The Devil took our soul

[iceholeguy]

Just got back from Devil's Lake and have to say it wasn't pretty. I'm used to hooking 30-40 keeper perch a day, but here your lucky to catch 5-10. The size are impressive,but not really worth the drive. Luckly the walleyes were biting and I got three limits myself. Nothing big, just nice eaters. If your thinking of going to Devil's Lake, hire a guide and make sure you have either a underwater camra or a Vexlar 18, a must in the 40 feet of water. The perch bite is so lite it dosn't even move a spring bobber! If anyone has questions on this please write me back.

[Guest]

Where did you fish? What type of equipment, bait etc did you use?

I may be of some assistance to others who may be planning to come if I knew what you did.

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Kevin Neve's Devils Lake Guide Service
fishingminnesota.com/kevin-neve-guiding/
e-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 701-473-5411 or 701-351-4989
Minnewaukan ND

[Guest]

A friend and I are coming up next weekend. I am familiar with techniques in which you fish with spikes, wigglers, maggots what ever you want to call them. I have had good luck with perch locally with marmooskas, ratfinkies, pillkies, and a dropper rig below a spoon. We will be fishing out of a fish trap guide and will be using fl8's and can't afford an 18 right now, I also have a garmin hand held GPS I don't have a Atv and will be using an explorer as our transportation. With perch being deep I was going to use dropper rigs and or pillkies (or halis very similar) and was going to use fireline for the main line and use spring bobbers to detect the bite. Does anybody have any other suggestions for set-ups for perch. Would a properly weighed slip bobber detect the bite better here? We are also interested in Walleyes and northern do tip-ups work on this lake for either specie. I was also interested in thickness of ice and amount of snow on the lake, and water clarity. Thanks for any Info-Ripper

[Guest]

Brad I will agree with you somewhat. Straight hooks will out-do or do just as well as any lure, but I have found that at times a lure will help to attract fish to your bait better or make it more accurately mimic natural prey getting you more strikes plus I think half the lure's I mentioned above are less than a buck each in most shops. I will give you an example I was fishing crappies in a shallow lagoon early spring last year. There was still Ice on the main lake many people were fishing slip bobbers and minnows and fishing was tough. I put a 1/80 ounce white hair jig below a tiny ice bobber and could not keep the crappies off plus bonus gills, I went back to the same spot a few days later and they wanted small minnows on a strait hook. Just my 2 cents though-Ripper

[Guest]

A number of things about Devils Lake pech...

Tip-ups won't work in 40 foot of water for perch.

Fireline is an excellent choice for line. Use 2# diameter. Coupled with a sensitive rod and you can feel the slightest nibble.

When finessing with small jigs like marmooskas and fat boys, watch you line for slight movement. Raise you rod tip to take the slack out and it is heavy set the hook.

It isn't easy fishing with tiny jigs and bobbers in 40 foot of water.

Use 1/8 ounce jigging spoons like halis, rattle traps etc with a 2 inch dropper. Glow colors work best. The dropper swings to the fish when they suck the bait in. The lenght of the dropper can be varied with the amount of "sucking" they are doing. If you are missing hits experiment with dropper a longer lenght.

An attractent of some sort ie the lure with its sound vibration and color is needed to help the bait stand out. It also helps to get the bait down to the fish in a reasonable time

I usually don't use bobbers of any sort. Just use good rods and keep attentive.

When a fish is hungry they will hit just about anything. But, what do you do when they are not hungry?

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Kevin Neve's Devils Lake Guide Service
fishingminnesota.com/kevin-neve-guiding/
e-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 701-473-5411 or 701-351-4989
Minnewaukan ND

[Guest]

I see you use 1/8 oz spoons on your dropper would a heavier spoon than this hurt you at all? It would drop faster that is for sure. Also I was not asking about tip-ups for perch I was asking about their efectiveness on devils lake in shallower water for Walleye and northerns?-Ripper

[Guest]

You guys keep talkin about all these "special" lures, when in fact if a fish is hungry I BELIEVE they will hit almost anything. Sometimes just a simple plain hook can outperform any $5 jure in the takle box. The only real differentiated hook I believe is a glow in the dark hook versus one that doesn't glow in the dark. Also size of the hook is critical in which ever species of fish you're targeting. Just ideas from the experiences I've had fishing.

[iceholeguy]

Iowa-Ripper, Sorry it took so long to answer some of your questions. The ice is about three feet thick and very little snow, maybe six inchs or so. My truck has bald tires and I did just fine. In North Dakota you can fish four lines, but for perch only use ONE. Keep jigging and then if you feel any movement set the hook. If you try to fish a second line, by the time the bobber moves and you reach for the pole it's too late. As for as walleye's go, we did very well over by the casino. There is a access in front of the casino, go on there and drive accross and alittle left to the other side. Fish next to the trees coming out of the water, there is a old railroad bed about twenty feet out from the trees,(14ft of water) fish there with either live minnows or minnow heads, we the walleyes come through there pretty agressive. Good luck and write next week and tell us how you did...

[Guest]

Thanks for the info guy's I will let you know how we do. I stopped at the FFO(fishermans Factory Outlet) today and got a bunch of fireline and some other berkeley related items of interest and started rerigging some of my gear for the trip.-Ripper

[Try Too Fish]

The last time i tried fireline on the ice (no shelter) i had trouble with bringing in a lot of water and freezing the line and guides.It does work fine in a shelter!

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Try Too Fish
Forced Too Work!!

[Guest]

fishing was tough for us to say the least as was the weather. Perch fishing was dead for us so we ended up tip-up fishing for northerns and during the day and walleye fishing in the low light period we did fair at both and have nothing to brag about. I did get away from home for awhile though so it wasn't all bad. I learned and important lesson about fishing localy. I always think lot's of other people have better fishing but this just isn't the case when you come down to it. -Ripper

[Guest]

The lake has also changed alot the last number of years and the local anglers havent changed their ways. A lot of them are still using the same tactics they used when they were kids. New territory, New tactics. You used to be able to drill one hole and catch fish. Now you have to drill until you find a school. A bobber and a minnow doesnt work either, almost all the perch I catch are by jigging. It takes awhile to get used to the new ways of fishing for those finicky perch but once you learn how it all pays off. keep fishin

[Bob Horn]

The perch bite is VERY light at Devils Lake.These fish bite soo light that I think most guy`s don`t know they had one. It is one of the lightest bites I have ever seen. Use the lightest spring bobbers and lures. It may take a little longer to get to 40 feet but it will put more fish on the ice.

[Granny]

Has anyone caught any perch in shallow water 7-10 feet? A few guys up there last year, about the same time of year, were catching them in the shallow water. We were in 30 feet of water and didn't catch very many. Probably heading out there the weekend of March 22.

[Guest]

I caught a lot of perch last year right before ice out in about 15 ft of water. It was by a culvert where the water was moving through and the fish were spawning. Between 2 of us we caught 23 perch that averaged a 1.25 pounds. They were full of eggs. Hope they are back in the same area this year when the ice goes out.

[Guest]

It amazes me that people fish for perch with a wood dowel, bobber and minnow in 40 foot of water without electronics. Then they complain that there are no fish.

They drill 4 holes, one for each stick and sit on a lawn chair next to their car for hours at a time.

I also get a kick out of those folks who set up a "portable" house. First they clean all the snow away... Set up their house...Mark their holes...move the house...drill the holes...take the snow out of the hole..move their house back...bank the house with snow...take out the chairs...take out two five gallon buckets each ...start the heater and blow a half an hour. Mean while most folks have moved three times.

The best perch fisherman us their pick-ups as their shelter. Our vexilars are rigged for use out of the truck. It takes a transducer extension and a 12 volt cigerrtte lighter plug.

Work an area with several others. Set-up an Otter if you get on a school that needs to be finessed. But this is like waving a flag to all and say that "I am on fish". Don't through your fish on the ice.

A friend of mine uses an old frozen northerns as a "decoy". He tosses one out side his door when others get to close. They think he is catching northerns and the rubber-neckers drive by.

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Kevin Neve's Devils Lake Guide Service
fishingminnesota.com/kevin-neve-guiding/
e-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 701-473-5411 or 701-351-4989
Minnewaukan ND