Mini-Report – Ottertail County

Fished a few smaller lakes in Ottertail County this weekend. I was in one of those moods were I did not want to have to mess with the wind at all so I stuck to smaller bodies of water and I’m glad I did. I had my cousin with me and we caught about 30 walleye. None of any great size but we kept a few 14″ers to have a fry and enjoyed releasing another 25 or so to catch another time. The walleye were generally in about 12 to 14 feet and seemed to be most active between 1pm and 5pm. We did have outstanding cloud cover that day. We also got into some nice LM Bass fishing slip bobbers in about 12 to 16 feet. Bass were 1 to 4lbs and nearly every one shot out of the water like a canon. Good fun! I did hear from a very reliable source that a guy landed a 50″ Musky on West Battle Lake throwing crank baits. Hope everyone had a fun weekend on the water. Have a great week all!

Wade- James here. Got a small problem thought you might be able to help me out. A few years back a few of us went to Deer Lake Resort and had a good time. I would like to go again but have lost the no#. Can you or anyone else help me out. It’s in Ottertail area. Jim

Disreguard the previous post. I have found the info I need. Thank you

James, good to see another Iowan who loves the Ottertail area! I have a camper trailer on West Battle Lake. We’ll have to swap stories this year. I can’t wait for open water and warmer weather!

Wade I like the area up there. Only thing is it 425 miles from my house. Trying to get into a lodge up there around the opener. Had great luck the last time I was there. Good eyes and some nice crappies on Anderson Lake. Did not care for the boat ramp but there but you can’t have everything right. Got into some nice eyes up the river from Deer Lake lodge. Hope there is enough water to get there again. If you have any sugestions around there they would be greatly appreciated. Hope to be up there in late May. Need to find out exactly when the opener is. Just set up a trip on the Miss for the 13 &14 of May which might streach into 4 days there. Hope to find the guy from Deer Lake Lodge at one of the swap shows down here . Have two comming up. Trying to get about 4 boat loads from here to go at the same time so it will be like a big fishing outing. Got two already . Might be fun . Jim

Jim, Rush Lake (NE of Ottertail) is a great walleye lake. There’s a nice boat ramp along Rush Lake Loop just off the highway. Get a map of the lake and fish the tops and edges of the sunken islands and the shallow water weeds where the river comes into the lake. Of course Ottertail is an outstanding walleye lake for numbers. I often fish some of the smaller lakes in the area just to get away from all the traffic. I love the Ottertail county area. For the best broasted chicken ever go to the Old Brick Inn on HWY 78 in Battle Lake. There’s also a great little bakery just up the block. I like to try to get as fat as I can when I head north!

Stay in touch as Spring draws near and we can exchange stories and hot spots. I’ll be spending a lot of time at the camper this season. Maybe we can have a western MN get-together this year? See if we can drag some of the boys away from the river and Mille Lacs.

Take Care,

Wade

Jim,

I sell GPS calibrated lake maps which will allow you to pick fishing spots and upload them right to your gps automatically. I am working out the final details with in-depth so I should have info on my products on their site soon. Anyway, I have an Ottertail CD with the 10 top lakes in the area including Rush, Ottertail, and the Pines. Also, if this CD doesn’t meet your needs I can create a custom CD with one lake or any combination of lakes you are interested in. Send me a PM if interested and we can work out the details.

I have Kirsch’s GPS map of ottertail. That lake is FULL of structure. If you want to find that small hump in the middle of the lake (there is only one LOL) Kirsch’s GPS maps will put you on it.

The maps he did for me of NE SD have been lifesavers on guide trips, literally! Yes, there is a story behind that.

I had a little time so I thought I would share my story. It was early ice on one of my favorites lake in NE SD. I had Kirsch do a GPS map for me of this lake because I fish it a lot. I got the map 2 days before heading out to this lake. I marked some of the structure from the map in my handheld and I was off.

As I am heading out in the dark to a sunken island in the middle of the lake on 8 inches of ice I thought I better pull out my GPS to get the satellites and check my course. My satellites come in as my wife and I are walking and I notice I am getting close to a point that I pulled off Kirsch’s map that I know is usually thin ice. So as we walk I notice I am very close to this Danger Point, so I stop and listen and I can here waves. I dig out my flashlight and sure enough, 10 ft in front of me is wide open water. The wind was blowing about 30 MPH (which is always does out there) so there is no way I could hear that water while walking. I would have walked right into it I am sure. It was dark enough and my wife was behind me and she still doesn’t know about that. So, yes, I probably owe my life or atleast avoiding a lot of trouble to Kirsch’s maps.

As for the sunken Island, I made it out there the next weekend and the point I marked on Kirsch’s map was about 30 ft off the hump, but still close enough to find this tiny spot. So, that is my story. Never met Kirsch but I guess I owe him a big thanks.

Well guys it is time to up grade my gps. I have a Garman 12 and it works fine but does not upload or download. Time to get another. Would like your in put on this. Now remember I’m RETIRED . If you were going to replace one what would you get . I do want to stay with Lawrance if possible. I was looking at the Lawrance Globalmap 2400 GPS. What is your thoughts. Would your recomend this unit or another. Need more info before I do any thing. Jim

Jim, You probably want to look at the new GlobalMap 4800 if you want a full size fixed mount unit, or look at the new Lowrance iFinder Pro if you want a handheld unit. I ordered the iFinder Pro for myself because it can run the Navionics maps if I want to add that to it. Take a look at our Lowrance GPS page here and you can see all of the current Lowrance GPS units. I would also suggest you take a look at the Eagle Intellimap 480 (bottom of that same page). It’s basically the same as the Lowrance 4800 but cost about $50 less. Let me know if you want any help with this Jim.

Wade I was just in looking around on your site. I looked at the Ifinder pro. I think I will be staying with a handheld. I like being able to take it in other boats as I fish with other guys that don’t go as much as I do . So they don’t have all the spots marked like I do. I downloaded the emulator for it and will play with it for awhile. So far I think I like it but will check out the others you recomended. I looked up Ottertail on it and Lake Pippin also. They came right in. Mine won’t do that. It has more than paid for itself though. So far I like what I see. Will be in touch when I figure this out. Jim– All info greatly appreciated. Thank You

James,

It all depends on what you are looking for. I am sure I will get into lots of debate over this comment, but here it goes. I love Lowrance’s graphs. However, I am not as fond of their hand-held GPS units. The reason I say hand-held is that personally I want to get as much use out of my GPS as possible. I use mine for hunting, fishing, traveling. etc. If a person is a tournament angler and/or fishes on some of the really large bodies of water, then some of the Lowrance GPS units make a lot of sense as a person can buy some of the uploadable map products. But these companies typically focus on the largest lakes only. So, if you are like me and fish a lot of water, but most tend to be under 10,000 acres, I will stick with a hand-held.

As far as types of hand-helds, I have had nothing but success with the Magellan product line. Some talk about their support not being stellar, but nothing has ever gone wrong with the Magellans I have owned so it hasn’t been an issue for me. The sportrak pro is really dependable and gets lots of good reviews. I believe lots of people like the Garmin Map 76 unit as well as an alternative at a similar price point. If you want to use this for lots of things, this is my recommendation. If you want a GPS that mounts on your boat and you never plan to take it off then the Lowrance units you mention are probably the ticket. Just my thoughts and opinion. Lots of people willl say that the hand-helds are not the way to go but I don’t have the money to own 3+ GPS units, so I will stick with a hand-held for now.

If you are looking for recommendations on the Lowrance units, hopefully someone who has owned a few different ones can comment on their recommendation.

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Wade I was just in looking around on your site. I looked at the Ifinder pro. I think I will be staying with a handheld. I like being able to take it in other boats as I fish with other guys that don’t go as much as I do . So they don’t have all the spots marked like I do. I downloaded the emulator for it and will play with it for awhile. So far I think I like it but will check out the others you recomended. I looked up Ottertail on it and Lake Pippin also. They came right in. Mine won’t do that. It has more than paid for itself though. So far I like what I see. Will be in touch when I figure this out. Jim– All info greatly appreciated. Thank You

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Jim,

You’re most welcome. I only gave you the Lowrance information since you said you prefered to stay with Lowrance. If you have questions about anything feel free to give me a holler. I should be getting my own iFinder Pro pretty soon and I’ll let you know how it goes.

Take care,

Wade