Storms Come/Storms Go!
The End Result Is The Fish Are Still There!
This IS North Dakota and it IS Winter, storms are going to happen and we have been fortunate the last 3 years with snow. Maybe this is the year we get hit. Fortunately, the wind was a whippin’ today and it blew that light, fluffy snow around a lot. Though there are lots of drifts out there, I would say that wheeled ATV travel is absolutely possible.
Obviously, tracked vehicles are a go and we are just entering the ice depths that, in some areas, will support SnoBears. I’ve been asked quite a few times lately if there are vehicles out there and the answer is:
Yes!
But, we are not recommending it, at all. In fact, I would call someone attempting to drive a vehicle out there right now to be extremely irresponsible. It is too early and the ice depths vary way too much. We drilled one hole today where the ice was only about 6 inches when all of our other holes were 11-12 inches.
The storm also made travel anywhere today problematic and Highway 2 was actually closed for a time today. One of our guys also got stuck out on Highway 20 today as well. Gravel roads are going to be blocked over the next 24 hours until plows can get back out there and we understand that many in Ramsey County have been pulled until morning.
With All These Factors
Knowing Where the ‘X’ Is Makes All The Difference!
To be totally honest with you, I love these conditions because it is great for business. I love helping people find fish and find success on Devils Lake, but in attempting to do so, there are also bills that go along with it, and getting to the ‘spot’ as fast as possible is important to many fishermen out there.
With that being said, let us help you:
Other Places That Are Still Active!
Lures You Gotta Have!
Devils Lake has always been a ‘GOLD’ lure lake, the ole standby Gold Varmint will always be hooked up to a couple of our rods. We are finding right now though, these colors are working a little better. Oranges, Chartreuses, and Pinks are getting the job done for us and due to the fact that we are relatively shallow still, under 30 feet of water, we are finding aggressive fish that are coming to Buck Shots. Makes this time of the year for Perch fishing so enjoyable.
Travel, Post ‘Blizzard’
It is going to take some time for some accesses to be usable again and some gravel roads to be travelable but for the most part, we kind of dodged a bullet to some extent on this one, it could have been a lot worse and this round of precipitation is pretty fluffy. Add to that, we are about to enter a major league cold snap, like really cold, arctic cold with highs in the double digits below zero.
Means that we are going to be adding inches to our ice sheet over the next few days. We hope to bring you an in-depth ice conditions report, as we always do, on Wednesday!
Where To Look For The DIYer!
We are still, like I said, relatively shallow for Perch fishing. Concentrating on those 15-25 foot areas and especially timber and depressions. Not major structure as far as points and humps, but definitely not mud flats yet. Not that there aren’t fish out in those deep basin areas yet, but if you can get on big, aggressive Perch in 20 feet of water, why chase yo-yo’s in 35-40, I know what option we are going to stick with over the next couple of weeks, or at least until we aren’t catching fish there anymore!
Good Luck out there!
Is there any place on Devils that has roads and spots on fish that I could bring my wheel house as a base camp. I’m from Mn and only been on Devils a couple times in summer
Not really that type of lake in the winter. It is not lake of the woods. A couple resorts plow trails but mostly to run there own ice house operations. Devils Lake fish are very transient, here one day gone in two or three more.