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

[slammer]

Are fish still hitting shiners or switching over to other baits?

[sunny_smuggler]

good i like to here that! we are going up there in a couple days to catch some eyes and sunnys. By the way, they were hitting Clown shad raps last year! give them a try if you can find them! there super hard to find!

your welcome for the info.

[paceman]

Had a buddy fish OT this past weekend that did very well pulling spinners with crawlers and leeches.

[TylerS]

Bite was very tough this weekend on Ottertail area lakes. Looks as if the mayfly hatch has started, which always puts a hamper on things.

Name of the game was low and slow. Long 5-6-foot leaders tipped with a lively leach were the ticket, but any takers were very sluggish. Even after a good length of line was given out, they still sometimes didn't have the bait all the way in their mouths.

Lots of dinks on Ottertail, but managed four keepers on the lower end of the spectrum. Tried a different lake Sunday morning and did much better. Caught one aggressive eye trolling a spinner at 1.5 MPH, then dialed her down and caught the rest in 24-26 FOW. This lake also had a fly hatch going on.

[Bellfisher]

Just finished a week on Big Pine. Walleyes found anywhere from 3' to 40' of water - mainly caught on leeches and nightcrawlers. Pretty consistent week of weather helped as the bite turned on midweek. Walleyes ranged from 11" to 24.5" - it was pretty encouraging to be releasing a lot of 12-14" fish compared to past years. Best part of the week was watching the kids catch walleyes and be more excited about going out in the boat than fishing off the dock or staying on the beach. Caught all species throughout the week including some 20" bass and a few northern pushing 30 inches.

[sartellangler05]

28 incher on Wall Lake Monday evening. Trolling with spinner bait and leech in 16 ft of water.

[sartellangler05]

[sartellangler05]

Anyone know how to transfer a photo from facebook onto here?

[McGurk]

Hover over the picture on facebook you want to show us. Right click on it and then left click on Properties. Highlight the info displayed after the Address (URL) area, right click it, and left click on Copy. Close that window. Now come back here and go to the topic and thread you want to post in, and then click on the 4th icon from the left above the area used for entering a post. A window should open and click the first option, and another window should open, and display "http://" in the field. Right click on that area and left click on Paste. Hit OK and you should be good to go.

As a test:

[sartellangler05]

Wall Lake 28"

[BTL]

I spent July 8-19th in OTC. Fishing was very good. Mostly chased bass, but I did some walleye fishing on the lake where our cabin sits.

I caught a bunch of walleyes trolling nightcrawlers on slow death hooks and a few on standard crawler/spinner harnesses with a 2oz bottom bouncer. Got them all in 17-19ft of water, regardless of the time of day. The fish ranged up to 22", with most of them in that 14-18" range.

Also got a few walleyes off the dock at sunset on weight-forward spinners tipped with leftover crawler pieces.

Bass fishing ranged from poor to great depending on which lake I was on. My best lure was a frog fished in the grass, but spinnerbaits and tubes were also good.

Caught a bunch of crappies in cabbage in 7-12ft of water casting 2" grubs. They were mostly small, but there were some nice sunnies and rock bass mixed in.

It was a really nice trip, Ottertail county never disappoints.

[LBZFAN]

Thought I would start a thread for the local Fergus Falls area reports. If you are checking ice/fishing on a regular basis feel free to give a report about what your finding out there for everyones saftey. I.E. thickness, open spots, type of traffic, flooding etc... etc.... and maybe we can keep this thread going through the hard water season.

Here is what I found today Wed. Nov.28th

Wall Lake - entire lake looks locked up, but only found 2 inches of crystal clear ice, ventured out about 50 yards from the access, same deal there... 2 inches.

Hoot Lake - entire lake looks locked up, even in the current areas, found 2 inches of crystal clear ice, but less than that further out , didnt venture more than 30 yards out from public access.

Jewett Lake - Not worth getting out of your pickup, about 80% open with very thin ice stretching 50-80 yards from shore.

Anyone have current reports from Ottertail, Ten mile, or West battle feel free to chime in ... Im gonna check progress again Friday or Monday.

[Gissert]

This was from the 27th - North turtle looked pretty well locked up, South turtle as well with enough open spots to make it look pretty spooky. Off the public access on the west lobe looked particularly spooky. The better looking ice was about 2-3 inches, tops. Some of the earlier stuff in the coves is around 4.

Driving around today, Eagle and Middle lakes pretty much wide open. never got a look at any bigger water.

With the warm weather, its going to stall out, and where there is open spots, the wind action will erode the already formed ice.

I'm not hungry enough to chance it yet:)

[koWALLEYEski]

11-29-12

Long Lake North of Fergus and Jewett were both open water.

Tonseth and Anderson Lake were froze over and looked like foot and portable action from the access.

East and West Olaf Lakes looked to be froze as well with no sign of entry.

I wouldnt even gamble going on the ice. Not with open water on other lakes. Not falling through for a dam fish

[Gissert]

Stick a fork in what we had. I went scouting for some rat and beaver sets this morning. Ice was solid and clear, with some water on top. By eleven am the water was sinking in, ice was honeycombed and buttery soft. It went from okay to spooky in about three hours. At this point, I wish it would open up so we could just start over.

[Pleasant]

thanks Gissert, probally after tonight and tomorrow everything will be wide open again, not happy about it, but not a thing I can do about it but pout! LOL

[LBZFAN]

Jewett lake is locked up this morning, still only about 2 inches of ice here, if that. Hoot is about 4 inches now but has slush and water spots from the snow load. I did not venture out on wall lake, pretty large open area in the middle of the lake yet That looks skinned over right now. Drove past West battle/Ottertail yesterday, drifted snow with Ice/water spots. Looks a little spooky. Didnt see anyone fishing. I have not ventured down to Ten Mile yet today. Less snow up by Detroit lakes causing quite a bit better ice conditions, Even some wheeler traffic.

[koWALLEYEski]

Ten Mile lake has 3 inches off of the northeast shoreline.

[ASMOLEY]

Have a trip planned for Ten Mile late January sure hope that NE end of the lake locks up better than last year... There were some nasty pressure ridges!

Thanks for the updates, keep them coming!

[koWALLEYEski]

Out in front of the Ten Mile Steak House is UNSAFE. 4 inches to about 1 inch. The bay off the main boat access has wheeler traffic and about 9.5 inches of ice.

[tisosy11]

Any reports from Lida...how is the ice thickness?

[Cicada]

I heard that someone drove out on Lida last weekend. I did not hear if they made it back. I would be careful on Lida this year. It did not freeze over all at once. There was a two week gap between the first half mile and the rest of the lake. That same weekend a distant cousin from Barnesville put his permanent house out and said there was 9 inches in his spot.

[tisosy11]

Coming up Friday...what's the ice depth looking like?

[usmcjsy]

Ice is about 12 inches however in a lot of areas it is not what I would call great ice. the thickness is there but I found a lot of white honey combed ice so use caution.

[chochie]

found a spot a mile out today with only 8 inches...less of a battle getting those eyeball's up thru the hole...they were on the chew today!

[tlbigstump]

I found 7 to 13in of ice today while out there. This is the good clear stuff not counting the cloudy frozen slush,snow combo ice. So be careful out there yet, there is a lot of vehicle traffic already out there, but I would definetely check it out for yourself before driving on it.

[tisosy11]

Is there just the one north access on lida? Are there any resorts with an easier way off?

[Jon Chapman]

Otter tail today ..

Ice is about 16"-18" in most places I drilled in 11'-24' of water 2 miles out..

Caught a few small to keeper perch on crappie minnows and fat head heads .. fishing was good til about noon then it shut off.

[ASMOLEY]

10 days and counting, can't wait!!!! Hows the ice on Ten Mile?

[slammer]

How has the walleye bite been on OT? Dont need specifics, just wondering if anything is happening. Have not been out for a few weeks and with the weather being so goofy, not sure I missed much?