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Wish I knew a bit more about the current status of this fishery I love chasing big pannys but this is one lake I can say I have never fished. Is the shrimp thing really an issue or something to blame the poor fishing on. Most lake I fish with strong shrimp populations are excellent for both numbers and size of quality fish confused.gif

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I am from south central MN, and my wife wants to go camping on osakis this year because she heard the fishing is good. Is this true and can anyone give me pointers on where to start fishing on the lake at different times of the year, we don't know when we will go camping there yet. I know I want to go to devils lake up there, because that is an easy lake to fish and we usually have luck. Please help me out, I promise I practice catch and release.

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I practice C&R too but i think osakis is just one of them hush - hush lakes who knows I still haven't fished it.

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My grandma and grandpa live on the lake for the past two seasons now. How ever i only make it up there about three weekends a year when i do get there i fish hard, all day every day. I have had great luck with the walleyes and sunfish however i have never caught a crappie on the main lake only in the channels this time of year. The sunfish action is great all year, the sunnies move way back in the reeds and u navigate through the smallest pockets you can find and beleive me the biggens will be waiting. 9' in sunnies out of there, its great. But when im in the boat alone im fishing walleyes, the best bet for them if u have never fished the lake before go where the boats are, there are usally about three spots on the south end and w/e one has that most boats thats where they are biting. I like to get away from the boats and find my own luck but not very often does this happen cause i am also new to the lake

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Last year I bought a place on Osakis because I like the lake and like the area. Last year the walleye bite was pretty poor although the panfish bite was decent. This winter ice fishing for all species was brutal. Not that the lake doesn't have some fish but there is a tremendous amount of natural forage in the water right now. Take it for what its worth since this was last year and during ice over, but with so many lakes in the region to choose from if I was planning a weekend get away focussed on my wife's desire to catch some fish, I think I'd pick another lake until I heard the fishing had improved. I know from first hand experience its no fun to be out with the wife unless she's an avid angler and talk give her the "But look at all the fish on the graph" speech while the bait just goes untouched.

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If you want too just catch fish Osakis is a great lake too visit. Something is always biting out there. We were up there 2 years ago for a week around Memorial day week and we caught everything and lots of them. Sunnies, northerns, and a few huge slab crappies by day, and pounded the walleyes after dark. I found the lake too be very very easy too fish.

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That was a good year & they started earlier than normal. You're right it is a great lake, but you also happened to hit it perfect that year, when it was "turned on". If you fish it sometime when it's "turned off", you'll swear there's no fish in the lake, it's that kind of lake. There's a ton of very impressive dogfish to be caught.

Having said that there's usually northerns & or bass to be caught. Most of the northerns are in the 1-2lb. range.

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Yeah it was "on" that year. That was the third time i've spent a week on the lake and all three times were very good too me. Funny thing was though 2 years ago when we were up there the walleye fishing the first couple weeks we were told were very very poor. We went through a half pound of leeches in 3 evenings and went too get another half pound at the bait shop and the owner couldnt believe we were catching eyes, he was pulling on us too give him some info. We were fishing where plenty of other boats were fishing, we just stayed longer and thats when they bit.

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When you say stayed longer, you mean into the night ?

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I was assuming you meant at night. If so, I pretty much don't fish at night during the softwater season other than for crappies in the spring occasionally. I believe that they certainly could be biting at night when they aren't during the day. I hate mosquitos & bug spray, when it gets dark I head for home, plust I usually have to work the next day, or go to church, or something.

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Yes longer into the night. Many nights there were over a dozen boats along with us around sunset but by about 10:00 we were alone and when things quieted down the fish got going. Some nights by 10:00 we had nothing but a few rock bass but we ended up with 20 eyes or better in the next couple hours. I think our best night that week we kept 8 nice 16-18" fish and threw back 15 fish that were about 13-14" and also a 23" and a very plump 25 1/2" fish. For some reason people were surprised we were getting them on leeches that early in the season, im not sure why they were surprised, it didnt seem too early too me.

During the day we spent our time probing the shallows for big bluegills and spent some time trolling for northerns. If it wasnt too windy in the late afternoon we went up in the reeds and hunted big slabbers. We had great luck fishing big sunnies and a couple days we really got some huge crappies.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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