The ‘Good Ole Days’ Of Fishing On The Big Devil Are Now!
You will often hear the older generation of fishermen talk about the good ole days of Perch fishing of the 1980’s on Devils Lake. Talk of people filling S-10 pick up boxes full of Jumbo Perch and Perch schools that spanned Miles not Yards and Feet. I truly hope that we will one day return to that condition on the Hard Water.
That ‘Good Ole Day’ condition, however, seems to be occurring right now for Devils Lake Open Water Walleye fishing. The water is warming quickly and the simple number of Walleyes being caught on the big lake is astounding. The vast amount of biota mass in this lake never ceases to amaze me. There are fish in literally every depth zone and many of those fish are willing biters.
I had a group out on Thursday and in 8 hours we went through 4 dozen night crawlers that we were cutting in half.
96 baitings!
Now, we were on a snaggy shoreline and some of those baitings were taken off by snags, but the majority were taken by fish bites. We threw a lot back and many of the fish were under 14 inches but for plain fishing action it was unbelievable.
I am a troller.
From here on out until late August and September, I will be either trolling spinners and bottom bouncers, long lining cranks on fireline, or pulling cranks deep with lead core. We have the goal of hitting a 100 Walleye day and I see no reason we can’t get a day where we achieve that goal. Not many lakes that a guy can set a goal like that and conceivably achieve it.
How Are We Doing It?
Trolling of course.
We have been hitting island chains, road beds, and shoreline ledges with #1, #2, #3, and #4 Colorado and Indiana spinner blades. Colors that have been the most productive have been:
- Hammered Gold
- Orange and White
- Orange and Chartreuse
- Chartreuse and White
- Metallic Green
- Metallic Orange
We have been cruising at variable speeds but that .5 to 1,2 miles per hour rates seem to be the ticket right now.
Our main depth zones have been those 8-12 ledges just outside the weeds, 20-24 foot submerged flats with structures coming up to 14-16 feet, 21-25 shoreline ledges, and 20-25 foot deep flats.
Our bigger fish have come, actually in flooded timber flats on the shoreline ledges. It can be a snaggy, spinner losing endeavor but Saturday we hooked into 6 20+ inch fish with a 26 in Walleye that was released. It was worth the spinners that we sacrificed to the fishing gods.
If you are out there pulling and your shallower ledge seems devoid of fish, just cut across the cut and slip to the next deeper ledge. The fish will probably be on the deeper ledge.
Relevant Locations For The Upcoming Week:
Corks!
Not a big trolling fan?
Have no fear, the slip bobbers are on fire as well. Talked to a number of friends that really tuned em up this past weekend on slip bobbers over structure and they caught a very wide range of fish sizes all the way up to the low 20 inch range. I am not a big bobber fisherman, don’t have the patience, but it can be truly effective.
Happy Customers Make For An Easy Day Of ‘Work”!!
We had a pretty full week of guiding. Probably more trips than I ideally want to take but it is hard to turn away someone that just wants to catch fish on Devils Lake. We had a great time with all the groups and the Devils Lake Walleyes were willing participants with a few Pike thrown in, one of them a bruiser, enjoy the fish pics:
Good Luck Out There!
