Deep Water Fishing Is On Fire!!
It happens every year on Devils Lake. The weather, eventually, stays warm for a few weeks on end and the top water gets heated. The green tint starts to creep in and matted, floating rafts of solid green muck litter the surface. We have had a slow water temperature warm up this year and we were skeptical if this would even show up. Well, it finally has, to our delight.
Top water green means that many of the fish on Devils Lake have gone to cleaner, cooler waters. They have slipped ledges and now those 20-24 and 25-30 regions are just teeming with fish. The last two days we have hit ‘DL Grand Slams’ (walleye, pike, perch, white bass all in the same day). We have also caught some bigger fish. Most of which we have been able to release but had one unfortunate victim. More on that later.
Trick now on the Big Devil is how does one attack fish that have moved into those deeper water areas. What is the best technique.
LEAD CORE!!
This would be my choice. I love pulling lead core. The advantages and control of cranks behind leaded line make it the ideal technique for yours truly. The ability to make tighter turns and to speed up and pop the lures up over snags makes for a smoother day.
There are times, especially with the abundant white bass, when the outer gets slammed into the inner line on a strike but we will take that one negative and accept it. More on those abundant white’s later.
I mostly like to attach Salmos to my leader when pulling lead. Usually a #4 or #5 Hornet. Always have to have at least one Dalmatian on. ‘The Dog’ can be an uncanny lure for attracting fish while pulling lead. I also make sure I have something in; orange, gold, and blue. The blue and silver has been working surprisingly well the last couple days.
2 Ounce Bottom Bouncers and Spinners
Probably our favorite way of fish, if not tied with lead core. From here on out a guy can really put a large number of fish in the boat pulling spinners either up against the weed lines, on those intermediate ledges, and especially on those deep water ledges. Worms is the bait of choice and if you are searching for Devils Lake Gold:
PERCH!
than this is the avenue to turn on. The majority of the Perch we put on the board in the summer are done with #1, #0, and #00 spinners with a crawler harness and 1/3 to 1/2 a crawler. When perch searching, we go a little slower, .4 to .8 mph and do a lot of ledge bouncing and lazy Ivans to locate the school and then stay on top of the area where we have zeroed in on the rat-at-at-at hits.
Down Riggers
Not in our bag of tricks, but, if you are a salmon guy or have fished Sakakawea and have this in your arsenal, it can also be used for getting those smaller crank baits down into that 20-30 foot zone. One of these days we will try this technique but being that we are adept at pulling lead core, we don’t see the need to invest in the hardware. Maybe one day.
If You Are Primarily a ‘Pitcher’
We realize that some of you out there are primarily crank bait pitchers and relish in the idea of pitching cranks into the shallows. Don’t worry, there is still ample opportunity for you to have at ‘er. Although the weeds become problematic at this time of year, you can still slide a little deeper to the weed edges and get in there tight against the weeds and find fish. You might have to size up your crank, a #7 or #9 as some of those weed edges are now in 9-12 feet of water, but, there will always be fish that stay in and amongst the weeds. The other 2 options are to put on a jig head and twister tail and target the open pockets -or- a shallow, L-lipped crank and pull it over the tops of the submerged grass. Both techniques can, and will, produce fish on the Big Devil at this time.
Lovely Perch Days
We anxiously await this time of year for many reasons. One being, we are that much closer to Waterfowl season and the chance to dust off the Benelli and get after some B52’s. The other being the deepening and schooling up of the Perch on Devils Lake. Up until this time of year, a guy might hook into the occasional roamer Perch while Walleye fishing, but in these ‘dog days’ of summer when that surface temperature is approaching 80 degrees, those Perch are deep and schooled and they really start to show up on the cleaning table. We haven’t hit double digits yet but have run into some sporadic small schools. It is just going to get better from here until the end of September.
Holy Cow- White Bass Schools!!
The Big Devil White Bass spawn 2-3 years ago must have been nothing short of outstanding!! The last few outings it has been tough to keep these guys off of the line. The extreme numbers of 6-10 inch White Bass is surprising. Seems that everywhere we go to pull deeper water we run into massive schools of these things. They show up on the graph and on the end of our line in droves. Sunday we even saw a massive school up on the surface out over 25 feet of water. The roving school had to number in the 1000’s and every once in awhile the water was a boiling.
The by-product of this is, when we find these monster schools of small White Bass, we also find some BIG Walleyes.
Take A Kid Fishing
Sometimes fishing makes me feel like a kid, however, there is no greater feeling on the water than getting a youngster ‘hooked’ on fishing. Watching them vigorously reeling on a rod that is probably too big for them and the pure joy in their expression when they land one that is deemed a ‘keeper’ really puts that warm, fuzzy feeling in our hearts.
On your next outing, make an attempt to include a kid, they will be hooked for life!
Don’t Forget The Colorado Jack Popcorn!!
Big Fish Turmoil
We have landed some real dandy Walleyes lately. We generally don’t target bigger Walleyes, but, spending as much time on the water as we do, it is bound to happen.
Throw enough darts at the board and the bullseye will be hit eventually.
The internet and social media can be our best friend for marketing and reaching a broader audience. It can also be an evil that we must tolerate. The internet police are always on the prowl, just waiting to throw insults.
One of the favorites of the internet police in the outdoors arena is berating a fisherman for keeping a fish that the poster deems ‘too big’ to keep.
We have always claimed to be conservationists and have always stated that we have the health of our lake in our best interest. I strongly believe that we do. When a client or friend has caught a big Walleye on our boat, we always promote CPR (Catch-Picture-Release) unless they are going to keep it as a trophy and mount it. We have released all of the big fish we have caught this year except for 2.
One is going to the taxidermist and the last pictured fish, the same one that is the featured photo on this report, was a victim of fishing mortality.
It happens, sometimes a hook is engulfed, sometimes (especially in the winter) a deep water fish is brought up through the pressure zone too quickly and the shock is too much for their system. The only way to avoid have this event, and have ‘ZERO’ fish mortality is to quit fishing, and that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
We made every attempt to revive and release that 24 incher. She was belly up and was done for. I will not leave a floater behind whether it be a 12 incher or a 30 incher, we did the only ethical, legal, and conservatory thing there was to do and that is we went back and netted the floater and added it to our bag for the day.
This beautiful 26 incher went back for another day!
This one was Caught-Pictured-Released!
This one was kept as a trophy and will join 2 Perch and a Crappie on a piece of driftwood!
This one was Caught-Pictured-Released!
This one wouldn’t go back. Nothing could be done to save her. We felt bad and really did not want to put the knife to her but after all avenues were exhausted, in the end, she had to be kept.
