Houland Lake Fishing in Otter Tail County, Minnesota

• Overview

  Look for Houland Lake in Otter Tail County, Minnesota. Elevation runs to 1,263 feet. At about 181 acres, a day is enough to walk the shoreline properly. About 3.1 miles of bank, so nothing stays unexplored for long. Pelican Rapids lies 7.5 miles from the water. Further out sit Fergus Falls (15 miles) and Barnesville (16 miles). The county edge is within a short distance of the bank.

• Where to Fish on Houland Lake

  No chart reached our records; the first cast is your sounding. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. The shallow end warms first and pulls fish in ahead of the rest. Survey and observation records for Otter Tail County include largemouth bass, black crappie, walleye, bluegill and yellow perch. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. The near bank of Houland Lake is often the one people ignore.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The range across the year is 6°F to 70°F. Hard water is a season in its own right here. Count the season from break-up, usually mid April. Break-up sits around mid April on average, with the water closing again about late November. Spring is short and heavy here; autumn is longer and steadier. That is the shape of the year on Houland Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  There is no clear statement anywhere on who can fish it. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. We find no slipway, car park or made path within a short radius, so treat access as rough. Largemouth respond to soft plastics tight to cover; go weedless where the growth is heavy. Rules for this water may differ from the county norm. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. The nearest alternative is Christopherson Lake, 2.2 miles out. Signs at Houland Lake carry more weight than any list.