The Main Lake
To be totally honest with you, to do it justice, the only thing to say about the main body of Devils Lake is that it has been about 70% unfishable. There is still open water spots. Some of the more protected areas of the lake and some of the more back bays and finger bays do have areas of fishable ice. If you plan on making the trek in the next few days, we suggest you either hire someone to take you out or that you know someone that lives here and can show you what ice is going to be generally walkable and what ice is going to be suspect.
We say this because some areas that we usually look to be the first areas that we target and get onto the ice are actually a couple of the more suspect areas right now.
Creel Bay, Mission Bay, and East Bay are all areas that we look at as first ice areas on the big lake. Right now we are not going to travel on ANY of those areas due to the ice conditions.
Couple areas that we know have walkable ice and are fishable include:
- North 6 Mile Bay
- Parts of Pelican
- Parts of the Flats
- Extreme South Black Tiger Bay
- Extreme East East Devils Lake
Those would be about the only areas that we would feel comfortable over the next couple days. That will change quickly however, with the turning temperatures in about 36-48 hours.
We have been out quite a bit and have mainly focused on North 6 Mile Bay. Most days the ice is relatively stable. However, aside from a couple good Walleye mornings, one roaming Crappie, and one roaming Perch, the only major fish activity up there has been White Bass.
We have a feeling there are going to be a lot of those this year.
Smaller Waters
These areas are where the real opportunity has been. Between the Northern Feeder Lake (Lake Alice, Lake Irvine, Mike’s Lake, Dry Lake, and Chain Lakes) and some of the sloughs and smaller bodies to the west, there are ample fishing opportunities.
We consider Lake Alice and Lake Irvine to be “HOME” territory. I grew up on the shores of Alice and Irvine so going up there is actually going home.
Irvine has been hot lately and even some Jumbo Perch have been coming out. The water has cleared a little and there are some really nice walleyes coming out of the lake right.
Lake Alice has also, at times, produced some nice fish so far this winter. It has also claimed a few ATV’s so we stress being very careful out there.
Attack these two bodies of water with Jigging Raps and Buckshots tipped with a minnow head, both glow in the dark. If you don’t like dealing with recharging your glow lure, have not fear, visit Tundra Tackle Co. website and order some Tundra Tackle lures:
GetLitGetBit!!
If you are on the way up, want to get on some fish, we can point you in the right direction:
Cool Down Coming!!
Over the next few days the temperatures are going to cool down considerably. In doing so, we are going to see some major ice production and are finally going to get out onto a majority of the main lake and get at some of our favorite early ice spots. One of our favorites being those intermediate water depressions, we will talk about how we attack those tomorrow.
Good Luck Out There!
looks good
Thanks for the update. I’m coming to Grand Forks to visit grandkids and also try to get one day of ice fishing in
Thanks for the update, I’m coming out Dec. 26th-31st so continued updates on ice conditions and on the bite and spearing would be greatly appreciated!!
Thank you