Osakis 2/14- 2/16

We had about 6 houses out of Head of the Lake Resort on the west side of the far NE bay. Overall fishing was pretty good. Two of us were in 26 feet, the bottom was fairly clean and sandy.
Best crappie fishing was between 5pm and 9pm. Lots of negative fish, but at times there were no less than 6 fish at different depths under the hole. You just had to keep moving your bait to find the ones willing to bite.
The evening was enough action to keep two rods busy. Most of my 45 crappies were 9 to upper 10 inch fish, with a few 11’s and one that was 12 1/2 inch. A few other friends had 12’s also. A house next to us had one 14″.
Best bait for me was a half moon looking glo-jig with a crappie minnow. I kept moving the bait to different fish, then I’d set my pole down and hope for a biter. I felt moving the bait too much had a negative effect. I could see on the spring bobber that the minnow was swimming, if he wasn’t, I’d bump the rod to get him moving again. Most of the bites was just a 1/4″ bend on the spring, very light.

Saturday morning I had a tip-up in a corner hole in the house, and did manage a nice very fat 34 inch Pike.
We heard a few houses in the bay had a few Bluegill, but very hard to get, so most of my group just stuck to the crappies.
I’ll try and get a pics on here from my phone, when I figure it out.
Jack

I fished Osakis yesterday afternoon as well…very slow for sunfish, almost every hole had fish in them, but they were negative. Managed a few crappies as well. That lake has seen a ton of pressure this winter and the amount of crappies from 7″-11″ is hard to believe. Congrats on some nice crappies.

I fished Osakis on Saturday with my dad. We had the camera down and we seen quite a few good sized Northern swim by. One was extremely nice and had 5 hooks in its mouth with about 2-3 feet of Tip-up line hanging from it. We sat there for about 2-3 hours without any panfish in sight. I decided to move around and punch more holes. Once we found the fish, it was a blast. Lots of 9-11″ crappies as fast as you could catch them. The best part of the trip was when we had to get one more fish for our limit, and my bobber was going down. I bet my dad a dollar that I would catch the last fish knowing that it was going to be the easiest dollar I ever made. Of course I missed the fish and my dad proceeded to pull up the last fish just after I put a new minnow on my hook. Overall I had a great time on the ice with my dad and it made it a lot better when we were able to come home with our limits!

This is a pic of my Northern, 34 inches, from a tip-up that I put in the corner of the ice house. Sucker minnow in 26 feet. A very healthy FAT fish.

Jack

(I was able to figure out how to email these to myself and download, but I could not figure out how to attach from being signed in through my phone, android Verizon.)

This is my biggest Crappie caught in a friends brand new Ice Castle that was about 30 yards from the house I was in for the weekend.
A very nice 12 1/2 incher.
Jack

Went back up to Osakis earlier this week for a 2 day trip; actually stayed in the same house as I was in a week and a half ago.

My deer and Elk hunting friend who lives in Alexandria meet me at the resort. He has not been in an ice house for over 30 years.
We had a great time and caught 90 Crappies; 6 were over 11 inches, and the rest was 9 to upper 10 inchers.
Our overall size was slightly bigger that I had my first trip.
I am planning on making a June trip up there for Crappies and maybe a big Bluegill.
Jack