27th annual Lake Osakis Lions Club Tourney

The 27th annual Lions Club tournament was held this past weekend on Lake Osakis, near Alexandria MN. I had the privelage of fishing this tournament with a good friend of mine Bryan Berscheid for the fourth consecutive year. This tournament is filled with some very good anglers year in and year out, some include local guides, locals whom have lived on this lake their entire life, as well as a bunch of guys who like the competition of a small walleye tournament for a good orginization.
The walleye gods were shinning down on us once again this year! We won the tournament with a total 2 day weight of 30.55lbs for 12 fish. Second place was 25.80lbs and third place followed with 24.75lbs!

We finished Day 1 in first place with 6 fish for 19.55 lbs, which included a 27.5″, 26.5″ and four fish right at about 18″. A perfect day of fishing, for the glass like conditions. We only caught a total of 8 walleyes on day one, but the bass, dogfish, and northern made for a busy day of fishing.
Day 2 was the complete opposite of Day 1 weather wise, rain in the A.M. followed by strong winds which made boat control difficult. A couple times I had to keep the trolling motor on 100 just to keep us at fishable speed. With the change in weather also meant a drastic change in the fish’s feeding habits, man they were on the chew big time, however it was a struggle to get to the 16″ minimum, tons of 15-15.75″ fish were caught. I think we caught about 30 fish on Sunday. We were lucky enough to sort through the smaller fish and weigh a limit of 6 fish. 2 17″, 3 18″, and 1 20″ fish for 11.00lbs even.

Lake Osakis has just about every kind of typical walleye structure. Mid lake humps, rocks, weeds, deep weed lines, and open water suspended fish. For pre-fishing my partner and I decided to split up and cover more water seperatley, because of the size of lake and the many places these fish can hide. The lake has a 15″ minimum size slot and it shows, however tournament rules have a 16″ minimum! This lake is full of walleye between 15.25″ and 15.75″. They do stock the lake as well as natural reproduction. A great fishery located in the heart of Minnesota.
Here is an example of what Lake osakis has to offer as to size of fish.

I would like to thank Scott Steil for loaning me his boat, since my I blew my lower unit a week and half ago. I would also so like to thank the Osakis Lions club for a well organized tournament. Also to my partner Bryan for a great tournament as well, both of us had our share of mishaps with the net, good thing it didn’t turn out to hurt us!!!

Click on pictures to enlarge!!!!