Pre Storm Front Bluegills in Ottertail County In-Depth Outdoors TV S15 E10

James Holst and Konnor Kleist fish ahead of storm in Ottertail county Minnesota for bluegills using VMC jigging spoons and wax worms!

Great show guys! Lots of awesome gills. James, I’m surprised you haven’t caught that magical 12 inch gill yet! I’ve had 2 fishing buddies catch a 12 while I was with. 1 was in Ottertail county. I’m at 11 1/4, this year.
Was this episode filmed around 1/11 ?
Just curious how much ice you had then. Planning on heading that way this week. Thanks James!

I did have my new sweater on for my PB!

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How do you guys go about finding lakes that hold Bigger Sized Bluegills? I know the list of lakes in Ottertail County is endless.

I’m beginning to be convinced that the key is using larger baits. Smaller teardrop style jigs just gives the little one easier access. On a lake in Itasca County a guy came out with a larger Frosty spoon with a small treble. He only got big ones, I am impressed as I am used to the finesse type bite for panfish and feel great when I get a bigger one. Notice they were using larger lures that I would consider for perch or walleye.

Bluegill89 wrote:

How do you guys go about finding lakes that hold Bigger Sized Bluegills? I know the list of lakes in Ottertail County is endless.

Having Konner in the area probably helps.

David Anderson wrote:

I’m beginning to be convinced that the key is using larger baits. Smaller teardrop style jigs just gives the little one easier access. On a lake in Itasca County a guy came out with a larger Frosty spoon with a small treble. He only got big ones, I am impressed as I am used to the finesse type bite for panfish and feel great when I get a bigger one. Notice they were using larger lures that I would consider for perch or walleye.

Using a larger bait will sometimes cut down on some of the smaller fish. But when fish are real aggressive even the smaller fish will hit a larger bait like the spoons they were using. I’ve caught many 5-6″ sunfish on spoons that size and larger. I’m sure the key for them to catch big fish on this outing was 2 things. The lake had a decent population of large sunfish and the bite that day was aggressive. Some of the most aggressive fish are those that feed just ahead of a Storm front – This is true of most all fish species.

Oh and having a local guide Like Konnor who know the lakes in the area real well also probably helped a great deal. A lot of the lakes in Ottertail county often cycle up and down on Large panfish – Knowing what lakes are up and those that are down will help you stay on big panfish in that area a lot.