Fishing Report 7-23-20

By Erik Osberg

It feels like summer is slipping away. July is almost over, the sun is setting earlier and the nights have been cooler. That being said, there are still plenty of chances to get out and enjoy all Otter Tail County has to offer. I am an average angler at best. I just spend a lot of time on the water. And I usually have kids in the boat with me when I do go fishing. Chasing walleyes for eight hours isn’t my normal routine. It is usually a couple hours in the evening here, or maybe a few hours in the morning there. I like to maximize my time on the water by targeting species that are “easier” to catch. Most of the lakes in this area are by nature what we would call bass/panfish lakes. If you are willing to target bluegills, crappies or bass. Your fun meter should go up.

Bluegills

When it comes to catching bluegills, we are focusing on weed edges. Weed patches are very thick now, and so it can be tuff to fish IN the weeds. We typically use a small jig tipped with a whole angling worm or a 3rd of a night crawler. We don’t usually use a bobber, we just cruise the weed edges in 10-13 feet of water until we stumble into a school of fish. Over the years, we’ve been able to identify spots that are more likely to hold fish, but you do have to eliminate some dead water. Once you catch a couple bluegills, you should be able to just vertically jig out of the side of the boat and catch em. This fish might move a bit, so you might have to go into search mode if they stop biting.

Crappies

When it comes to crappies, we’ve been using a 2.5 inch Gulp minnow on a 1/16 ounce jig. We’ve been finding more crappies in the weeds than on the weed edges. Same concept applies, you can simply move slowly along the weed edge and cast into the weeds. If you come in contact with fish you can stop and try to fish that area more thoroughly. Sometimes we will have one person using a jig and work along the weed edge while another person is casting up into the shallower water. If one seems to be considerably more productive than the other. We focus on that.

Bass

If you use the 1-2 technique. One person using a worm and another casting a light jig and plastic, you might catch a few surprises. One one recent outing, one of my son’s buddies caught a new personal best bass with a small Gulp Minnow and 1/8 oz jig. Other favorites of ours include a 1/2 oz spinner bait (black or white) with a Colorado blade or a large Jungle Jig with a large plastic.

Walleyes

If you really, really, really want to catch walleyes, I highly recommend you consider hiring a guide. Ross Hagemeister of Meister Guide Service, Bret Setterholm of Bret’s Guide Service and Randin Olson of Lock Jaw Guide Service are great choices.