My Biggest Walleye of the Day - around 22" (released)

I haven’t written for awhile…been real busy with family, snow goose hunting, work, fishing, etc. etc. but I’m getting caught up now.  While I’m still getting texted pictures of big piles of snows, my mind is on open water and jigging.

Devils Lake has been pumping out some nice fish the past couple weeks.  I’ve heard of many fish over 10 lbs., my buddy got one almost pushing 13.  On Saturday I did see a 28″ walleye taken although the fishing was slow after the cold night.

The Missouri River is where I’ll focus my attention for the next month.  Up until late last weekend, the fishing was downright horrible…but when the water starting to clear up in town and north, fishing turned on almost instantly.  The Big Muddy Tournament on Saturday boasted some big stringers, I did hear 4 fish came to the scales pushing 10 pounds (one over 13).  And LOTS of fish were taken.

I did manage to get out yesterday for the first time on the river.  I fished with Bill and Jon Mitzel, some great guys to fish with in town.  Some of the holes were thick with fish, we took around 25 fish out of one of them and some nice saugers to boot.  While this time of year we’re usually fishing shallow, we were pulling these out of 20 feet.  Very unusual, but then again, what has been usual about this last spring?

We caught all our fish with jigs and Gulp Alive.  Jig weights ranged from 1/8 oz to 3/8 oz with glow white being my favorite (as always).  Fishing should only get better in the upcoming weeks and I’m looking forward to the water clearing out south of Bismarck.  Currently, the tributaries are still mudding up the water and Apple Creek still appears to be the biggest problem.

I’ll post up more this month as fishing is picking up.

The FLW Walleye Tour just left town late last week and the vast majority of the fish came down south.  But overall the fish are starting to get bigger up the system and while the batifish are here in full force, it should still be another couple weeks before it starts to peak.

My buddy got in touch with a couple pounds of jumbo leeches, and I’m sure we were one of the only one’s on the lake using any leeches of any size. They took full advantage of them by using slip bobbers in some solid locations. Overall, the average size fish was up a couple inches from 2 weeks ago, but the weekend was still ruled by fish in the lower to middle teens (size in inches).

Since we had caught so many fish last trip, I really wanted to target bigger fish and felt I could find them with cranks. In talking to a few fishermen, most of the larger fish were in fact being taken on cranks so I wasn’t the only one with that in mind. Only 10 minutes into my initial troll did I land my first fish over 20”, so I kept on for the remainder of the weekend. I spent most of my time fishing between 10-15′. The fish weren’t in that magic depth of 8-9′ which has been so kind to me in the spring, but they were close. Wherever I found structure around 10-11′, I found fish. And if that location had a muddy bottom, the average size was larger.

I ran around a half dozen styles of lures but #4 Salmo Hornets and #5 Jointed Rapala’s worked the best. Each day a different color was hot. I don’t know why but I find this to be true almost every trip I take up to Devils Lake. The first day we really cleaned up on the #4 Salmo’s in Clown color. By the end of the trip it didn’t seem to matter as long as the lure was blue, although we did take the most on jointed Rapalas in that color. Whenever we ran shallow, it was the planer boards that produced the most fish.

Overall, it was another great trip out to Devils Lake. I ran into some familiar faces at the bar when we ate dinner, and that’s always a welcome sight when you’re on the road. Most of the people were catching fish, it was the nicer fish that were mostly hard to come by.

Normally my falls are reserved solely for hunting.  With so much going on and so many outdoor options to choose from, it’s hard to really do it all.  Typically, I only take out the boat to fish a couple times after hunting starts.  This month, I already have 7 days scheduled on Devils Lake and that’s before the fishing heats up out on the Missouri River outside of Bismarck.  So this will be a record breaking fall for me in terms of fishing time, which is timely since our waterfowl numbers and drought is so drastic.  So as I hitched the trailer after packing all my gear, I was heading to Devils Lake once again in search of big walleyes.

The reports leading up to my arrival wasn’t very positive.  Sure there was plenty of walleyes and pike being taken, but the size just wasn’t there.  That pretty much was the case for us this trip.  We based out of a cabin at the Spirit Lake Casino, and docked either there or trailered up to Pelican Lake to drop off the highway.  We spent most of our time out of the Casino but I wish I would’ve spent more time on Pelican as I usually do.  I’ve always had good luck finding pigs in the past there, but our gameplan timing wasn’t the best.  We were only limited to fish Pelican about 6 hours, and I did pick up my biggest fish there (only 10 minutes into my initial troll).  Most of our fish were in the 12-18″ range, which was unusual for my size range I get up there.  The Casino was worst in terms of size, we couldn’t bank a 20″ fish there in 2 solid days of fishing.  There was an endless number of walleyes coming around the bridges with slip bobbers and jigs, but the size just wasn’t there.  We pulled our biggest fish on #7 Rapala Shads (regular and jointed) in 14 foot of water with boards running up to 9 and down to 20.  It didn’t seem to matter if you were on a windblown shoreline or not, there was about an equal number of fish everywhere we went along the rocks.  Not bad for action, just not what we were looking for.

The cranks that produced and their colors changed both days.  One day the new Yellow Perch in #5 and #7′s by Rapala were the ticket, the next day it would be Purpledescent or Blue.  The jointed shads in equal colors worked equally as well, better deep.  We used a few Salmo’s and Berkley Flicker Shads and at times they worked well, but the Rapala’s were the most steady producers.

Overall I’d say we took over 100 walleyes and maybe a dozen pike, as well as some white bass and a sucker (not sure they’re supposed to be in there). A good trip despite rains, cold weather and wind.

We fished a lot of spots and pitched jigs and ran some cranks.  We caught about a dozen smallies and only one 16″ walleye (although extremely healthy and thick).

What surprised me the most was the amount of gizzard shad we saw along the rocks and sand along shore.  Literally long, big schools that went for 10-15 minutes at a time.  So the food is coming upriver in large numbers, hopefully we’ll see more fish making their way up behind them.

My good friend, Jon Mitzel of Dakota Country Magazine, says most years are good starting in late September with a peak usually occurring around mid to late October most years.  However, with the forage base already moving upriver it’s apparent it’s probably to get hot much earlier this year.  And at least some quality fishing if nothing else.

I’m looking forward to getting out tomorrow and Wednesday myself just south of Bismarck to see what we can find.

A short distance from Fargo lies this paradise for a walleye fisherman. What started as a vision turned into reality a few years after the millennium and the rest as they say, is history. The lake is a couple acres in size, and is long and narrow. With a good setup you can literally cast across it. They designed the lake for walleye habitat and consulted a biologist during the process. It maxes out at 31 feet deep and has a gradual drop off starting from shore. They used heavy duty plastic liner all throughout the bottom and topped it off with a combination of sand, gravel, and rocks. As the summer wanes on, it does produce some weed growth. Not too much but just enough to feel it with your jig. They have a natural well that feeds it with 2 aerators that run all year long. I was told that they have never had any winter or summer kill, the fish are healthy and strong. There is quite a bit of maintenance involved in keeping this a healthy walleye fishery. They add minnows to the lake all year long to keep them fed; just days before my initial arrival it was stocked with 140 gallons of minnows.

A couple months had passed and I was making my way back to Fargo to spend some time with family. A short phone call and the date was set, I was finally going to experience “the lake”. My good friend Taylor “Maverick” Ells had caught wind of this lake and was also dying to see this creation. I was told not to have too high of expectations on this outing. The night before a big thunderstorm ripped through the area and he said these walleyes were very touchy to fronts. And as I mentioned earlier, they just stocked 140 gallons of minnows so the fish were fat, dumb, and happy and weren’t too aggressive anyways. Just my luck I thought but I had to see this for myself. We met at a gas station on the outskirts of Fargo and I followed him back to his father’s property. I could see the fountains as I entered the gated yard and I literally sprung out of the truck as we came to a stop.

With countless hours being spent casting this lake, my buddy had a gameplan for producing post-thunderstorm, well-fed walleyes. We were going to pitch jigs tipped with Gulp Alive as well as Northland’s Mimic Minnows. With the fish hanging right on the bottom, we were hoping to drag the baits right in front of their nose and trigger a strike with a short, quick jig. Not too long after we started I hear my buddy yell, “fish on!” I ran for my camera to catch a couple shots as he said it was going to be a decent size. When the fish surfaced I could instantly see the deep, golden color of the walleye that is typically just seen in Canadian walleyes. The net went down and we were on the board with a 22” walleye. After a couple of quick shots, the fish was released back into the lake. The lake is catch and release only, and I can obviously see why.

Another half hour had passed and nothing. I was starting to feel that our timing for this outing wasn’t meant to be, but I was fishing so there’s never a reason to complain. All of the sudden Taylor yells, “I’ve got one and it’s going to be big!” I was casting on the other end of the lake so I had to grab my camera and sprint. There wasn’t much of a hurry as Taylor was using very light tackle. It took over 10 minutes to get the fish to shore. After a couple of surfaces and some “oh boys” we managed the beautiful 28” walleye in the net. It was a very healthy fish and it put up a heck of a good fight. Typically big walleyes are dead weight and hold on the bottom but not these fish. They would run and run and then run some more, reminding me of an equal size catfish from a river. After a couple more shots and a release, we were back to fishing again. Could that fish be topped?

Not 30 minutes later, Taylor yells again. And again, I found myself grabbing the camera and it was off to the races. Just like the previous fish, it took quite some time to land the fish as it kept diving down towards the 31 foot bottom. It bent the rod over with minimal head shakes just as you’d expect a big walleye to react. With the net in the water and a scoop, we brought another walleye of about equal size to land. This time it was a 28.5” walleye that was all as impressive as it’s predecessor. It was Taylor’s night for sure.

This lake holds a wide range of small to large sized walleyes; the smallest being around 15 inches and they’ve caught and released walleyes pushing 10 lbs. There is also some nice schools of slab crappies that are recent inhabitants of the lake. The fish are well fed and grow at a rapid rate so only time will tell just how big some of these walleyes will get in size. They have high hopes for this marvelous little fishery, and with the TLC they give it I believe there will be plenty of world class walleyes soon to come. I’m already looking forward to my next visit to this fantastic little fishery, hopefully next time will be my turn for a trophy.

This can be a depressing time of year for walleye anglers who live along the Missouri River in North Dakota. By this time of year, the bigger fish have either migrated downstream to deeper water in Lake Oahe in South Dakota or they are holding in deeper water up by the Garrison Tailrace. What’s left is a barrage of smaller walleyes. But this year is a little behind as cooler temperatures have seemed to delay everything, Missouri River walleyes are no different.

Early this week the weather finally broke into some mid-70 degree temps coupled with plenty of blue sky and no wind. This was just too good too miss and after a phone call to a buddy we were on the water an hour later.

I fished with the Mitzels from Dakota Country Magazine, and anyone who knows Bill and Jon know they rarely will pass up the opportunity to fish for anything, let alone walleyes in their favorite holes. After a couple hours in a long current seam, we had boated approximately 25-30 walleyes and saugers with some nice fish around the 16-18 inch range (perfect for fillets). We used the standard way to catch Missouri River walleyes, with a combination of trolling crankbaits against the current and pitching jigs while drifting downstream. Crawlers were the ticket as they typically are when the water heats up, and the usual Rapala #5′s were the crankbait of choice.

So it looks like some good fishing will continue for at least another couple weeks on the River and being it’s in the back yard with gas going over $4/gallon…I’ll take it.

The spring hasn’t been kind to fishing on Devils Lake, and as of mid-June the water temperature was still hanging around the 58 degree mark. And over the course of 2 days we were blown off the water twice due to heavy rain, wind, and lightning. The first 2 I can fish in, the latter I don’t like to mess with so we got off the water within minutes of the storms.

With the wind blowing steady out of the West all weekend we kept our focus on the wind blown areas of the lake. As much as it can be a pain to fish in, I always find the bigger fish where the waves are pounding the shallows.

We started our trip trolling a long drop off section off the shoreline rocks. This area had been solid in the past and was worth a pass. Within a couple hours we boated an assortment of walleyes, white bass, and pike; but none of them were the bigger walleyes we were after. So we made the decision to hit the trees which is a notorious fish producer in the lake. This is no secret.

In my experience, fishing the timber is either fantastic or a bust. It seems to depend on the time of year, time of day, and the weather. We spent a lot of time tying up to dead trees along the middle and outside of the treelines, using slip bobbers with leeches. What I enjoy about fishing this lake is the methods I find myself using that I don’t otherwise on other lakes. I’ve never seen more slip bobber fishermen than I do on Devils Lake. But with all the hype we didn’t have much luck and didn’t want to beat a dead horse, so this trip we spent most of our time finding new water.

This spring I invested in a second graph unit on my dash, and I use it solely for displaying GIS map data coupled with GPS. I’m using the Lowrance LMS-520c with the 2008 Navionics Premium Hot Maps North Unit chip. Since this was the first time I’ve fished the lake in HD, I felt pressed to use it to target spot on the spots that I haven’t been able to find in the past. And this made all the difference this trip.

We bounced from hump to hump, sunken island to sunken island. Anywhere we found shallow weed flats off of deep water, we anchored deep and pitched jigs and floated slip bobbers over the weedbeds. We pulled various sized walleyes on the slip bobbers, but swimming and rolling jigs through the weeds put the biggest fish in the boat. Our best setup was ¼ oz glow white jigs tipped with Berkley Gulp Alive 3” Emerald Shiner. At times I also went to a 3/8 oz jig to cast a bit further so I could cast over the hump and work up and down the dropoffs. My biggest fish on this method was a 27” and a 25” walleye, both which were released.

Towards sundown, we transitioned back to a highway stretch of rocks that had many culverts flowing into the lake. These areas stack fish at times and this weekend had it’s share. We fished until around 11 p.m. with glowing slip bobbers and leeches. This is a fun way to fish and an easy one as well. On Saturday night we fished for hours despite heavy rain and wind, we were loaded with waterproof gear so it didn’t cut into our fishing.
This trip to Devils Lake was an enjoyable one for me since I was able to put my electronics to the test. /And it paid off with our biggest fish, which was the sole purpose of the trip. I’m hoping to get out there again when the water warms up and we get the luxury of some stable weather. And to be able to fish out of my bibs will be a huge bonus.