by Tim Z., May 02, 2008

I had the pleasure of spending the opener with my friends and family at Offut Lake Resort for their opening day derby. It all started Friday morning and ran through Sunday. Places where 1st through 4th 1st place was a minn -kota trolling motor, Second place was an equipped tackle box, third was a free boat rental and fourth was an Offut Lake Resort hat. This was my fourth year entering the derby and I thought I was coming prepared I had fished the lake for a month finding a consistent pattern to catch the hold over cutthroat that were running at an average of two and a half pounds!! The couple weeks before the derby I caught and released five or six fish over two and a half pounds but when the resort opened their net pens to release the thousands of trout that they raise for the state it seemed they pushed the bigger fish to a different area of the lake.


I started fishing around 10 am Friday trolling oversized wedding rings with size two hooks tipped with worm in a boat I rented at the resort. I was trying to target big fish and keep the freshly stocked fish off. The size two hooks worked well as we had many bites and only hooked three fish less than 12 inches. I ended up with one stocker cutthroat to weigh in and it went 1.4 pounds. It was enough to take the day one lead but was beat early Saturday morning by a 2 pound hold over caught by one of the dock fisherman with pink power eggs. I arrived mid day Saturday with four adults and two children and we rented one of the resort’s pontoon boats and trolled for a couple hours catching three stockers. I was impressed how comfortable we all were. It is a great way to fish with the family. Sunday morning I went out and again rented a boat and went after a winner but to no avail. I was off the water at 10 a.m. with nothing that would place. All in all I had a great time and even got the start of a tan.


First place was taken with a 2 pound 15 ounce cutthroat! I got a chance to talk to him and he said the fish was caught across from the resort on a silver and red worm tipped wedding ring fished deep.


If you plan on heading out to the lake here are a few things you should know:


1) The Lake has; rainbow, cutthroat, triploid and brown trout, small and large mouth bass, perch, bull head catfish and pumpkin seed.


2) The public boat launch is only fair it has a long steep hill you must back down than turn to a narrow ramp. If the water is low it can be fun to get the boats in. If you call the resort they can give you some information on the water level.


3) The derbies are open to resort guests only. You must sign in at the resort .( no gas motors while at the resort)


4) The resort offers; camping, (tent, r.v. and cabin) dock fishing, boat/pontoon rentals, a packed general store, a concession cart with great food and drinks and during the summer a U-fish pen that has 2-6+ pound rainbows!

By Tim Z.