Water Temps Are On The Rise- The Bite Is Now!
As Spring made its sunny appearance this week and as the trees in the background of these two pictures adorn themselves with the beginnings of their green, summertime plumage, the water temperatures on our smaller bodies of water are really starting to rise. With that water temperature rising comes the increased activity of our aquatic life.
Insect larvae, invertebrates, and of course, fish are on the move. The circle of life gets its jump start and things are starting to come alive.
This increased aquatic life activity would be vital to our weekend successes.
I’m not going to lie, last weekend was a little bit of a struggle just finding optimum water temps as we couldn’t get anything in the high 50 to low 60 area. Such would not be the case this weekend and with that discovery came Walleye fishing successes and lots of Pike activity.
When cold water conditions are in effect, one has to adjust the way in which they approach attacking those spring walleyes. If the water temperature is slow in rising, you too must slow things down. That low water temperature is going to have those Walleyes really lethargic and not willing to exert any amount of energy to get a meal. Fast and hard crank bait retrieves are only going to attract the attention of those life forms that will remain active regardless of temperature rise.
Here on the Big Devil, that is dirty Pike. There were plenty of those to come by and one of our friends hooked into a beautiful 42 incher. I say beautiful, because not only did it give him trophy for the wall; him keeping it removed a super predator that loved to dine on my poor Devils Lake Jumbo Perch.
A win-win situation if you ask me!
Finding the Right Combination
In the early spring, with low water temperatures, I would always say fish as slow as possible and present a stationary bait. On Devils Lake, that means leeches beneath a slip bobber on a plain hook or jig head. We employed this tactic early Saturday morning. It produced some fish but not the optimum results we were hoping for. As we watched the water temperature slowly rise and approach 59 degrees we made the call to abandon the slip bobber spot and try to locate some active fish.
What a decision that would end up being. I was skeptical if it was too early and too cold to consistently get Walleyes on a crank bait, but not even 10 casts into our first stretch of shoreline produced back-to-back 16 inch Walleyes and the pitching extravaganza was on!
There were a lot of Pike mixed in and there was no lack of rod bending activity and the Walleye taps and follow ups kept everything interesting.
Sunday’s forecast called for wind, and a lot of it. I was close to pulling the plug on the trip, but after a short discussion and identifying a couple spots on our target area where we could duck out of the gales that were on their way, we decided to give it a go.
That decision would be very rewarding. After the surprising success we had the previous day pitching cranks, we made the call to by-pass the slip bobbing and just pitch.
Early Spring can be a time when the best fishing activity is in the evening. The mornings, due to water temperatures again, just turn into Pike Fests.
As we dumped the boat into the lake and I turned on the electronics I was a little apprehensive. Overnight the water had dropped from right at 60 degrees the two evenings previous all the way down to the high 55.0’s and low 56.0’s.
I didn’t expect that big of a drop and was anxious to see if there would be any ‘white tail tip’ activity at all.
“ITS BEEN A WEIRD YEAR”
Have heard many a fisherman from the area make that statement this year and this early open water season is staying in line with that trend. On a NORMAL YEAR, with that temperature drop, the early hours should have been filled with nasty Pike after nasty Pike with the occasional Walleye follow-up.
That was far from the case. Just as had occurred the day before, the Walleyes were hitting the cranks.
SMASHING them actually!
The Walleyes were hitting the cranks REALLY hard. On one non-attentive retrieve, I almost had the rod taken right out of my hands and simply assumed it was a greasy, nasty slimer. To my surprise is was a beautiful 21 inch Walleye. We got a picture of her and released her back to swim another day.
Those eyes, that early in the day, with those low temps, shouldn’t have been doing what they were doing to our crank baits. However, we shouldn’t be catching Walleyes in 39 feet of water with spinners either:
Its been a weird year
Fishing Technique
Our boat caught 3 walleyes and our buddies boat caught 6 Walleyes on Saturday morning with slip bobbers and leeches. We didn’t really put the licking to the Eyes until we switched up our presentation and started pitching the inside shorelines with Cranks and dragging spinners with bottom bouncers and leeches on the outside. Slow retreives on the cranks produced the most Walleyes and if you picked up the pace at all you were almost sure to hook into a pike.
Water Depth
We got our slip bobber eyes in 4.5-6 feet of water. The Crank bait action was in 1-4 feet and a few of our Walleyes slammed the lure right on the shoreline in <1 foot. Saturday we were able to fish the windblown, West shoreline. Sunday’s wind didn’t allow us that luxury as the 30 mph gusts kept us on the sheltered, Eastern edge. It didn’t matter, we actually finished earlier Sunday than we did on Saturday.
Bait/Color/Presentation
Aside from the slip bobbers and leeches on plain hooks and jig heads, on Saturday the killer lures were Scatter Raps in Perch, #5 and #7. Sunday I started with pitching the Scatter Rap #5 Perch but due to the wind was struggling to reach the shoreline with my casts. I switched it up to a Scatter Rap Hot Steel #7 and that would be the ticket. I only had to change it twice. Once due to a pike bite off and once because the one I had on got obliterated so many times the tail hook was beyond repair.
Water Temperature
Friday night we saw 60 degree water. Saturday morning started out at around 57 and climbed to just under 60 when we left. Sunday we were done so early that we never saw it pass 59 degrees. It started Sunday morning at about 56 degrees on the nose.
Water Clarity
The water in the Northern Feeder lake we were in was very good, I would say 2-3 feet. Just stained enough to produce great fishing.
Weather
Saturday saw lots of sun and the wind picked up steadily as the day went on. It started out Dead Calm and then climbed to around 10 mph out of the ESE. Sunday was a whole different story as it started at 16 mph and climbed to gusts of 30.
Barometer
We had a good barometer Saturday starting at 30.02 and dipping slightly to 29.96. Sunday started at 29.99 and dropped out to 29.87. Didn’t seem to effect our fishing successes though.
Moon Phase
We are in the build up to the full moon as Saturday saw a 83% Waxing Gibbous and Sunday was an 89% Waxing Gibbous. That means Full Moon cycle this week. If you have the chance to get out, this week is it as far as the Lunar Cycle goes.
Good Luck Out There!
Curious if most of your success this early is coming from fishing north of Hiway 2
Water Temperature has so much to do with fishing successes at this time and the northern feeder lake are where the water temperature is the highest, so yes, 3 of our last 5 outings have been north of Highway 2 in Dry Lake and Lake Irvine. For about another week to week and a half the better walleye bites are going to be in the Northern Feeder lakes. I expect to see some more consistent walleyes catches coming out of Pelican and out east. Even by this weekend with this weeks weather I would say that with a thorough search a guy could find some feeding eyes on the main lake. So many options for the Devils Lake fisherman at this time that it is truly a great time to be here.