This report is a week and a half late, but better late than never. I wanted to post a recap of myself and two buddies trip up to Devils Lake to try something way outside of my comfort zone. I usually do not post reports but I thought I may be able to add some insight to anyone else interested in a trip like this.I am just starting to get into fly fishing, having been a die hard walleye fisherman it took a little while for my buddies to talk me into trying for some fish on the fly. For this trip we were hoping to catch pike right at ice out, and only with a fly. For a boat we brought a 12 foot jon boat, so no big water advanteur for us.
Day 1:We arrived in Devils Lake mid morning Saturday to a brightening sky and 20 MPH winds (not perfect but could be worse). We figured out in short order that the main lake was frigid cold, it sounds like ice off was a couple of days before our arrival. We were staying at the Woodland resort and had one of the guides helping us out, if you should ever be in the area look up Jeff and the Woodland as our accomodations were great and fairly cheap when split three ways (about 50 bucks a piece per person for two nights all said and done). The first spot was a newly flooded bay off of the main lake with some dirtier water, we managed a couple of fish here but not the numbers or size we were looking for. However, we were very happy to start with a few fish in the first spot. We ended up leaving this spot with 3 fish caught and a couple of fish missed. We moved out west and started exploring, for those of you who have never been to DL (this was a first for all 3 of us). The amount of water is insane, we tried to use google maps to show us back bays and lakes but everything is so flooded that an image from 2 years ago is obselete.
We moved on to a small lake in the northwest portion of the area that is connected to the main body by a small canal. When we drove up a small road that dead ended into the lake, we saw something that I have never experienced. In a small room size chunk of flooded grass were 30 pike spawning in 10 inches or less of water. This would become common for us to see but at this time we did not know what to do. We tried to sneak up on these fish, we tried to toss flies at these fish. In the end all I can say is that spawning pike are a blast to see but not really eating, this would be the theme for the next 3 days. We were able to find some fish willing to eat in the northwest corner of this lake, it was a blast to stand on shore and watch fish cruise by you, be under your feet, and every now and then turn and inhale your fly. Day one ends with a great feeling that we can return here and catch some quality fish.
Day 2: All the best plans of mice and men… Day two opens with a big (30-40 MPH) wind out of the south. What this meant, anywhere the wind was blowing into was pushing the very cold main lake water into all of the spots we found fish the day before. We tried to switch sides on our small lake found the day before but it did not work. We did see a few fish but all the warm water being blown away made everything very difficult. The saving grace of the second day is we had a small chunk of protected flooded slough that was just off of the main lake. We drove past this and immediately saw fish in the shallows spawning and in some open areas inside of some bullrushes resting. I was the first to enter this small hole in the bullrushes and had one heck of a fun time. I was standing in roughly 3 feet of water and had pike swimming everywhere, we would end up all three in this little hole having one of the most unique experiences I have ever had fishing. I think because we were in thick rushes the pike were not scared of us, but for some reason we all had pike swim right up to us and basically lean into you like you were heating them up. Unbelievable. At different parts in this two hour session you would hear someone laugh and say “there are three of them touching my leg, think I can grab a six pounder”. It made the trip. The rest of this day was tough, big wind and a switch in directions through us for a loop and it was not until right at the end of the light that we found a small river that had a small dam and was full of pike. We stopped and caught 6 fish almost instantly and had a place to head for our last day.
Day 3: The last morning we packed up, thanked everyone at the Woodland (free coffee every morning) and headed 25 miles north to our small river. This was fast action for small fish, basically as much fun as you can have with your clothes on. We all went at least 4 fish on 5 casts in this little river. In the end, because of all the shallow water we fished I don’t know if we could have found a better presentation than the bunny strip flies we ended up throwing.
Summary: It was a blast, I have been blessed to fish a lot of places out of some nice boats with a lot of fish caught. That being said this will rank up there as one of my favorite trips of all time anywhere. The people were great, everywhere we went people came up asking what the heck we were doing and would give us ideas. The amount of pike and pike water is almost unbelievable. We did not get into the big fish, it sounds like this was one of the few years that they do not have a bunch of run off to concentrate fish. We did end up catching 40 plus fish, all on flies and all on hand tied flies (even a few that I tied myself). I would do it again and we plan on heading up a little later in the year. The pike in this area are under appreciated, we saw some monster (45 inch) pike that were caught over the winter, and I think a picture of me with one of those on fly of my own design will be in the works soon. If anyone else wants to go up and chase monster pike I would give it a try. I will try and add photos but all of my pics are too large for this format and I don’t really want to shrink all of them.
