Devil’s Lake Trip

I’ll be headed to Devil’s Lake with my son this coming week. This is my first trip out on this lake fishing the hard water, and I’d love to hear from the folks that have been out the last couple of weeks. We’re staying in Minnewaukan with McQuoid’s, and we haven’t pulled the trigger on a guide – as a group, we traditionally go the “do it yourself” route. We have snowmobiles and Helix units with Lakemaster maps, so travel and navigation aren’t an issue.

I’ve cruised YouTube to try and prepare as much as possible, and it seems like the majority of the pressure is on the north and east end of the lake. Anyone have any experience on the west end? Any recommendations for specific tackle and tactics? Are there any must-stop places for bait? Anywhere we should avoid?

I would be interested in a report when you get a chance as we are going a week from Tuesday.

Thanks and good luck!

Stayed with them right before the brutal cold snap. We went fully guided by them. Perch fishing was pretty hot. Cabins are nice. They have the usual plates, bowls, cups and what not. Nice fish cleaning area. There is a double sided fish cooker in the fish house with oil. Works slick to cook them up quick. There isn’t much in Minnewaukan. If you forget anything, you will have to head into Devils Lake to pick it up. There is a lot of water out there.

For bait, we used big tungsten jigs with minnow heads for the perch. Once we got a few, we went to perch eyes. They stay on the hook a lot longer. For walleye, during prime time, a spoon with either a head or perch eye. During the day, we picked up some walleye on a big tungsten and a waxie.

Thanks for the info gentlemen. Any specific depths or parts of the lake that were best? I know we want to get up into Pelican if possible, but aside from that we’re going blind as far as the perch go. Feel free to PM me if you don’t want to post that type of info here.