Quick otter tail area report

we left friday morning knowing that it was gonna be cold weekend, with that being said we packed all the warms clothes and had plenty of heat. stopped at ken’s bait picked up some fatheads and shinners and were off to dead lake. fished friday afternoon into the night and caught 1 eye and my father in-law caught 2. 2 fish were 12 inches and the other one was 22. we woke up to 26 below air temp saturday morning so we didn;t start fishing till about noon. saturday was the same thing with it being slow till the magic hour. only one eye caught goin 12 inches again.
we tried every possible lure presentation possible and moved around as much as we could. all in all it was great weekend with in- laws.
the ice was ranging from 16 to 14 inches on dead, otter tail there were trucks driving out as well.

good luck fishing

Thanks for the report Joe!

It sure was a cold weekend, with temps falling to -30 in areas at night. I snuck out Thursday, Friday and last evening. Despite the high pressure/cold conditions I had a great bite overall. Most (90%) of my fish came on jigging spoons, and aggressive tactics. The Go Devil perch and Custom Jigs and Spins Vertiglo Perch were hot. I think I caught 2 eyes on a deadstick/bobber presentation and 14 on jigging. It was fun.

Did you happen to notice slush on the lakes? It was terrible in some areas, but it’s frozen up now for the most part.

Thanks for the report Joe. I wish I could have met up with you but there is always next time. Let me know when you are in the area again and hopefully my schedule will allow it.
DT

I didn’t see any slush at all on dead where we were. I talked to the guy who owns kens bait I forgot his name but any who. he said all the ice reports were anywhere from 16 to 9 inches, 9 inches were in the middle of the lake. where were you fishin at did you move alot to find the fish and what depths.

yeah we will have to meet up some where james good luck

I wasn’t mobile this past weekend. I have a perm shack parked, and it gets a fair amount of use when temps plummet or when I take my young daughter out.

oh i see where do you park the your schack out on the lake the north end or the middle

Honestly, I’m not fishing Otter Tail with the perm shack. I park that closer to home, but I do spend some time out on OT when the time is right. I fish all over OT from the SW side all the way to the NE. I have my “spots” all over the lake that I like to fish, and I go snowmobile and Otter combo.

The thing is with OT, if fish don’t show their presence on the flasher after 5 minutes in each hole I move on. They likely aren’t there… There is so much structure to work it’s mind boggling at times, so I’ll drill all around the structure from 10′ down to 30′. If I don’t see anything hole hopping, I keep moving until I find a bite.

Aggressive jigging will let you know if there is a bite or not. No need for a second line most of the time.

I agree, my girlfriend bought a guided fishing trip for me for a birthday present. she went with Ross Miester. it was the middle of july and we moved around alot, so i know what you mean when you say structure. Ross on the other hand is a class act, he wouldn’t even let me bait my own hook or take the fish off. We caught about 30 fish in 4 hours. He actually talked to us too. I thought he was a very nice guy. I would recomened him to anybody.