Fantastic Fall Fishing in Otter Tail Lakes Country
-The Slab Seeker- Garett Svir http://www.slabseekerfishing.com
Fall is in the air in lakes country! The leaves are starting to turn, the nights are cooling off and the days are getting much shorter. This weekend signals the end of the summer tourist season for much of lakes country but we’ve got a lot of great fishing still ahead of us. Post Labor Day is my favorite time of year to fish many species, bass being near the top of the list.
Bass are beginning to stack up on deep weed edges and beginning to really pack on the pounds for the winter ahead. This time of year can be fantastic for large numbers and for the opportunity to chase some of the biggest bass in a given lake. Senko worms, swim jigs with trailers, deep crank baits and Texas rigged creature baits, even tube jigs… will all produce. Move along those deep weed edges until you get bites. Some lakes have fish spread out along the edges while others seem to have tons of fish holding in several places. The bluegill bite is holding up well on deep main lake structure. Look for fish on electronics and vertical jig for them on humps, points, and inside turns with weeds and access to deeper water. Once the water temps start to drop in September these fish will move shallow again, it usually happens around the middle of the month.
Crappies can be found on deep cabbage and are starting to bite really well on many lakes. We used a larger Beetle Spin the other day and targeted a deep cabbage edge in 14-16′ and had some great action. We just trolled along slowly with the trolling motor brushing over the top of the deep cabbage stocks. Tube jigs would be another great option. Walleyes can be found on a variety of structure right now. We’ve been targeting the edges of wind blown weeds with bottom bouncers and spinners. After making a few passes we’ve been switching to a worm weight and Northland Tackle Butterfly Blade Spinner with a night crawler and getting right up tight into that weed edge. The sweet spot is right where the weeds start to thin out a little. Use the front graph on your boat to alert you as to when the weeds get dense and then make a small turn out toward deeper water. The fish are coming out of those weeds to feed so rather than waiting for them, go right in and catch em! Pike have been really active around the county lately. We’ve been catching them while trolling for crappies and walleyes, while vertical jigging for bluegills and while casting for bass so you shouldn’t have any problem catching a few.
Still have a few dates available for guided fishing in September if you’re looking to enjoy a beautiful cool day in the boat shoot me a message.