I GOT To Go Back To Work Today!!

Sometimes you will hear people grumble about coming off of vacation time or a long weekend, dreading about going back to work. I just came off of some time away from guiding and I didn’t HAVE to go back to work with clients, I GOT to go back to work with clients.  And let me tell you…

It was an awesome day!!

I truly love what I do.  Excited and super charged every morning.

Our 2-week search paid off, we knew where to go and how deep to be.  We knew what to throw at them and we knew when to move.  Luckily we didn’t have to do too much of that. 

To be frank, this lake is fishing like I really can’t remember it ever fishing before.  Sure, you catch a few smalls, but WOW are there just a ton of keepable fish in the fishery right now.  You can pretty much decide what your ‘boat slot’ for the day is going to be and if you spend enough time on the water, you are going to get your limit of those size fish, whether it be 14-18, 15-19, 16-20; they are just there and they are biting.  

Sure, there will be some bite windows where it is a little more intense but the last week, we have really caught fish throughout the day, every day that we have fished.

Everyone Has Their ‘Go-To’

I talk a lot about the Spinner bite on Devils Lake.  I don’t slip bobber unless I absolutely must and once the weeds take over I only pitch if we are after a big one.  Trolling spinners in Late June, July, and August is just THE technique that is going to put the most keepable Walleyes in the boat right now.  Bobbers will still work, Cranks will still work, Jigging will still work; but dang those spinners just can’t be beat for numbers and numbers of quality fish.

I love the fact that changing depths is so easy, locating active fish is simple, bait experimentation is a breeze. 

What Depths You Ask?

This is a tough question, but I’ll give it a go.  If I absolutely had to pick 1 depth to troll at and stay in that depth it would be 19 feet of water.  The goldilocks zone is probably 16-23 but we sure have caught a lot of fish in 19 feet of water.  Today we got them a little shallower, 14-16 and 12-16 but yesterday our hot spot was 23-25 feet.

As these hot days continue, that number is going to be pushed into the mid-20’s as this starts to show up:

Keep in mind though, we had an ultra-late Spring and a pretty cool early June, so we are probably still a little behind in lake temperatures and the rate of turnover out there on the water. We’ve dabbled in lead core a little with inconclusive results. Not a technique we are going to rely on just yet.

What Structures To Look For?

Our best spots right now are 3 things:

• Stock Ponds
• Old Shorelines
• Sharp points into deeper water

I love my Legend Cartography chip showing me that 1991 shoreline.  That white line catches us a lot of fish.  Just playing pinball with the boat back and forth across it. I had a few days a week and a half ago when my one chip reader wasn’t working, and I almost felt lost not seeing that Google Earth imagery.  Amazing that a lot of times we ‘Don’t know what ya got until it’s gone’!

What Spinner Colors, You Ask?

Well, sometimes this is day to day, but there are definitely some shades that we are sticking to. Today, this little lady did the trick:

PINK!!

LIMIT!! 

In the last week though, this rainbow menagerie has gotten us out fish out there:

Hammered Silver has really been a good color but it seems it has had o have a colored ‘Stripe’ along with it.  White one day, Metallic pink the next, maybe throw in a little Chartreuse for good measure.

Biggest Spinning Mistake We See Made!

GET VERTICAL!!

We never say we are going to ‘drag’ spinners.  We always say that we are going to pull spinners.  The biggest mistake that we see people make is they put far too light of a bottom bouncer on and end up having to run out way too much line and the result is they drag those bouncers and spinners right on the bottom.

When we are out there, we want those bottom bouncers just touching the bottom and we want those spinners up cause we are looking for active fish.  Active fish are going to chase and fish that re willing to chase are fish that are going to bite, sometimes they just slam it.

To accomplish this in 16-25 feet of water, you have to up your bottom bouncer number.  At a minimum, I am running 1.5’s but as a rule I am using 2’s and 3’s.  I want the line coming off of my rod to be as close to a 45-degree angle as possible, you will be amazed at how many more times you are hooking up if you put a little heavier bouncer down.

So, In Conclusion!

Bring 4 dozen worms, 1-2 dozen leeches, attach them to a Silver, Pink/White, or Fire tiger spinner, put it at the end of a 2 oz. bottom bouncer and get the boat into 16-23 feet of water and start cruising at .8-1.2 mph hour.  You will catch fish and in some areas a lot of them.

Until tomorrow,

Good Luck out there!

DevilsLakeFishingReport!

Fishing Into Catching!

Since 2016!