Devils Lake Report

[Jeff Dosch]

First of all i would like to say what a great job everyone did that helped make the ice fishing tournament a success. It takes a lot of planning to make it work and Jim Moe and his crew really do a great job! We could of had a little less wind but that didn't stop everyone from coming out and a lot of fish were caught and everyone had a great time. The last time I heard there was a little over 3,000 people on the ice.

Now for a fishing report: The high winds over the weekend made it hard to be very mobile and most people were blown off the lake. The good news is that the warmer temps helped to settle some of the snow and make travel a little easier. Today we spent the day chasing perch and we found that traveling off the trail was much easier and made looking for perch that more fun. Some of the best perch reports of the year have been coming in the past week or so. Several different areas of the lake have been reporting excellent perch catches with nice size Jumbos being reported. A group of 3 came in with 54 perch averaging 10-13 inches. The best depths have been 28-36 ft and halis, genz worms and small buckshots tipped with waxworms or small minnows have been working best. The walleye bite remains fairly steady with walleyes coming in depths of 6-30 ft. Shallow timber lines are producing early and late and some walleyes are being caught along with the perch on deep rocky structure. Jigging Shad Raps and Buckshots tipped with minnow heads have been working best. Northern fishing continues to be excellent in many parts of the lake. Smaller pike have been coming off jigging while the larger pike are coming off tip-ups with smelt or herring.

Jeff Dosch

www.doschguides.com