Bite is slow , if you plan on catching anything be prepared to dead stick with a minnow. 35-42 seams to be the range for perch , I assume there’s a blood worm hatch . 20-40 seams to be where the biting walleye are , dead stick and buckshot spoons tipped with minnow heads. Fishing 2-26 thru 3-2. Stayed at Sunlac Inn great food , bar, mini casino. Reasonable room rates.
Heading out on Thursday, kinda what I have heard. Hopefully things pick up a bit.
Our group of 8 was up on Devils Lake on Feb 25 & 26. We were after walleye and perch. We were up the same week last year and used the same guides. We went out in two SnoBears and were very mobile and worked DOZENS of spots.
Last year the fishing was fair to good for walleye and VERY GOOD for perch. This year the fishing was poor for walleyes and VERY POOR for perch.
Our guides were fairly candid and said it’s been a tough bite all year but didn’t really have an explanation why. They suggested we focus more on walleyes because the perch bite had been so tough.
We watched reports from other guide services and it seems to be a tough bite all over the lake.
I was up there Feb 27 through yesterday morning. fished 90% of the time in creel bay since we were renting day houses from Woodland. TOUGH TOUGH bite. A few things going on (just my opinions/observations).
Creel has been pressured hard. Between locals/DIY guys and Woodland’s day houses/guests, Creel is swiss cheese and the fish are spooky, educated, whatever.
There’s 5 species of worms/bugs/invertebrates available in the deep mud. red worms, orange worms, shrimp, and 2 other kinds of bugs. I caught numerous perch on Saturday that were spitting up piles of freshly eaten stuff.
The lake (at least creel bay) seems to be missing fish over 13″ and under 20″ during the traditional active walleye bite windows. We caught 15-20 walleyes each morning and evening but they were all under 13″. We saw numerous larger walleyes on camera in 40+ foot of water during the day. I literally hit one in the head with a #5 rippin rap and it didn’t even flinch. Some guys staying in wheel houses indicated they were getting their keeper sized walleyes well after dark towards 9pm, and again very early in the morning.
I drilled 52 holes on saturday for 2 keeper perch. I quit fishing for perch at 1 pm, wasn’t worth reeling up fish after fish under 7″ from the depths they were at.
A lot of small perch and small walleyes in the cleaning shack saturday night. I’d guess a combination of barotrauma and the feeling of needing to bring meat home…
The day house guides were honest about the bite and fun to BS with.
Just back from Devils Lake. Early walleye bite was pretty good on Pelican, we brought home 17-20 inch fish and others around us did OK. All were caught on perch colored buckshots with a minnow head. When the walleyes shut off we moved to East Devils Lake. Bite was tougher, caught some medium perch but nothing awe inspiring. Last day we moved elsewhere in the east basin. After fishing mostly with waxies on tungsten jigs or buckshots with minnow heads and having modest success, we switched to minnows hooked under the dorsal on tungsten jigs. For 30 minutes two of us had a ball, a school of toad perch moved in under us and stuck around. We put a bunch in the bucket, then they shut off. It was then time to leave.
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