It’s A Fall Fisherman’s Delight!
Get out your warm gear everybody, it’s time to go fishing in Otter Tail Lakes Country!
I’ve seen some big swings this week around the Otter Tail Lakes area. I see fewer and fewer boats out on the lakes and the public access ramps are pretty empty. Where did everybody go? The fishing is strong and the foliage along the shorelines is very striking—it’s a fall fisherman’s delight.
After a long warm-water period, the lakes are rapidly cooling now. Water temps on lakes around the county are close to around 60 degrees. Once water temps get into the 50’s fish seem to be a bit more challenging to find, but bite well once you find them and in most cases the fish you do find are nice—especially walleye, panfish and bass.
Right now you can find walleye on shallow flats, in weeds, on weed lines and steep break lines. It can be difficult to find a consistent depth for walleye. I recommend fishing lakes in Otter Tail County that are larger than 1,000 acres, then working hard to find walleye at a given depth and continuing to search the lake for other groups of fish at the same depth. It tends to be an easier strategy than trying to cover all of the depth zones on a lake (which can be tedious and very time consuming).
As I mentioned earlier, once you find fish right now they are worth it! Always keep night crawlers handy for walleye, but minnows are my first choice for bait right now. Red tail chubs and suckers are good choices for live bait rigging, and smaller minnows like fatheads work well on jigs. I’ve been finding nice panfish off of weed edges and at the base of drops. Small 1/32 oz jigs or 1/16 oz jigs tipped with gulp are working well. Bass are really grouped up right now. I’m finding them over deep weeds and on steep drop offs just at the deep weed line. Texas rigged plastic baits are good choices as well as deep diving crank baits. Good luck fishing Otter Tail Lakes Country this week! Dress warm and have fun.
Ross Hagemeister
