Report 15: Devils Lake Gold, Big Devil Diamonds, and the Information Factor

Back-to-Back Gold Strike-“Oh, Those Devils Lake Ledges”

This past weekend was a Devils Lake gold mine strike with a couple of Big Devil Diamonds mixed in. As I have stated on here before, once those Perch move out of the weeds and start to stage on the intermediate and deeper ledges I will start to target them exclusively and try to strike gold, as in the mine of a perch school.

Along the way, I will hope to pick up limits of eyes that are doing the same thing we are doing, chasing those beautiful Devils Lake Perch.

Wednesday’s outing started out as a mining exploration, it turned into a sandwich eye extravaganza. We boated well over 50 walleyes and ended 2 short of a 2 man, 1 Pike Slayer limit. (This will be the last time he is referred to as Pike Slayer as he officially earned a new nickname, but more on that later.)

Not all trips end as we envision and zero perch were boated. We concentrated on a 12-15 foot shelf and we were happy to boat a near limit, however, the lack of Perch presence got me thinking and reviewing previous year’s information. Back to the drawing board we went.

Given the amount of fish on that particular depth level ledge, we decided to move locations but stay on that depth for Saturday and Sunday’s expeditions. This decision would end up being the right one.

Saturday we were up at the crack of 5 and armed with spinners and worms ready to attack 2 specific portions of a 12-15 foot ledge. The first portion would not disappoint and we were able to boat a handful of really nice 17-21 inch Devils Lake walleyes. Having put ourselves on the board and not getting any Perch rat-a-tat-tat’s yet, we moved to our second location. While we didn’t strike the mother load of a Gold Mine, we did notch 2 Devils Lake Perch nuggets and would be able to establish where there was a school for Sunday’s expedition.

Sometimes the weather is your enemy, sometimes the weather is your friend, and not all times does the enemy work against you. Sunday morning saw us watching the radar as an early morning thunderstorm was bearing down on the Big Devil.

We decided to depart but stay close to the bridge in case lightning and rain forced us into cover. This also kept us from our previous days Perch school and we were forced to try a new ledge that was closer to our potential storm shelter.

Thank the weather for a new find. We almost instantly boated a couple nice eyes and then one of the mornings two Jackpots, a Big Devil Diamond.

I LOVE Crappie’s, probably because they are somewhat of a rarity on Devils Lake. We only boated 1 but we had definite Crappie hits and will be going back to investigate further.

The second gold mine strike was what we were after in the first place, Devils Lake Gold, the wily Perch. We ventured through several areas that were holding Perch schools and at times the machine gun hits on all 4 rods was comical. Hook up rate was about 20 to 1 but just the pure joy of knowing we had a Perch school on the map was worth the effort.

The Big Devil is notorious for splitting and disrupting storms and Sunday morning was an instance of that. The storm veered south and after establishing the basic location of Perch in location 1, we decided to heard to our original destination established the day before.

It did not take us long to relocate our walleye/perch school from the day before and the action was non-stop, between the eyes, perch and pesky pike. The day would end with a walleye limit, 8 perch and 1 elusive crappie. I lost count of how many smaller eyes and pike that we boated but it was well into the double digits.

Spinners and bottom bouncers, 2 ounce, 1 ounce and a quarter tipped with night crawlers were the ticket. Spinner colors that worked were Green and Chartreuse, Pink and white, and Gold.

Logging Information

I am a journaling junky when it comes to hunting and fishing. I keep track of the weather, the barometer, times, dates, what we did, how we did it. You name a variable to be had when hunting and fishing, I try to log it, moon phase is crucial as is the barometer.

I do this, because I am a firm believer that by looking back and learning from our successes and most importantly our mistakes, we become better at what we do.

As I was journaling our weeks trips I started to ponder if what I was doing was worth it or not, and my thoughts return to February 17th 2014. That was the day I would register my first and only 2+ pound perch on Devils Lake. That fish and that spot happened thanks to journals of past successes and an old friend who is also a stud of a Perch fisherman Tory.

I was ice trolling for Perch and actually having a pretty dismal day when I approached a spot on the GPS that had 2 waypoints that I didn’t originally recognize.

I went to my records and all’s it said was “Tory Hot Spot Perch”. Since my day was not looking real good I decided what the heck and drilled a set of 10 holes and was going to fish them before calling it a day.

Hole number 9 would prove to be a Yukon Gold Rush of a Devils Lake perch school of Super Mega Jumbo’s. The first day on the spot would reward me with a 20 perch limit, day 2 would be 17 Super Mega’s and the unicorn of the Big Devil, the 2+pounder.

Had it not been for records, my GPS, and old Tory I would still be hunting that mythical creature. Whenever I get kind of lazy and bored with writing this stuff down and keeping track, I bring up that picture and ponder the ‘what if’ of not writing this stuff down. It is wonderful motivation.

Buy the Waypoints from this Report

Why the Digits Fault

We are coming out with a new option. Calling it the Digits Vault. Yes, there is a small fee, but the information included will help everyone have successes on the Big Devil.

The Digits Vault will be a tab that you can click on to get the waypoints and troll lines that go along with each report, pictures and successes. Don’t worry, I won’t include any of the ‘water elimination trips’, that would be an exercise in futility.

I have mingled with fisherman from all across this country and one of the main complaints I have run into is that people come for a short period of time to fish here and often times waste a number of fishing days just figuring out where they should start. The digits vault will eliminate that period of time and help you get on fish immediately.

Along with the Digits Vault, you can also purchase Edition 1 of MYDLNDWaypoints, which has 17 waypoints that cover different parts of the lake and span the entire open water season. The Digits Vault will be the most current information, MYDLNDWaypoints is my historical information that I use to go back year after year, my starting points if you will. Both will help you enhance your trip to Devils Lake.

PIKE SLAYER no more, He’s the Walleye Slayer now

As I mentioned before, we had to unceremoniously put my son’s nickname “Pike Slayer” to rest. It was not a sad burial, it needed to be done away with. He has now been dubbed, by himself of course, “The Walleye Slayer”. He is quite literally HOOKED on fishing now. Nothing could make me happier than watching him scramble around the boat attempting to reel in every hook-up on Wednesday night.

He was on it. Sure, we had a couple father-to-son moments where we had to talk about settling down and not falling over the edge of the boat, but to watch the youthful enthusiasm was worth every moment on the water.

I wish we had tape-recorded the conversation as he talks non-stop and some of his quotable quotes are priceless, and the way his mind processes things makes me wonder where he comes up with this stuff.

The added benefit is that he is not on his I-pad or watching TV. He is actively taking part in the outdoors and what I consider a right of passage into being a complete person.

We are bringing a tape recorder and Go-Pro next time, hopefully we can share with you all what the true meaning of fishing is all about if you have lost perspective on why we do what we do.

SPECIFIC BAYS and LOCALES: There are two depth levels that we are concentrating on right now, 24-28 feet and 12-15 feet. The 12-15 foot ledges we have been hitting have been parallel to weed beds, the 24-28 foot ledges have been above steep drops. The areas we have been targeting are also longer stretches, bay straight-a-ways that allow for longer trolls and better opportunity to identify multiple perch schools. Areas that possess these stretches are Black Tiger Bay, Creel Bay, South and North 6 Mile Bay, and East Devils Lake. There are still bigger Walleyes to be had on any rocks, areas include the Towers Rocks, Rocky Pt., Military Pt. and Military Shore Line Main Bay Side, and the rip-rap along the Highways 57, 20, and 19. Lead Core is starting to go on those 3rd level ledges as well.

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