After fishing the RCL League tournament and hitting the night bite with Dino and Jon – I was pumped up to spend the week on Osakis. After traveling from Mille lacs on Sunday afternoon, I was able to get a few hours on the lake sunday evening. I concentrated on the deep drops off the bars on the south side of the lake. For a short trip, I was very satisfied with the results. Running Lindy rigs in depths of 17 to 25 ft yielded a limit of nice eyes.
Monday through Wednesday found me working shoreline contours and the bars on the west end of the lake. The best Action came off the bars. Trolling or drifting livebait in varying depths provided close to non stop action. We seemed to make contact as soon as we dropped our bait. Then it was just a matter of graphing fish a following our gps to stay on the bar, and on fish. Photo 1 is Ian Hanson with a pair of Osakis eaters. Ian helped me key in on a couple of details that made a huge difference during the week. Number one was that the bigger eyes preferred bleeding bait hooks! These hooks out fished any other color 6 to 1. Another key factors is is snell length. We used Vanish 6lb test in lengths between 7 and 10 ft.
Thursday through Saturday I made a switch to bars located more in the center of the lake. The bleeding bait hooks still were preferred. The bait of choice all week long was jumbo leeches-the bigger the better. For my boat, the crawler bite was non-exsistant. Our best presentation was to start out on the deep edges of the bars and work shallow as the fish activity increased. No certain depth proved to be better, anywhere from 25 to 15 ft producded fish throughout the day. The second picture is Brian and Kathy Kraft with a couple of evening eyes.
Thursday night I had the pleasure of fishing with Wayne Rekedal.Wayne is the Regional Manager for Sea Foam. Wayne also was a guide in the Osakis area and a Pro tournament angler. It was a great time fishing with and picking up some great tips and new locations. Thanks Wayne!
The eye action is hot right now on Osakis. Jumbo leeches on long snells slowly trolled over or around the bars. Graph fish and work them over thoroughly. The late afternoon into evening bite has been a little more productive then the morning bite. The third photo is Wayne with a couple of eaters!
If you want to get some kids out for some fast paced action, The pike are going crazy right now! These fish are everywhere, though they are running on the small side. The Sunfish bite has not taken off yet- bass can be found along with pike along shallow weeds. See you on the water, Don