NE South Dakota or Otter tail County MN?

Looking to take a Ice fishing trip Early January. Thinking about the glacial lakes in north east South Dakota or Otter Tail county MN area. Any suggestions? Never fished either areas. Willing to try anywhere not set on any given area. Walleye, Crappie, gills, perch doesn’t matter just looking to try a new area. Any suggestions? Any lodging recommendations are appreciated also. Not looking for luxury. Proximity to good fishing with options close by is most important.

gator800r wrote:

Looking to take a Ice fishing trip Early January. Thinking about the glacial lakes in north east South Dakota or Otter Tail county MN area. Any suggestions? Never fished either areas. Willing to try anywhere not set on any given area. Walleye, Crappie, gills, perch doesn’t matter just looking to try a new area. Any suggestions?

Go to Otter Tail Lake, lots of walleye and bonus sturgeon

No. No sturgeon here. That’s just a horrible rumor someone started. Plenty of other fish here though enjoy away. Battle Lake area and Ottertail have lots of options to go exploring nearby lakes with a portable. If you want to stay at a hotel stay in Fergus Falls and go out from there. Its a 45 minute drive to SD and 20 minutes to Ottertail from there so you can hit all of the above in a long weekend.

I would like to see you make it to the glacial lakes in South Dakota in 45 minutes from Fergus Falls. I live near Alexandria and its over 2 hours to Webster SD. Both are excellent areas for fishing but in the winter there is a lot less people in the Ottertail area then the Webster area.

Interesting and good to know. I assumed it would be the opposite. I thought there would be smaller crowds in South Dakota. I would like to try to avoid the crowds so i will keep that in mind. Would love to find some remote, hard to access lakes. Looking at satellite imaging on maps there doesn’t seem to be many lakes with no houses. Everything looks pretty populated.

Its about 45 minutes from my house to the nub. Lake Traverse, Mustinka River etc. Google says 2 hours to webster for me too.

If it remote fishing you are looking forward to I’d say the Webster SD area is hard to beat. Just so many lakes in the area to fish. Some of the fishing for perch is excellent on so many of the small lakes in that area. Not saying that ottertail is not great fishing as well. as a matter of fact that is the area I’d love to retire in someday. To be either is a excellent choice.

If you decide to venture the Otter Tail direction, let me know. Lots of options for fishing multi species.

I’m leaning towards Otter Tail county. Any recommendations for lodging? Don’t want to spend a lot on lodging just need an affordable clean place to catch some sleep. Preferably a motel.

I can get you a nice, 3-bedroom 2-bath cabin for the price of a hotel room if that interests you. Plus, you’ll have a heated shop to clean your fish. Send me a message or give me a holler if you want.

http://www.vacationlandresort.net

Trev wrote:

If you decide to venture the Otter Tail direction, let me know. Lots of options for fishing multi species.

I think me and my son are going to give Otter Tail a try. Otter Tail lake looks appealing. You’re resort looks great but not what im looking for on this trip. It looks like an great option to try in the summer with the whole family though. Do you have any recommendations for smaller mom and pops motels in the area? How’s the ice on Otter Tail lake? I would like to give it a try at least one day. Does Otter Tail lake have a good day bite for walleye or is it typically a morning and evening bite?

If you don’t want to stay in Fergus I would say maybe The Otter. Its right by Ottertail Lake, has food, maybe even a meat raffle. Otherwise Fergus has a bunch of random cheap hotels. Perham probably has a couple motels.

Riverrat wrote:

If you don’t want to stay in Fergus I would say maybe The Otter. Its right by Ottertail Lake, has food, maybe even a meat raffle. Otherwise Fergus has a bunch of random cheap hotels. Perham probably has a couple motels.

Thanks, I did see the Otter and that looks like a good option if they have parking for a truck and enclosed snowmobile trailer.

Yeah we should have some snow by the end of the day so you wont be the only one there with sleds. It gets trail riders and fisherman there.

gator800r wrote:

Does Otter Tail lake have a good day bite for walleye or is it typically a morning and evening bite?

lol. I would go chase crappies during the day. The lake will be gin clear so im guessing it will be your typical 1 hour low light periods