Devil's Lake Fishing Reports

[Scoot]

Does anyone know the status of the water/ice on Devil's Lake? Is it wide open? Any reports welcome...

[selas]

Wide open as far as I can tell, take a look at the Lakewood boat ramp webcam, do a search on Yahoo for Lakewood Boat Ramp DL you will find it. As far as I have been hearing fishing is awesome right now, as many pike as you can pull in and walleyes are hit or miss either you are catching them by the boat load or notta. When ya thinking about heading up? I will be up there Memorial day weekend! I will have a report then!

[BrianLucky13]

Last weekend there was boats on the lake!! Then bridge just south of Highway 2 on channel A has been submerged with water and boats were going up all the way to the highway!!!! As far as the fishing, ITS BEEN HOT!! Last weekend was mostly northerns and the walleyes should be turned on by now. I put on over 900 miles in that area last weekend and seen all the farmers with their buckets of northerns and walleyes. Scoot do you need some spots to go to??? Ive spent most of my life up there and know some honey holes??!!??

[Scum Frog]

Were are some good places to try from shore this time of year???

[FMSmitty]

Brian,

I am planning on taking my two boys to DL for the weekend. I am hauling the boat but have never open water fished the lake. I have done enough homework to know that the shore fisherman are doing well along channel A and basically anywhere where a culvert crosses the road. I don't want to have the kids in a combat fishing situation so I was planning on launching in 6 mile bay and heading toward channel A, wind pending. Beyond that, I really don't have a clue. Any hints or advice to shorten my learning curve would be appreciated. Especially general locals and presentations. My email is [email protected] and I appreciate any help you can offer.

[meathunter]

How has the weather been compared to last year? Is it behind again? I went for a week last year the 5th to the 11th of june and we had water temps below 60 for all but 1 day. Let me tell you that when it hits 60 the bite is on. The fish were considerably more active that day then when it was even 58. This year im going the 13th thru the 19th and hope to hit it right.

[MidCoast]

Seems like no matter what, the fish at Devils always bite.. I went last year in May, and boy, i caught a lot of pikes and walleyes. Good lakes, fish will bite no matter what.

[SHANTY]

I will be there may 29- june 7. looking for mostly walleys. we do have gps in our boats with navionic chips. any cribs or hot spots for walleye? i will be armed with slip bobs and jigs. How much is bait at devils? and is it quality?

Go Deep!

Good Luck Fishing!

[247outdoors]

hey Shanty, just got back from Devil's lake today. The walleyes are very active now. We fished the County 20 bridge by the casino and the 19 bridge by six mile bay. Minnows seem to work the best, bouncing on the bottom, early morning and close to evenings. Good luck!

[JustLOVEit]

I am curious as to what kind of fish species are in this lake? These are what i've heard so far:

Northern

Walleye

Perch

White Bass

[BrianLucky13]

Tiger Muskies!!

[fisherman-andy]

Also Jumbo Crappies and few panfish.

[Steve Foss]

There also are bullhead, and the last striped bass reported caught from the lake (they were stocked for a time many years ago) was in 1993.

Wouldn't that be something if a few stripers stocked in the 70s have been lurking around gorging themselves on the rich forage in Devils Lake? How big would a striper stocked in 1978, for example, be today, 30 years later? I saw some data that indicates stripers can live that long.

Things that make you go hmmmmm.

[fisherman-andy]

I dont think there by any real Stripers in the lake. Now Hybrid Stripers or Wipers were supposedly stocked and could possibly spawn with White Bass back then. I dont know if this would retain or create larger class of fish sizes.

[247outdoors]

don't forget the shrimpies!

[selas]

So anybody been out to devils we are heading out Friday and staying untill Tuesday, any general locations of a good bite, what are the water temps at now? Hope to hook into a few walleyes, pike usually are not a issue they pretty much jump into the boat this time of year!

[SHANTY]

thanks for the info! I just got back from a northern south dakota trip. The mayfly hatch had shut down the bite. Clouds of mayflys in the air and the water. Any idea when the mayfly hatch is at devils? How does the mayfly hatch affect the walleye bite?

[Big Julie]

Hey all,

Is there still any fishing from shore around Devil's Lake?

I'm thinking about doing a road trip some late aft/evening driving from Fargo.

Thanks,

Julie

[skee0025]

I'll see what I can find out. I have a relative that hit the water there yesterday evening. I will call him tonight after I get off work and see how things are going.

[iffwalleyes]

Shore fishing is going strong right know.

[gnfishn]

I fished Friday night and Saturday morning at Mauvee Coulee from shore. I heard from a reliable source that the fishing had been very good in the evenings for walleye. We hit that nasty cold front perfectly and caught zero 'eyes. Saturday morning the wind settled down significantly but there was a pretty heavy fly hatch. There was no shortage of pressure from shore and boat so it think we were in the right spot but our timing was a day or two off. Northern fishing was good. Throw a smelt out and you should get fish.

[SHANTY]

what is the water temp? any silver bass being caught??

[cvikes80]

Went fishing on boat in six mile on sat and the water temp at stoney point area was around 56-58. Caught 2 eyes right away on fire tiger #7 rap. white bass were caught by the hundreds. nearly every cast of a crank and a bass was on. we had doubles all day and while fun became a pain as they were not our target species. Since we had little luck with walleyes on cranks we began to slip-bob and vertical jig near the bridge. Everywhere we went white bass were abundant near shore. So after the 2 we caught at stoney we motored to mission bay to try a few spots we knew about to no luck. We motored back to the bridge area to stage for the evening bite with little hope and suddenly very late the bite on slips and jigs started to hit. The fish were still biting when it was pitch dark out but we couldnt see anymore and it started to drizzle so we loaded up. Ended up with 8 nice eaters, countless white bass released and sore arms....Great day!

[fisherman-andy]

Fished this past Sunday.

Fishing for White Bass was going strong in the Channel A, Six Mile, Minnewaukan.

We caught nice eyes 18"-25" along hwy 19 and Minnewaukan. Jig fathead minnows or chartreuse green jigs. Fuzzy Grubs.

Pike was caught all over the lake. Good fishing!

[earl]

Hey all,

Fished Devil's Lake over memorial weekend, west bay area. Great weather, pretty slow bite. Bite started when the sun went down, so we were still trying to cast around 11:30pm, got pretty tough, very dark. All the walleyes were biting VERY SOFT, as they have bellies FULL of flies/larva.

I saw some people using minnows with treble hooks. Are treble hooks legal in North Dakota? (In MN they are only legal as part of a lure, not on a line)

The Minnewaukan boat landing was very nice, but a couple of road closures exist, so call ahead to plan your driving accordingly.

Oh, also my father had 2 fishing poles fall out of his boat on HWY 19 right near West Bay Resort. They would be easy to recognize because they were in a homemade rod bag, (long green cloth bag, with a white or yellow cloth tie at the bottom.) Spread the word if you can, I know he would love to get them back. Even if he has to wait until next years trip, I'm sure we could get the resort to hold them for us. Thanks,

eric