I spent the weekend with my father (Joe Kuehl) and my father-in-law (Tim Zoucha). They were interested in cathing a few walleyes for the pan. We hit a few of the area lakes in Ottertail County with East Battle Lake being a nice producer of walleye for us. This first picture is a nice 21" ‘eye that hammered an orange spinner/minnow trolled at about 1 mph GPS speed. This particular fish was in about 10 feet of water where the depth quickly increased to 20 feet.
Most of the weekend we found walleye anywere from 5 feet to about 17 feet deep. The best presentation for numbers was a jig and minnow. A pink jig with a white body produced well, as did orange, yellow, white, and green. This next picture is my father and father-in-law looking pretty happy to have a few ‘eyes to take home to the ladies!
Altogether we caught about 50 walleye over two days with 40 of those being released. The guys had a ton of fun pitching jigs and pulling spinners. I found it helpful having good electronics to mark my trolling path as these fish were TIGHT in an area just about everywhere we went. A good GPS also helped us replicate our trolling speed as the fish were pretty particular about the speed of our spinners this weekend. Keeping our speed around 1 mph was key.
I also had the chance to take a snap shot of this loon. I love these beautiful birds and this guy let me get close enough to take this picture. A couple of notes… The boat ramp on the East end of West Battle Lake is VERY shallow yet. Be careful. The ramp at East Battle was in great shape. I have heard that there are some tough ramps on Ottertail Lake yet. I’ll be checking it our next week. Hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday!
Sounds like you had fun Wade. It’s been years since I was last up in that area. We caught a lot of little eyes and tons of crappies. Good Luck next time. Clay
Wade,glad to see a fishing report from my NW IA partner!!! It looks like you had fun with the family and caught some nice fish.
We had a loon on Dog Creek over the week-end.I also se them in the spring and fall on the Iowa Great Lakes.They are very fun to watch and listen to.Take care,
Ryan Hale
Thanks guys! We had a lot of fun. I got the most enjoyment watching my dad and father-in-law have a blast reeling in those ‘eyes. Going up with Tamara all next week so I hope to have a good report when I return.
Nice report Wade! Keep em coming!
Thanks for the report Wade. Nice to see you get out and do some fishing instead of having to spend all your time filling our orders so we can have more fun. Thanks, Bill
Thanks guys! Fishing is definately better than sitting on the computer. I had a great time on the water and I’m anxious to get back at it this weekend. The folks at Ben’s Bait said that crawlers were working after the rains so it might be worth it to give the worms a try this week.