW side by the loon you could fish off of the docks.

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  • 3 weeks later...

As always, a good report Chill.  I spent three nights over the Thanksgiving holiday on Little Pine just walking to the first break, we had 4-5 inches.  By Sunday morning after the snow fall it became very difficult to move around, as the flooding led to an abundance of slush. Not in a hurry to get back out there until things firm up again.

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I heard but haven't seen personally snow did NOT treat little pine nicely. Big pine had a huge cut out from road river, was staring as I was plowing cabins. I keep hoping the next two days this snow keeps settling and melting because next week when we hit -15 to -20 it'll be making ice quickly. 

 

I'm off for Red Lake Reservation tomorrow (Friday) for a trout fishing trip Saturday. before people say anything let me answer your questions. 

1. Season is open on Reservation all year long

2. We have a tribal guide so we can fish the Reservation 

3. No we are aren't fishing lower red lake

 

We will be fishing for rainbows and brooke trout. I'm taking a group up from my church in frazee. should be a fun time. 

 

Sunday if weather isn't bad I'm hoping to get out and we might make first trip out with ranger. Pretty excited to try it out. 

 

Should have reports on Monday. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry I haven't been posting I forgot between pages that I have actually been fishing in Ottertail County the last week.  Was fishing down by Pelican Rapids this past few trips out and its been fun.  Tried a new spot on a lake and a buddy gave me permission to cross his property to get out there on Thursday.  When I arrived there was a set of fresh tracks and a fish house that the tracks lead to.  After talking to the landowner and waiting on them to return and getting them out of the area because they were trespassing it ate up a ton of my time because these tools were using an app to find property lines and thought they knew more than myself.  After finally taking a picture of their vehicle and informing them I was done wasting time on them and if they were to park on the road (Private Drive) the sheriff would be called and I now have a license plate of their vehicle.  Swear words were flying at me and I went back to fishing.  I spent a lot of time trying to deal with them and it cut back on my exploring of this new spot.  When I started fishing I was catching a lot of small fish so I tried going shallower and found SMALLER fish.  We don't always fish like everyone so I'm not afraid to go DEEP so I went deep and in 32 ish feet of water I started finding fish.  As dark got closer the crappies were coming in suspended.  Fishing was good probably 90% crappies especially when I went deeper.  I set up my one man house and probably got 200 crappies that night.  

 

The next day I went back to try and see if I could scout a new area and see if I could find bigger crappies.  I was having a lot of lighter bites so I dropped down to a 3 mm jig and a noodle rod to help detect those lighter bites.  That paid of quickly.  The neighbor was out fishing so now I had a second set of eyes to report back and forth on what was happening.  Well he went up further around a point and I stayed on the deep channel side and he said he ended up with about 50 crappies but most of them were over 12 inches.  I ended up with about 100 crappies and my average was just shy of 12 inches with my big ones flirting with 12.75" which I thought were respectable especially since I was using a bump board.  Best fishing was from 3/4-6 pm and when it hit 630 I still had fish down there when I left.

 

Saturday I brought our ranger down to the lake and tried a 3rd spot and this was going to be the brother in laws trip out on to the ice so I was just hoping for something to bite.  When I set up I had no rush since it was only 130 when we were getting set up.  After we slowly got the hub all set up and the holes drilled, heater running, we finally dropped down the graphs and the graphs were lit up like a Christmas tree!  I started with a 3 mm jig right off the get go and the brother in law was using a 4 mm.  We both were using just soft plastics from Panfish Pirate and they were aggressive.  Lots of light bites but they would fly 2-3 feet to your jig inhale it and not move.  So if you didn't have a light tipped rod you didn't detect the bites.  After we had a 3rd person join us in the house who was using a 5 mm jig they were ready to evict me from my own shelter because I was out fishing them.  They all dropped down to 3 mm jigs and then the race was on and everyone was  keeping right there fish for fish when we downsized.  Did get a few bigger crappies 12.75 being biggest and they were THICK fish which was awesome.  We caught fish from 2-5 and from 5-6 it was a waste of time.  That front came through and the fish moved because we were no longer getting the bites or showing anything on the graph.  I did though lose 3-4 HUGE fish that I never saw.  They were either big crappies or bass swimming through but of all the fish we caught in the three days on this lake we only caught sunfish and crappies, no perch, pike, bass, or walleyes it was really weird.  

 

First night I was using a 4 mm Wonder Bread Glow with a Panfish Pirate Ripper Plastic no bait required.

Last two nights I downsized to a 3 mm Wonder Bread Glow with a Panfish Pirate Ripper Plastic and again no bait required.  For the other two guys they down sized to a 3 mm Orange and other went to Glow Tiger by Panfish Pirate.  They had a modified 3 mm jig so it had a bigger hook where I had the traditional and I think I wouldn't have lost some of the large fish if I had the larger hook to get buried deeper into the fish on hook set. 

 

Attached are a few pictures from the trips.  


We did have 11 inches of ice on this lake and we measured every 50-75 feet before driving the ranger onto the lake.

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Work is extremely slow and a coworker just bought a few new "Toys" for ice fishing so we figured we would do a mid week trip out to test out his gear. Got set up around 830 finally got heater working around 9.  Fished a deeper basin between shore and an island.  Turned on the graph and the fish were solid underneath us.  He actually thought it was interference on his graph initially.  He took out his MH rod with 10-14 pound braided line on it with a 1/4 oz lead jig and asked what he needed to use for bait...umm you got anything smaller?   I got some 1/8 oz maybe a 1/16 oz jig.  I showed him what I've been using and he asked if I was messing with him.  So I dropped my line down his hole since he had the graph on and proceded to pull up a 10 inch crappie in 1 minute.  He examined my jig and said I don't know if I tied that jig on if it'd go down the hole because my line is soo thick.  Just use mine and I handed him my Power Noodle with a Free Fall on it.  Minute maybe two later he was pulling crappies up.  We proceeded to catch fish almost solid all day but the best bite was between 10-12 and finally around 12:15/12:30 we forced ourselves to take a quick lunch break.  A lot more 6-8 inch gills with a few being over 8 paid us a visit getting thrown back down the hole.  Right before lunch when it was HOT the crappies came through and we had a school of large crappies with a few being over 13 with the biggest being 13.75" that was a hog!

 

Right away my coworker was using the 4 mm with a Ripper Plastic by Panfish pirate and he didn't believe he could catch fish without bait so he was tipping them with a wax worm till he saw I wasn't using any and was it was saving a lot of time.  He was using a Wonder Glow jig and in the morning a Bubble Gum colored Ripper was the key then in the afternoon we switched to a Chartreuse color and it seemed to make a difference.  I was using a pink and white jig with stripes in 4 mm with the same Ripper plastics.  


At the end of the day he decided he was going to try his stuff.  He took his "Smallest" jig he had which was still about a size 6 or 7 mm and tied it onto his braid and dropped it down with a Ripper.  NOTHING.  He ended up having to put wax worms on it and he finally started catching blue gills.  He caught a few of them then switched back to what he was using and instantly pulled up a crappie.  He kinda proved the line and size of jigs made a difference for catching crappies in clear water.

 

We had 13.5 inches of ice and 12 inches of it was clear ice.  I did drive my SUV out after verifying my path was safe and the ice still had almost an inch of "Head space" on top so we weren't sinking the ice.  Felt great not having to pull our gear out by hand!

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Personal records are meant to be broken and last night it was smashed. Fished all over Becker and Ottertail Counties trying to find big panfish with Jesse Thalmann with Thalmann's Guide Service. At dark I had a huge mark come in and inhale my 4 mm Panfish Pirates Wonder Glow with a Bubble Gum Ripper plastic. It put one heck of a workout on my 32" Yogi Rods LLC Power Noodle. If your looking for a fun trip hit up Jesse and book a trip. If interested in plastics use CHILL5 for discount, get some before your buddy does.

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Yep was teaser last night. Wanted to verify pictures were clear but not pointing out landmarks. trying to protect that lake

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  • Official Fishing Report Team - MN

Congrats that's a special fish well done ! That area is one of the best areas for trophy panfish in the state of MN. Someday I hope to Retire in Ottertail county panfish paradise. Jesse knows his stuff works his tail off and gets people on trophy caliber fish all the time. Use some of Panfish Pirates stuff good products and a classy guy to boot ! Maybe run in to you up there soon as I'm sure we frequent some of the same waters. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well not much of a fishing reports but was on one local lake Sunday. Last week ton of slush this weekend if it had slush it's a brick. If no snow its sugar sand. darn near got stuck when found virgin snow and sank 18 inches. Fishing was slow but fish were just moving around and it was too cold to hole hop. I'll be out next weekend to plow roads to get hard side out. 

 

Did see a report of 4" ice and 12" slush frozen on star. Stay safe

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Crazy ice conditions out that way this year.  Sounds like the fish are getting a break.  Bummer as it's so unpredictable and a person can get into some real trouble I'd they aren't careful.

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Tried big pine today. Plowed out north access. Got onto ice and snow was flowing nicely had speed then started loosing speed and the slush started coming over my plow. Backed up got hung up maybe 150 yards out. Hour half later I finally got myself free. Crossed a 3 inch wide crack and it was shooting up like a geyser. I was wet and cold from hip down. About 14 inches of slush. Got off the ice and called it a day. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Saturday fished by Dunvilla on lake haven't fished since Christmas. searched all over for them and after 3 augers searching in different directions for an hour we found them hugging a sunken island. landed a big large mouth and a ton of 4-6 inch gills. Crappies were almost impossible to find. 

 

Sunday tried around our cabin. Buried ranger AGAIN. Got out found dry path drilled grid pattern and fish were not in it. Had to drill 60+ holes to find them in a 40x40 area in 33 feet of water. few 10-11.5 inch crappies with one 14" small tungsten with Ripper plastics were ticket again. Hopefully get out this weekend and actually fish during prime time for once lol. 

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Well what a big difference 2 days of above freezing temps make for lake traffic. Saturday morning I had easy 16-18 inch burm from plowing our road, Sunday it was maybe 4-6 inches. Ice was floating and it wasn't flooding for once. 

 

Saturday came out to fish and guy comes walking quickly towards me. Starts saying how he recognized me and my ranger...ummmm ok what did I do wrong now.  My name is @bbfenatic!  Hey cool nice to meet ya!  Well we started fishing and we tried to get him and his buddy into our group to catch fish. That's what fishing is supposed to be people...FUN and FRIENDLY. If you see me say hi you might be shocked what happens. 

 

Saturday fished a deep hole. Used panoptix and wow that was fun.  Caught a bunch of fish then they left the hole. We stayed all afternoon hoping they would come back...WRONG!!!

 

Sunday tried it from 8-12, 2 fish. Afternoon tried it no marks tried different spot...3 fish. Drained battery on auger and nothing to show for it. 

 

Lake travel improved. plowed roads were car friendly. hoping after this week most will be back to regular travel again. I sadly on Wednesday broke down and bought tracks for my ranger. Hopefully end of month have them on for late ice. 

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Nice...very nice! Well done @Chill62

 

Just click his name and then the following icon...Screenshot_20200208-175350_Chrome.jpg

 

Some of you ought to consider following him here on fm to see all of his reports. He's a good one.

 

There are some other gems as well.

 

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Thanks @Rick.  Well I took Friday off and didn't fish but did spend a lot of money. We installed mattracks on Friday in my buddies shop. Wow!!!! 

 

Saturday fished big pine, traffic is crazy guys spreading out big time. Fishing sucked but mainly tested tracks out and tried new spots. 

 

Sunday my tulibee season started and we found a foot deep slush pocket, ranger drove straight through it. We had a ton of tulibee on the graph and we ended with 20 and 4 came from same school since 4 out of 5 guys landed fish at same time. 15-16 inch size and THICK so they will taste great off of the smoker. Was really impressed with how many chasers we had so only matter of time before it picks up.

 

Switched to panfish in afternoon and caught a bunch of gills up in 7-10 feet. Was weird fishing 87 feet then 8 to 12 big adjustments on the graph needed. Got into a few over 8.5 so was nice to see them.

 

Had a meeting with Jeese Thalmann and if anyone is interested he will be lining up guided tulibee trips this year in the ottertail county area. Your guide would be me so if interested contact Jesse or message myself if interested. Dates will book up fast since short season but it's a fun time getting out and getting into them especially when you hook into a hog. Buddy landed a 5.00# this week, state record is 5 12# so getting closer to state record. 

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Thanks for your updates. I enjoy reading them. Was there any vehicle traffic on Bpine or any other lakes in the area?  Trying to get Dad up there this weekend and walking out is not an option for him anymore. Thanks again for your reports. 

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Depending on this snow and where you want to go a bigger pickup with good tires should get you almost everywhere. if there's a certain area pm me and I can try explain a few roads out there with you. 

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On 2/10/2020 at 5:29 PM, Chill62 said:

 Buddy landed a 5.00# this week, state record is 5 12# so getting closer to state record. 

 

 

By chance are you refering to Mackners fish? Just watched the video...

 That thing was a tank!!!

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Yeah trapper landed a hawg. Weighed 5.0 pounds on a shipping scale hour plus after catching it. That lake doesn't produce a ton but when you set the hook its usually big!!

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      Kinda depends on if you want magnification or quick target acquisition.   More magnification options and better accuracy with a scope.  You get what you pay for too so get comfortable with a budget for one.  Tasco and Bushnell work but I find they lose their zero easier, have low contrast and don’t gather light well in low light conditions.  That said, I’m still using one I haven’t replaced yet.  Vortex has been the hot brand for the past several years for bang for the buck.  Good products.  Nothing beats Swarovski though.  Huge dough for those.  Burris is another decent option.   There are some specific models for shotgun/slug hunting in the economy brands and bullet drop compensation (BDC) reticles.  Based on experience I’d recommend not falling for that marketing ploy.   Red dots are usually lower magnification and easier to get on target.  Reasonably accurate but don’t do well with definition, like searching the brush for your target.  I put a HAWKE red dot on a .22 for squirrels and it’s been good.  For turkey, that’s probably the route I’d go.     If your slug shots are normally not too far and too brushy, I’d think a red dot could work there too if you’re only buying 1 scope.  You’ll be better off dimming the reticle to the lowest setting you can easily use to not over shine the target and get a finer aim point.   If you don’t have a slug barrel, you might appreciate one of those.  I had a browning with a smoothbore slug barrel that shot Brenneke 2-3/4 inch well.  The 11-87 would well fitted with a cantelever rifled barrel. 
    • 11-87
      Looking for recommendations on scope or red dot    I basically hunt turkey and whitetail, live in southern MN. So it’s all deer/ shotgun    looking to add a scope/ red dot as my eyes don’t work like they used to to with the open sights.    my gun options are 11/87 12. Browning BPS 12    not looking for the most expensive or the cheapest    pros and cons of one over the other
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