Fishing Report 6-24-20

By Erik Osberg

Adaptation can be critical when it comes to having a successful fishing trip. We recently had our annual Uncle’s Trip and Mother Nature forced us to change our game plan out of the gate. We were staying at Holly’s Resort on Otter Tail Lake and the south winds were so strong, we weren’t able to fish that lake. The good news is with over 1,000 lakes in Otter Tail County, we had plenty of other options.

Fortunately, we had hired a guide to help us in our search for the elusive walleye and he was on a decent bite on a much smaller nearby lake. Randin Olson of Lock Jaw Guide Service was a big reason we were able to have our fish fry.

Leeches were the bait of choice, we used very long leaders, somewhere between five and seven feet of length. A 3/8 oz bullet sinker and a plain hook. Color didn’t seem to matter, but we had a variety of colors in the water. Bright orange, chartreuse and grey were all used. Sometimes with a bead or two, sometimes just the hook.

I was lucky enough to stumble into a few fish between 16-18 feet of water on the first day of our trip. After day 1, I was atop the “Big Fish” leaderboard with a 25 3/4 inch walleye. The lead didn’t hold very long. On day 2, a newcomer to our trip got a 26 inch walleye while fishing in Randin’s boat. If I was going to lose to anyone, I was glad it was Adam.

By the end of day two, we had finally located a pod of active fish, they were on the windswept side of the lake. They were as shallow as 10 feet and as deep as 17 feet. We would back-troll our live bait rigs along the break as close to 0.5 mph as we could.

The moral of the story is this, just because you are staying on a particular lake, that doesn’t mean you can’t fish other lakes. Please be very mindful of which lakes have been declared “infested” and do not go from infested waters to non-infested waters in a short time frame. Always drain, clean and dry your boat no matter which lake you fish. In addition, hiring a guide for at least part of your trip can pay big dividends. We recommend Ross Hagemeister of Meister’s Guide Service, Bret Setterholm of Bret’s Guide Service or Randin Olson of Lock Jaw Guide Service. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Holly’s Resort and can’t wait until next year’s trip.