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

[StarShooter]

Was out yesterday on the NW side and only found 6.5" of ice. Be careful out there as we were also told there was 10" all over, not true.

[papadarv]

44 minutes ago, StarShooter said:

Was out yesterday on the NW side and only found 6.5" of ice. Be careful out there as we were also told there was 10" all over, not true.

Thanks StarShooter will do. Not sure how or why they are putting wheelers on the lake with only 6.5". I always drill test holes when ice is questionable before moving on. May need to re-schedule to end of Jan.

[papadarv]

On ‎1‎/‎2‎/‎2016 at 10:01 AM, papadarv said:

Thanks StarShooter will do. Not sure how or why they are putting wheelers on the lake with only 6.5". I always drill test holes when ice is questionable before moving on. May need to re-schedule to end of Jan.

Rescheduling to first week in Feb. Hope OT has 12+" ice by than. Looks like 30' end of next week again

[BisoNation]

I hit a vein of crappies on dead lake 28 feet 10 feet from bottom saturday.  it was 10-15 of them in an hour. it was awesome.

[bowhuntermitch]

Anyone on Ottertail after this big cold front? 

[BisoNation]

lots of houses disappeared with the COLD

[bowhuntermitch]

Any updates on fishing? Plan on getting out again this weekend. 

[BisoNation]

things are come to a standstill on ottertail.   house in 17 feet, 2-3 smaller eyes consistently from 5-6pm. Thats about it.

its so slow that they out a dam ice racing track on the west side by the corner store..  BOOO  i cant imagine all the gas/oil getting dumped out

[papadarv]

@BiosNation have you ever fished First Silver? Looks like there might be a good supply of Crappie. I'm looking for Crappie as well as Walleye this Thursday in the area. PM if your willing.

[Weathertite]

Hope you have great luck Papa , Send us some photos if you have any success.

Thanks Mike

[slammer]

Fished out of the Pelican bay access Sunday on OT.   Started fishing at sunrise  in 18ft on a hump edge and saw a lot of fish on camera but would not bite.  Tried a lot of presentations for a couple hours and got one there then moved deeper.  Was in 28-29 ft most of the day with a fish every now and then coming through.  It was slow.   2 more smaller ones here.   Jigging seemed to scare fish so used deadsticks mostly.  Moved in shallow for evening 10-12ft hoping for better action but never happened.  Ended  up with 4 (14-15 1/2) and 3 perch for 12 hours on the ice.  Used small suckers and fatheads.  Frustrating when you see fish but no action

[Gissert]

Moved my house over to OTL today. On a mid lake hump, 18 feet on the break. Must have caught 60 perch in 2 hrs, nothing over 8 inches. Gonna go out before sun up in the morning and see what happens.

[slick2526]

How is the panfish bite? Havent had much time to get out this year and really try to get on some good fishing

[Gissert]

It has been a poor panfish bite for me. I moved to Ottertail and am getting perch, but they run small. One in 12 is big enough, but the action has been steady. 

[busse3775]

Went out fishing with a buddy Saturday morning in search of panfish, particularly for crappies. We first started at Middle lake and tried finding them up shallower. Moved quite a few times and drilled around 50 holes without much left so we decided to go try another lake by Clitherall that I have done well on before. We marked fish in 10-11 feet of water but could not get them to bite. We tried just about everything but they were super inactive. Packed up and headed to a lake west of Ottertail where we heard they are catching decent sized bluegill. It was like a small city out there but we started marking fish right away. Had to pick through the bluegill but the bite was almost non-stop. We were using really small tungsten jigs tipped with waxies and ended up keeping 15 that were all over 8". Biggest bluegill on the day was a 9"! Drilled a lot of holes and moved quite a few times but it ended up paying off!

[slick2526]

Made it out yesterday. Tried both deep and shallow but it seemed 11-13 was the magic number. Caught a few decent sunnies and crappies 

[bowhuntermitch]

Has anyone been out lately? Was out last weekend with not much luck. Fished out of Armor access in 12-15 feet of water for walleyes and got skunked. Saw a few decent perch, but nothing "jumbo".

Moved to 19-24 feet of water with no luck either...maybe just a off day?

 

Plan on getting my dad out for walleyes next weekend before it closes. What depths are they eyes in?! I can't seem to find them. 

[BisoNation]

On 2/1/2016 at 4:56 PM, papadarv said:

@BiosNation have you ever fished First Silver? Looks like there might be a good supply of Crappie. I'm looking for Crappie as well as Walleye this Thursday in the area. PM if your willing.

First SIlver isnt worth it.... hardly any fish houses out there....  i havent caught a thing there when i've tried.

 

OT last weekend was HORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIBLE   zero zilch zip walleyes    did everyone catch them already?

[busse3775]

Went out to two separate lakes this past weekend by Ottertail Lake and the fish were pretty finicky. We marked a lot of fish on Saturday in 24 feet all day long but getting them to bite was another thing. We did catch around 25-30 bluegill but the size wasn't all that great. Didn't plan on keeping anything so all of them were released. Went out to another lake in search of some crappies on Saturday evening and didn't have much luck. I know there are crappies in the area but they are biting pretty late at night or early in the mornings.

[BisoNation]

Saw a northern at the dam!!! i bet when its 60 next week the fish really start moving around ottertail

[busse3775]

Anyone been catching any crappies in the Ottertail County Area? I would think they would be heading into the shallows with this warmer weather coming up this week.

[slammer]

Gonna need more than a couple warm days.  Water is still pretty cool.  Its been pretty cold the last few nights.

[slammer]

Got out this afternoon.  Fished 2 different lake around OT.  Nothing shallow that I could find but found a few just outside of the bay in 22 fow hanging in 17-18 feet.  Caught 23 fish and kept 5.  Bobber and minnow.  Water temp was 47

[slammer]

Drove by Fish lake today.  Trailers were parked half way to the hi way.  That lake will be done soon with that kind of pressure

[BisoNation]

Fish off hwy 1?  yea for about 2 weeks straight now.  I suppose for the long spring alot of the local lakes are going to be stripped on crappies/sunnies by fishing opener!

 

ps-  to the idiots fishing at ottertail lake dam, yes you, we watch you catch hundreds of walleyes this last weekend...  whats the point?  I mean, its obviously illegal, but are you really that bad of a fisherman that you cant wait until may 14?

[busse3775]

Fish Lake is always a zoo this time of the year. I've been saying its going to get fished out the past 4 years now and every year I go back and it still produces like crazy. Some days are tougher than others but its not uncommom to catch 100 crappies in a day. The crappies seem to be even bigger this year than last as well.

As for the idiots fishing off the dam on the Ottertail River, I have seen several guys doing this. Was down there a couple weeks ago checking out the shiners and some guy (Looked like he had no idea it was even illegal) started fishing and within 2 minutes a DNR was down there talking to him. I think the majority of people fishing down there are just clueless and don't know that its illegal to fish for walleyes until the 14th. I'll be driving by and stopping to check it out again on Sunday.

[Chill62]

Fished Saturday mid day and the bite was slow but the fish bit hard, there wasn't a mistake that it was a fish and not a weed.  We picked up some smaller eyes mid day on jigs.  Group next to us were using bobbers and killed them.  Four in the boat and they were limited out in about 4 maybe 5 hours.  We tried a different spot right before dark, only person on the side of the lake.  Had a ton of bites and we had three in the boat and two were novice so I switched to anchor and bobbers.  Told the girlfriend while I was switching rods for the person in the bow to cast and reel in slowly since we were on a sharp break on an inside bend of a flat cast shallow drag out to us.  Before I could get first rod baited her drag was going crazy and she pulled in a 21" eye.  Rebaited she casted out and I started baiting rods again and her drag starts going crazy again this time a 20" eye.  I put on a bobber and kept fishing that but everyone else switched to jigs.  We picked up some crappies hitting our shiners on the bobbers.  Walleyes were throwing up shiners the whole night.  Right before the bugs swarmed us the guy on the bow caught one and just as I went to net it the girlfriend who was getting bored was vertical jigging behind the boat because we were graphing a ton of fish on bottom catches one out the back end.  Bow ended up being 17.5" and the one in the back ended up being 25".  Girlfriend who hadn't ever caught a walleye before ended up catching a 25, 21, 20, 17.5", & 14" along with a bunch of northerns.  She said it's because of her pink fishing rod and reel.  Jigs were just plain 1/4 oz pink jig with a black spot on them so nothing fancy.  We anchored in about 9.5 fow and was casting towards 7.5-8 dragging it back and we were casting out to 13 and dragging back to the boat.  Fish flies, they called them mayflies, were hatching and fish were flying through the water column.  We did NOT have cabbage under us but there were some fine weeds on bottom that would get caught on the jig as we would retrieve them.  Saw a lot of guys having luck Lindy rigging but it wasn't an option for our boat.  Few guys were up shallower pulling cranks but they were catching a ton of snakes.  Bigger shinners seemed to be the ticket and some reason the small hammer handles wouldn't bite them.  If you put on a normal size the hammer handles would be on your line in a heart beat so we went bigger and when we would get a northern they were 25+ inches with biggest one around 32".

[busse3775]

Any reports from Ottertail Lake?

[slammer]

Fished this afternoon and evening.  Pretty slow for me,  Only 2 fish in 6 hours.  Windy again but thought it would be an advantage in some spots.  Fished from 6 -20 ft.  Of course the wind died as I had to leave.

[busse3775]

I fished Ottertail Friday evening, and Saturday, Sunday, Monday mornings. Friday evening we did pretty well and found a decent school of fish but a lot of them were small. The rest of the mornings were hit and miss with the biggest being a 22" that was released on Saturday morning. We fished shoreline breaks anywhere from 7-15 feet with a jig and shiner. Anyone else have any luck?