Well, what a week it has been. The waters of Devils Lake are producing a lot of fish, and a lot of really good fish. The Chamber Tournament is this weekend. Kind of the highlight of the fishing tourneys in the Lake Region. The Lake Region possesses some of the most outstanding Walleye fishermen in the world. I firmly believe that to be true. With fish still holding in the weedy shallows yet bleeding into the transition areas of 6-12 feet, there will be teams that pitch, teams that troll cranks, and teams that attack it with spinners and leeches. I 100% expect the winning bags to top 60 pounds.
We had another unbelievable day on the water on Saturday, boating a lot of Walleyes and keeping an exceptional 2-man limit. We started the day with our standard ‘pitch to the inside, spinners with leeches on the outside” technique. We were originally blanked. Couldn’t buy a walleye bite. We decided to switch tactics, move a little deeper and run 4-rods with spinners and leeches. As we came around an island with wind breaking around the edges, my partner commented, “Maybe they are holding on the break edges, get ready”.
How right he was, we hooked into a legitimate double as we rounded the corner and the Walleyes were holding right on the break. We boated 6 18+ keepers in short order. We then made the decision to explore a couple of spots we had never tried before. I know you should never leave fish to find fish, but I have a passion for finding new spots when fishing Devils Lake. It did not take us long to hit a couple unexplored ledges that finished out our limit.
Upon returning to Woodland Resort to clean the day’s bounty, we discovered what would assist us on further trips. The guts of these Walleyes were absolutely crammed with leeches. I mean, they literally burst open when we were cutting. We then went to investigate what bottom we had when we hit fish; almost all of our Walleye hits came in transition areas, mud bottom changing to rocks. Conventional wisdom says those Walleyes are staging on the rocks waiting for those leeches to come out of the mud and into the rocks and sandy bottom. Two weeks ago it was shrimp, shrimp, shrimp, now it’s leeches. I predict the spinner bite will explode over the next few weeks.
Monday found one of our contributing fishermen in Pelican on one of the way back bays. He took our new found information and deployed spinners and leeches. He couldn’t find a keeper, not that he wasn’t on fish, he just didn’t want to butcher 26 inch Walleyes, he reports that at one point they boated back-to-back-to-back 26 inch fish.
Am I saying you cant still get good fish up tight against the weeds with cranks? No, I am not. However, if you want to start getting in to those 100 walleye days that Devils Lake has become legendary for, get out the bottom bouncers and spinners, buy 2 pounds of leeches and hold on to your rod.
Look for our post Chamber Tourney Report, as we will be investigating where and how the top area Walleye guys are plying their trade. Hope to have it up by Sunday evening by the latest.
Buy the waypoints from this Report
SPECIFIC BAYS and LOCALES: Mike’s Lake, Dry Lake, all back bays coming off the main bay, Pelican weed edges, South end of Black Tiger emerging weed beds, East Devils Lake Stump washout, the edges of the weeds. Concentrate on the wind blown weed lines and look for breaks where the wind is breaking around the weeds, especially if a bottom variance is causing the weed break.
