Otter Tail Co. Fishing Report 6-5-19

By Garett Svir of Slab Seeker Fishing

Water temperatures in Otter Tail Lakes Country are finally above the 60 degree mark and fishing is heating up all over the county! The lilacs are in full bloom and that means one thing to anglers; the crappies are now in the peak of their spawn. We’ve been searching for fish near hard stem bullrushes and shoreline with timber. When there isn’t much wind, we’ve been sight fishing. On clear lakes, we’ve been catching crappies on a simple 32nd oz jig and a minnow. On lakes that have darker or stained water, we’ve been using Northland Fishing Tackle Tuff Tubes in a variety of colors on. When it’s windy, we’ve been working through spawning areas with bobbers set two feet off the bottom. The male crappies seem to be on the nests now, and the females are still sitting out just a shade deeper adjacent to spawning areas. When the spawn is complete, look for these fish to suspend above green weeds, especially curly pond weed.

Bluegills have really just started to move shallow. It seems like when we have a warm day we’ll see a bunch of fish shallow and when we have a cold evening, the fish move  out to 10-12 feet of water. Use a combination of your polarized sunglasses and your electronics and rule out water by the process of elimination and you should do well. Walleyes are in that post spawn transition period. There are still lots of small males shallow, however, the larger females seem to already be moving out to deeper water. Shiners have still been working great but dragging rigs with leeches has also been producing fish.

The bass are just beginning to build nests for the spawn. We did the best this past week fishing with wacky rigged Senko worms although square bill crank baits and small jigs with plastic trailers will also some fish. I’d recommend having a couple of rods rigged on the boat with some search presentations and a few finesse presentations. Northern pike have been biting well. We’ve been catching pike on almost everything while fishing for bass, crappies, walleyes and bluegills so you shouldn’t have a problem locating or catching plenty anywhere in lakes country. I’m taking a couple days off the water as my Crestliner 1750 Fish Hawk gets an oil change and a new winch strap. be back out guiding soon so don’t forget to check out our Facebook page for photos and up to date reports. Tight lines, -The Slab Seeker, Garett Svir, http://www.slabseekerfishing.com