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

[usmcjsy]

Dang Nels I probably wont get out until New Years weekend this year. I just dont know I will trust putting the house out till then. Even though with 40 degree days I guess its not really needed. While its nice not having the snow from the past years we really have not gotten a real good cold snap. Keep us updated on the conditions. Let me know if things drastically improve.

Later

[lakesbison]

yea, 6-8 inches all over ottertail all icaught was freakin perch today

[hockeybc69]

Did you fill a bucket with those freakin perch? Dandys in that lake....

[lakesbison]

still too many small ones, like 100

[Roscoe010]

A friend of mine has been fishing Ottertail for the past week. 8 inches of ice. They have been getting plenty of walleyes and lots of dink perch.

[lakesbison]

lots of houses out, especially on the west side which is unusual considering you can move anywhere on the lake with no snow.

how's everyone doing? ill be out thur-sunday.

[Gissert]

A wheeler went in near Rivera access, and any pressure ridges should be eyed with great caution. While it is easy to move about, there are spots that should be avoided and they can change rapidly.

I saw pressure ridges on North and South Turtle this weekend that were pushing a lot of green water this weekend. With the warm winds and surface water on monday, look out for scour holes.

Monday really did a number on the lakes. There are spots, especially if there was a house there, that went from being just fine in the morning to dangerous by sundown.

[NorthlandFishing]

me and a buddy are heading up to west battle lake for the week and are wondering if people have been having much luck.

[Gissert]

Been sticking pretty close to home with the iffy ice - if you stop at the local bait shop, they should have some advice on where to go and current ice conditions.

[ducker]

Anybody up in that area hear about this fish?

[Gissert]

Yup, chatter about it everywhere. Impressive!

[FM_Mike]

Impressive is right. That is an incredible fish. Congratulations to whom ever caught it. Must have been fun getting it through the hole in the ice. I think I would have been SHTNG a brick when it got close to the top of the hole.

Mike

[nels824]

Any specs on that monster?

[BTL]

That is one thick walleye! It's not even like it has a huge gut, it's just built like a tank. Congrats to the angler!

I'd also like to know the proportions of that beast.

[ducker]

33" and 13.3# from the email I got.

[BarTender]

WOW! is that out of WBL? or another lake?

[TylerS]

I haven't heard a peep on how the fishing has been in the OT area for a long time. People still getting out or has everyone taken up knitting?

[Big Country]

Hit a small lake all weekend and caught some gorgeous crappies. Not huge numbers, but got to go home with a limit of 12 to 13 inchers. Hit O.T. on the way home and caught a pile of dink perch like everyone else has been doing. One eye that was an eater. Weeded out the dinks and brought home 11 eater perch. Love Otter Tail county. BC

[usmcjsy]

Fishing has been a little slow on OT. Last weekend was pretty slow for me anyway.

[lakesbison]

so im hearing reports of great walleye bit on ottertail, but I see on here its slow and I only caught 2 on sunday. weird, any news out there?

[usmcjsy]

It has been very slow, I am out from Amor and it has really slowed down. I have even moved around a bit t try and find a hotspot again but no luck.

[Maverick1951]

I am by no means an expert on Ottertail fishing, but by this time of the year I have had my best luck fishing the steep breaks.

[tlbigstump]

Fishing has been tought for me too, I have fished many different spots, different depths, and pick up 1 here and there. I think the good reports you may be hearing are people claiming the small walleyes as eaters. I talked to a couple last night on the ice they said fishing was great and when I looked in there bucket they had 10 fish and not 1 of them went 13 inches. Combined weight probably 6 pounds if lucky, please let the dinks go so we can enjoy them in a few more years.

[usmcjsy]

+1 on that

[DangrsDaveO]

I agree with Maverick, sharp breaks are where it is at. If there is a big flat I put a tip-up about 20 yards away from the base of the break. When the flag goes I know it won't be long before the action picks up in the area. Between the tip-up and the break I will have punched 4-5 holes. I will bounce between them. The break activity usually hits at sunset, not a big surprise there.

[lakesbison]

spent all day sunday out on ottertail.

Riveria in 27feet , caught perch all morning until 1,2pm took home about 20 average perch (10 incher's) and 1 walleye (apparently friday they caught 10 walleyes, but were all too small.

west side of lake in afternoon was dead'sville. not even perch.

moved to 11 foot hump way out in middle at night and ended up with only 3 walleyes, 14-15inchers.

pretty dead, but what the heck, we ate fish!

[lakesbison]

another sunday, another long day on ottertail.

riveria still getting lots of nice 9-10 inch perch (after you catch 100 of them!), and even 4 walleyes in 22 ft ( 1 was 20")

zorbaz had 2 16 inch walleyes and small perch

[lakesbison]

Dead Lake Sunnies were on fire last night!

realllllly shallow, but every cast! YUM YUM

[BEEFEATER]

Its really a shame everybodys keeping 10 inch perch out there. They oughta be throw"n em back. Then they could restore sum of the 13 inch jumbos it use ta have 10-15 years ago. thought folks woulda learned the first time when they fished everything down ta 7 inchers. some people just dont beleave a fish will grow bigger

[TylerS]

Tried Ottertail on Sunday afternoon with my wife and dad. Wind was stiff out of the northwest, and our trolling motor battery died after a couple hours. Day started cloudy and cool, and all we could catch trolling the first breaks were a bazillion perch and pike.

Dad also caught a big rockbass that put up quite the fight.

Once it warmed up a bit and the sun peaked out, the walleyes got hungry. Because of the useless trolling motor, we were relegated to motoring up to the shallows and drifting out to deep water. This technique actually worked really well, and my wife limited out on 15-20 inch eyes. I have no idea what she did that we didn't but the men in the boat had a heckuva time catching keepers. Seemed to be that all the 10-inch perch and eyes loved our shiners, but the big eater eyes preferred my wife's presentation.

I also caught a 32 inch northern, which went straight into the livewell and will be pickled shortly. Didn't weigh it -- I gauge my pike on pints, not pounds -- but it was fat, and had a little 10-inch walleye digesting in its belly.

Dad took off around 3, but the wife and I stuck it out for another few hours after a quick bait run to Ken's. We quit at 7 p.m. after our bait ran out again. Grand total was 8 walleyes between 13.5 and 20 inches, a 32 inch northern, and two gut-hooked perch. I did wind up catching my second walleye on a leech when I was waiting for my wife's last shiner to get bit. Might be an option out there for some people, although it seems pretty early for a leech bite.

Anwyay, all fish except for one were caught on shiners with 5-foot snells and a plain hook, drifted over the first breaks in anywhere from 10-27 FOW. Lots of little hungry eyes, too, which means the future looks bright.