The Current Comes and the Current Goes, Fishing Stays About The Same!!

The current at the beginning of the week was very brisk, the first few bridges out of Alice, there was a definite current area and the eddy’s were apparent.

What a difference 4 days makes.  We launched the flat bottom on Saturday and the current was down considerably.  The fishing at the south end of the coulees has slowed a little too.  Don’t get me wrong, there are still a lot of Walleyes to be had at those locations, just not fast and furious.  When we have this much initial current, those eyes are going to travel a long ways up-stream to spawn and as they travel, so does the bite.  The Coulee branches extensively as it winds north, and finding those different branches that sustain current can bring a bountiful day.

We didn’t limit out and we caught more Pike than Walleyes, but every trip is an adventure and the Northern Tier is our classroom. We ended our day with a 26 inch release, 3 chubby males, and a lot of snot rockets.

We used mainly white and chartreuse jig heads with white and green/chartreuse Twister Tails and Gulp!.

I wish we would have packed some spinners and leeches!

We learned a lot in our 6 hour excursion:

We learned that Walleyes are not afraid to dig in the mud for food.  We obviously have discussed this with other anglers in the past and have collected many stories of Walleyes digging in the mud for frogs, leeches, and insect larvae.  It is always fun to learn what our quarry is eating to try to mimic that.

I would say that if you can get your hands on some leeches, it wouldn’t be a bad idea.  If not, mimic a leech any way you can.

As Usual, Predictions By The Weather/Meteorology Industry Going To Be A Little Off

Back in January or February, I don’t recall exactly, the National Weather Service and Meteorologist came out with their forecast and it scared the bejeezus out of farmers up here and brought big smiles to the faces of some in the tourist industry.

The prospect of a 4-foot rise to Devils Lake was mentioned.  That would have brought the lake up over the previous recorded high and would have swallowed up a whole lot of farmland.

Fast forward to right now and it is pretty evident that 4 feet IS NOT going to happen, more like 1.5 to 2.5.

Lots of farmers breathing little sighs of relief and the big tourism smiles are now just little smirks.  It’s a happy medium I think.

Sure, we will know more in about 2 weeks when all the lakes are ice free and the bulk of the water has arrived, but with the current in many locations already subsiding and a pretty dry March and a pretty dry April so far, things are looking pretty stable (loud knock on wood).

What We Are Doing Right Now When Not Afield Or Afloat!

SPINNERS!

That’s what.  We are diligently working towards our target number of 300 spinners for the summer.  That will be a good start.  We make all our own as we use some non-traditional spinners when we start chasing Perch.

With the Pike infested, snag infested waters of Devils Lake, spinner making is a constant activity.  The spinner bite on Devils Lake in the mid and late summer is second to none and that is the time of year where we really start to find the big Perch schools.

Time spent now preparing pays huge dividends later.

Prepare Yourselves

We were going to write a commentary on the North Dakota Fishing Season and the lack of closure and the Spring Fishing in the Devils Lake Basin but it would have been way too long to attach to this post.

We will dedicate all of tomorrow’s post to this topic and we expect many comments both publishable and unpublishable.

Stay tuned…

Good Luck out there!

Hold On To Your Rod…

And…

CATCH MORE FISH!!