Feb fishing Devils Lake

Trying to plan a trip to devils lake in late feb or early March . For those of you with experience there , wondering what the expectations should be for this time of year . Target is Perch and walleye. Pretty much limited to that time frame . Thanks

I am going February 27-29, staying at Woodlands Resort. I have never ice fished Devils Lake but have been out for open water. We never pulled any perch in the boat while out there but had a blast walleyes and northerns.

Are you going with a guide, DIY, wheeler or portable, wheeler or portable, etc.?

Thinking of using perch- eyes guide service . Late feb early March is the only time that works for our group, so pretty limited in that regard .

We are going with Perch Patrol, looking forward to it. We tried several years ago when the Perch Express was still running. First year there was too much snow in early March, cancelled due to inability to travel and water geysering from the holes. Next year the Perch Express was cancelled due to conflicts with the oil trains rolling out of North Dakota. Amtrak doesn’t own the tracks, I believe BNSF does. The Empire Builder schedule is seriously screwed up by the freight trains (which have priority on the tracks) and Perch Patrol cancelled the offering. We are driving this year with a layover in Fargo to visit my buddy’s son at NDSU.

I highly recommend Bry’s guide service and go in march.

Due to some conflicts, I may be in a possible late ice trip to Devils Lake. What are ice conditions like the 3rd week of March? My guess is hit or miss each year, 50/50 chance of taking a guided trip then? And what do a lot of guides do as far as deposits? If we book the trip but the ice conditions are not favorable once that date comes?

This is 5th year going out with Perch Patrol. We go early January but I am pretty sure that they guide through end of March. One of the advantages of using perch patrol is that you will always get out on the ice they have some pretty specialized vehicles to get you on and off.

If you call and ask the guide services they will tell you their deposit/refund requirements. Woodland Resort is top notch and very fairly priced. Perch Patrol has been great to work with and fishing in March can be good so that is a fine time to go.