Osakis bite

[Opie]

I'm going to be on Osakis this weekend (June 3,4,5) and wondering how the bite has been going? Not very familiar with the lake, looking for any advice on walleye, crappie, or pretty much anything that will tug back on the other end of the line. Just a bunch of guys getting together for the weekend to relax and reminise (sp?).

Thanks,

Dean Thorn

[Sportfish1850]

Dean the news isn't great from my experience thus far. Fished the lake pretty intently this weekend and caught 2 small bass and a northern for my efforts. We tried up on the rocks near battle point, on the better known bars on the south end where the boats cluster, and didn't see much of anything coming out of the water although lots of blips on the finder. The guys in the bait shops are saying after dark is the only time walleye's are biting and that is pretty inconsistent at best. A few northerns a being taken here and there, and I spooked a few bass from hiding spots around the emerging weed lines this weekend in the clear calm water with the electric trolling motor. We also sent massive amounts of what looked like perch minnows rushing for cover in the shallow sunny bays. But overall everything I hear from 90% of the people I talk to in town, at the resort we stay at, and from personal experience thus far is its been a very slow start for Osakis. Most people are saying there is too much forage in the water....the fresh water "shrimps" or whatever bug larvae that made ice fishing impossible this winter must still be in large supply.

[Andrewsdad]

I second the previous post. We spent Sunday on Osakis. It was dead calm all day. We did not pick up a thing. Had one northern swipe at a spinnerbait in the shallows and that was it. Tried all depths for anything and did not see a thing.

[Hoyter]

We didn't get much this weekend but at least it sounds a little better than the above posts. We fished Sunday night on 4 mile bar in about 19-22 FOW. We caught 5 little walleyes on leeches, some on slip bobbers, the others vertical jigging. We saw one boat close to us catch about 12 or so and a few others caught by other boats. Again, all were little (under 13") that we could see. The sad part was at least half of what we saw caught went into live wells. The 15" minimum wasn't in effect this weekend I guess. The locals I talked to thought the bite would pick up as soon as the water warmed a little more. Sunday it was about 56 degrees. The They thought at about 62 the lake would take off. Hopefully the sunshine and warmer temps next weekend will get the bite started.

My son also got one little northern trolling yesterday afternoon. Overall, pretty slow so far.

[JIvers]

I was thinking about heading up to Alex this past week--reports like these are why I stayed farther south. I had real good luck on Pool 6 of the Mississippi, but I want to get out and do some lake fishing for walleye and Northern.

In past years, we had real good luck on Osakis in the last week of May, but I couldn't tell you what the water temps were. I am staying at Idlewilde for a week starting June 11, so hopefully I hear some better news by then.

On the issue of small walleye being kept, why is it that I get checked out by the CO at least once every trip up there, and am never guilty of anything, yet people like this always seem to get away with it?

[bigbucks]

This is a guess, if it's right that's really too bad, but probably because you have an out of state license on your boat is why you always get checked. It probably makes more sense that it's in state people who aren't from the area that know the state walleye limit & don't bother to check for lake specific regs. Hopefully it's not because they don't care.

Frankly I can't imagine an out of stater who wouldn't have checked the regs not knowing them by word of mouth. If that's the reason you get checked I understand it, but in reality it's probably backwards thinking. Who knows, maybe you've been fishing spots like the two mile & four mile where there's a ton of boats clustered up & it's just easier for the CO's to check a lot of people there. I have been checked many times on Osakis myself though, so I think it's just a higher traffic lake that they actually do patrol a lot. Hopefully they catch some of those who do cheat.

[windyside]

The lake is cold & clear. I would recommend low light periods, light line, a quiet approach, deep & slow. I heard stories Saturday night about planner boards just off the reeds at night....very shallow & also a few male fish being caught in 45 feet off of 4 mile during the day. There are lots of bait fish shallow. Fishing will pick up after a couple of days with 80 degree temps. Good Luck.

[joneshat11]

Osakis has it's own CO for the area. He may not be out there everyday but he is in the area if he is not. The CO is a new young guy for the area also and I here is very aggresive to checking out everything out. I have also heard through the grape vine that he is giving out a few BWI's so if you are driving a boat and drinking a few beverages heads up!! As for the fishing Osakis is a lake where the walleyes are real sensitive to weather changes. Since there has been no real stable weather it's reflecting in the fishing. Once some stable weather happens the walleyes will start bitting!! Also, like every year on Osakis once the water dirty's up the fish will be more aggressive.

[Opie]

Thanks for all of the posts. Doesn't sound real promising, but hey, it's still fishing. I'll take every chance I can to get on the water. Keep the posts coming, did anybody have any luck on panfish? Anything that bites is a good thing.

Dean Thorn

[wesleymac]

I am from Springfield, Mo. and I have been coming to the Alex area for 25 straight years. The last 3 years I have found Osakis slow. Before that very hot for bass, northern and walleye. We enjoy catching northern as we don't eat fish. What has happened ?

By the way I always get checked in my out of state bass boat !

[JIvers]

Quote:

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Osakis has it's own CO for the area. He may not be out there everyday but he is in the area if he is not. The CO is a new young guy for the area also and I here is very aggresive to checking out everything out. I have also heard through the grape vine that he is giving out a few BWI's so if you are driving a boat and drinking a few beverages heads up!! As for the fishing Osakis is a lake where the walleyes are real sensitive to weather changes. Since there has been no real stable weather it's reflecting in the fishing. Once some stable weather happens the walleyes will start bitting!! Also, like every year on Osakis once the water dirty's up the fish will be more aggressive.

---

The new CO for Osakis is indeed thorough--he checked my cooler and tackle box last year, and had me lift up other stuff in my boat. He is the only CO I have been checked by to go that far. Although I am a grad student living in Iowa, I have kept my Minnesota residency, and my boat has Minnesota tags on it, so he is not just targeting out-of-staters.

[bigbucks]

I'm aware of these things about the CO as well. He's a good guy from anything I've heard & experienced. He checked us at midnight exactly on opener last year & he checked most of our hunting party during deer hunting last year too.

[basssmasher*]

guess i would rather see the CO doing his job correctly than not correctly... mebbe he can nail a few more poachers this way.. if we do things legally we have no worries right ???

[bigbucks]

Agreed, I have no problem with that. That's what the state's (all of us) paying them for.

[Opie]

Just wanted to say thanks to all that replied. I was on the lake all day Saturday and Sunday. Water temps were in the low to mid sixties. The bite was tough, the weather was even worse. Just once this year, I would love to fish without the rainsuit on.

We fished all over the lake on Saturday with little to show for our efforts. We tried 1/2 mile, 3-mile, 4 mile, the sunken island on the North Arm, and everywhere in between. Right at the end of the day we decided to try working the shallow reed beds and weed edges for pike as I had a gentleman from Texas with me and he had never caught one. To our surprise, we picked up some eyes also. Sunday morning we went back out and worked the weed edges casting shallow shad raps and caught a bunch of walleyes and a few pike and bass. Turned out to be a pretty good trip. Not a lot of size on the walleyes, just good eaters from 16" - 18". I think the Texas boy is hooked on Minnesota fishing, just not too sure about the weather.

Dean Thorn

[WalleyeGetter]

Opie,

I have been doing the same thing as you on Osakis, fishing the main lake bars. With little or no success. Wondering, Which part of the lake did you fish for the weed edge walleyes? any info would be greeatly appreciated

[alaskadreamin]

Opie,

Glad to see you made it home!! How were the eyes? And the Salmon? Another good ATF.....counting down to fall.....

Dean, you have to tell these guys you ran all over the lake against the advise of the locals....if the fishing was better on the other end of the lake we would have bought a cabin over there....just kiddin...had to through a little crap....See you this fall!!!

Steve

[Opie]

Steve,

Again, thanks for opening your place for all of us. Pretty tame crew this year, but still a blast. Looking forward to fall. Haven't had the fish yet, all went into the freezer. Leah is really looking forward to the salmon. Do you wrap it in foil, or just straight on the grill with butter and garlic? Let me know. Keep me updated on your plan for get togethers for cards in Spicer.

WalleyeGetter,

Not sure of the name of the area as it was my first time on the lake, but it is a shallow bay on the southwest side of the lake. There is a private boat launch there. You will see boats in there trolling the edges of the reeds, but we had the best luck with perch shallow shad raps casting right to the reeds and burning it back.

Hope this helps,

Dean Thorn

[WalleyeGetter]

Thanks Dean,

I think what you are talking about is town bay and the little bay behind it, I'm gonna give it a try,

Thanks again

[JIvers]

When we fish Osakis, we target walleye first, but during the day if they aren't biting on the off-shore structure we shift gears and fish Town Bay for Northern and bass, usually with spinnerbaits. Every year we take a few walleye doing this, and they are usually good-sized fish. These walleye come out of five FOW or less, taken on spinnerbaits, usually in the early afternoon. No surprise to me that you are finding them on the weed edges.

I read a study that found that in lakes with both natural reproduction of walleye and stocked walleye (like Osakis), wild fish usually use the deeper classic walleye structure, while stocked fish relate more to weeds, as they are reared in shallow weeded ponds.

[alaskadreamin]

Dean,

No sweat..anytime...I would wrap the salmon in tin foil, pad of butter and garlic...lemon peper also good....when it's pink it's done....20 min or so.....

Went up last night...worked the same areas...all we could find is pike....guessing with the high skies that the eye's all went deep.....wind came up so didn't stay out real late.....

Peterson bay, right off of 2 mile camp ground...some maps now call it Schultz bay...sssh let all the terrorists keep pounding 3 and 4 mile.......

[sikasoman]

Hey Osakis neighbor! Just got back from Canada. I happened across your forum and thought I would reply. I see that the fish were being pestered in my absence. I hope there are still a few left when I get back there in 2 weeks?!

Your osakis neighbor.

Rog

[alaskadreamin]

Rog,

did you get you fill north of the border? Water coming up on Osakis!! this rain needs to stop and let the ground dry out.....see you in a few weeks....

[fishinbum]

Hello all,

I haven't been up to osakis in years and wondering how the report is for eyes? I did hear the shallow bite is the best, how do you fish the shallow weeds and where?

Thanks for the help, fishinbum

[ItsaKeeper]

Hi Rog,

I had went up and slept in the back of the pickup this past weekend, got rained out. Weather man said there was a less risk of rain the farther north and west you got, I guess I wasn't far enough. I made it out for a couple of hours friday night and sat morning. Had 1 15.75" wally and 2 3# snakes. Didn't see any pan fish in the shallows yet.

stevie

[Sportfish1850]

Fishinbum

Things have been slow so far on Osakis but did pick up slightly this last weekend. My son and I got 4 walleye total between Friday and Saturday night and a couple of small northerns mostly fishing 10-12 feet of water thats very close to a drop off to 20ft of water on one side and weeds on the other (thats like half the lake I know but it seems that scattered from the boat clusters). As for what to use on the end of the hook, half came on a leech, half came on minnows so there was no distinct pattern we found. It was hit or miss but at least something finally started tugging on the line even if it wasn't red hot action.

I tried calling for FM'ers on the marine radio on #69 (the FM channel) but had no responses.

[sikasoman]

Hi Stevie, By bro Ron was to get with you and see if you were going up last weekend. Youcertainly could have used the place.

Sounds like I may get in on the pan fish action afterall!!? Just got back from Parley tonight. They were a bit hard to find, but once I found them, I limited out in about 15 minutes!!

[JIvers]

I just got back from a week on Osakis--it was a pretty good trip. We arrived last Saturday, and spent the first three or four days finding fish. We took a few walleye, and some Northern, but not a lot. Two Mile gave up a few fish, but the constantly shifting wind made staying on them a chore.

The last few days were much better--was anyone else here fishing around Half Mile? If you did, I was the small blue boat with the small Evinrude. The walleye were hitting steadily right on the weed edges. No one in my party got any big fish--I CPR'd a 23", and we released a few more between 19" and 22", but nothing big. We did catch all the eaters we could want.

The Northern bite wasn't as fast as it usually is, but I got enough to make pickled pike for football season. I also went looking in the reeds one afternoon for bluegills, and caught a couple nice ones, along with a 16" largemouth, which was interesting on an ultralight crappie pole.

I also got a visit from the new CO on Two Mile Sunday night--he wrote several tickets on other boats, but I couldn't tell you what they were for. In my case, he checked my license and PDF, and inspected the Northern I had in the boat.

[fishinbum]

Thanks for the tips. Caught a few this last weekend on the weed edge with crawlers. Tough bite!! Anyone out there know who won the Lions fishing tourney in Osakis this last weekend and how much weight they had and how they caught them?

Thanks

[windyside]

LAKEOSAKIS.COM will have tournament results soon. 40 of 93 posted no fish for the first day. That's a tough bite. Most tournament fishermen used night crawlers, red tails are too expensive & too much work to trap in the local high water. Leaches will be the hot bait soon.