Ottertail Minnesota Fishing Report 06-11-04

I spent the week with my wife Tamara fishing Ottertail area lakes. We decided to make this a multi-species week of fishing, primarily targeting Large Mouth Bass, Smallies, Walleyes, and Crappies. The Bass fishing was fair to good this week. With the inconsistent weather, the bass seemed to prefer a slower presentation, although a few were taken on bass spinners. The best technique for us was the good ‘ole slip bobber. In fact, we found that a slip bobber with leeches, crawlers, or minnows produced each species we were after better than any other presentaion this week. Here’s a photo of our largest large mouth bass, taken on a slip bobber and a fat leech in about 7 feet of water. Catch, Photo, and Release these big girls please…

This next photo is Tamara with a nice small mouth bass that was also taken on a slip bobber and leech. The small mouth on Clitherall Lake were holding on rocky points in 5 to 9 feet of water. Please remember that Clitherall is catch and release only at this time. You must release all smallies immediately (after you take a picture ). One point to mention here (this is a tip I learned from Ryan Hale and it works well): Use Berkley Vanish as your leader line when fishing slip bobbers. Tie 3-4 feet below your swivel. Fish have a hard time seeing Vanish line in the water and it will truly increase your odds. We use Wing-it slip bobbers and a simple #4 or #6 red live bait hook for leeches, minnows, or crawlers. When the bobber goes down, count to 3 before you set the hook and make sure you have your slack reeled up before you set the hook.

Slip bobbers can be a great way to land a number of species, especially when the fish get finicky. Here’s a photo of Tamara with a couple of eater walleyes. [I understand there has been some talk about "stringer photos" so I want to make it clear that we practice selective harvest when we fish walleyes. In my opinion, the best ‘eyes for the table are between 15 and 18 inches and we do keep a few here and there. I respect everyone’s right to do the same. I’d ask everyone to make an effort to practice selective harvest.] Again, slip bobbers were the best producer of walleyes with and early and late bite being the ticket. We found that many walleye were now prefering leeches when they had been preferring fat heads and shiners a week or so ago. We mainly found walleye in 5 to 15 feet with a lot of cloud cover this week. When the sun’s out you’ll probably need to go deeper. We did get a few walleye to go after crank baits. The chartruese Wally Diver from Cotton Cordell worked fairly well fished over the weed beds in the evening. Jigging minnows or leeches also produced some walleye but not as well as slip bobbers this week.

Finally, the crappie bite was fair when you could find them. Crappie minnows or fat heads jigged, pulled behind spinners, or under a slip bobber proiduced crappies in 7 to 20 feet of water this week. On some of the area lakes it was a real challenge trying to keep the rock bass off your line when fishing crappies. If you want to take the kids fishing, hit West Battle Lake or Clitherall and you should get steady action on the rockies on mid-depth weed beds. While it makes me want to scream it will surely put a smile on a child’s face!