With so much going on during the spring and summer, it’s hard to take enough time to cover all the water you’d like to fish each year. But Devils Lake is one place I try to pencil in at least a trip or two each year. I had a really good spring on the Missouri River for walleyes with an average size in the upper teens. Lots of good eaters, but not too many came in the boat over 24 inches. So when I approached my trip to Devils Lake I stayed away from the high percentage areas and focused on the water where I traditionally find bigger fish. Same was true again this past weekend, despite the bad weather.

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.