Plotting The Map To Untapped Perch Schools

The search for Devils Lake Mega Perch schools can be an arduous one.  It can take painstaking hours and sometimes 100’s of holes.  If one is not able to stay on top of their movements and be on the ice at least every other day, the search sometimes has to be reset and you start all over again.

Devils Lake Perch move, they move a lot, they move both perpendicular and horizontal to the contour lines as the ice fishing season gets longer in the tooth.   A roving band of Perch, when they go into feed mode, will consume a lot of bio-mass in a very short period of time and once they have done this they move to an area where they can find more.

This might be 50 yards, it might be half a mile.  If you aren’t out there to stay abreast of this movement and stay on them, it will just make the process longer and more frustrating.

What Can You Do

I am guessing few of you are independently wealthy or are fishing guides, so fishing everyday is probably out of the picture.  Some of you are probably weekend warriors or buddy-vacation-weekend tourists.  Don’t worry, there are things that will expedite the process so that you don’t waste so much time trying to get on the Perch school.

They are:

1. Hire a guide
2. Drill 100-500 holes randomly praying to score
3. Read the Ice
4. Do hours of research, pore over google maps, GPS, historical perch bite information, bait shop fishing reports, fishing journal records from the last 5 years, and every other accessible piece of information available to try to pinpoint a likely spot for Perch activity.
5. Let us do all that work and purchase DLFR Waypoints for the area you plan on fishing.

Hire a Guide:

There is nothing wrong with doing this.  Devils Lake has some of the best ice fishermen around currently employed by the various Guide Services from around the lake.  Almost all of them will work hard for you to get on fish.

The Blind Squirrel:

You know the saying, ‘Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while’.  Is it possible to drive out in the middle of nowhere, drill 60 to 100 to 300 holes and cash in, absolutely, and if that is your option, we wish you all of the luck in the world.  Bring lots of gas, the ice is getting thicker.

Read the Ice:

It is possible to go out onto one of the more popular perch areas early bird like, before anyone else is out there, and try to read the ice.  The landscape of the ice on the lake is constantly changing with our winter winds and the surface of the lake is forever being reset to virgin-like ice.  One can locate and read recent fishing activity to try to cash in on other peoples hard work and due diligence.  We can’t say we condone or are real big fans of this type of behavior but it is an option.  Things to look for if you decide to go this route:

a.  hole clusters- holes that are clustered together show an attempt to zero in on a fish school

b.  minnow tails/saw dust- the sign of lots of minnows being decapitated shows that someone was rebating, a lot.  Frequent rebating means that something was repeatedly taking that fisherman’s bait.  Spikes an Waxies are usually packed in containers with sawdust or the like.  If a group is going through a lot of them, there will be sawdust on the ice.

c.  Cigarette butts-  smokers are statistically, the worst litterers in the United States, and this holds true for ice fishermen who smoke also. We hate the fact that this is true but you can use this to your advantage as a line of holes with 2 of the holes have 15 cigarette butts littered on the ice around them tells you, ‘they were there a long time’.

d.  Slush- Slush pockets are created right now by fishing activity, find slush spot, and you will find spots where fishermen were active.

If the creators of these signs show up and express the fact that this was there spot from the day before, to avoid conflict we suggest making room, there is a lot of area out there and the ice is no place for a confrontation.  Remember, we are all sportsmen that need to support each other and work together.

The ‘Student of the Lake’:

My sister and her husband have a place on Lake Lida.  A few years ago, i took a trip over President’s day weekend with them to try to catch a few crappie and bluegills.  I had been there one other time in the summer and I was flying blind on the ice.  I would venture to guess I did quite close to 20 hours of research for a 2.5 day fishing trip.  I was able to catch a few Gills and really enjoy myself.  But that was a lot of work for one weekend and Lake Lida is not even a slough compared to The Big Devil.

If you go this route, we suggest to narrow your subject area.  We like to break Devils Lake into a number of separate lakes, from East to West:

1. Stump Lake
2. East Devils Lake
3. Black Tiger
4. East Bay
5. Main Bay
6. Six Mile
7. The Flats
8. Pelican
9. The Northern Feeder Lakes

If you just want to make an honest effort into finding out more about the lake, you are like us and are a student of Ice Fishing and fishing in general, we suggest you take ONE of these and get to know it really well.  The rewards CAN BE amazing.  We are still learning parts and doubt we will ever really be able to know it all as intimately as we would like.

DLFR Client:

The easy way to do the last option is let us do it for you.  Become a client of DLFR.  We have broken down most of the Perch and Crappie areas on Devils Lake already and we offer those to you in our various catalogs.  Your purchase is confidential and we stand behind the authenticity of the information.

Good Luck Out there…

Hold On To Your Rod…

and

CATCH MORE FISH!