Devil’s Lake It’s not just for Perch anymore! 1/06

When I was asked to go along with Dennis, Rick and Mr. Deitz to Devil’s Lake for a guided fishing trip with Jeff Dosch, the first thing I thought of was…well what Devil’s lake is known for… perch. I was surprised that this was going to be a pike trip. Heck, I didn’t even know there were pike in Devil’s Lake!

We met up with Jeff at 7 a.m. and we were off to the famous Devil’s Lake. Since we bought our North Dakota fishing licenses a head of time on –line http://gf.nd.gov/licenses/index.html , we didn’t waste anytime in the morning. With all the bad ice around the Mpls/St Paul Metro area we had great ice to drive on with very little snow. That was nice! Ice cleats sure helped on the bare ice though, I wish I would have brought BOTH of mine along!

Another nice northern!

Tip ups were the presentation of the day, by 8:30 we each had 3 tip ups out and were jigging with our allowed fourth rod. Jeff brought along the bait, which was a one pound package of frozen smelt. The smelt was attached to the line using a “quick strike rig”. The depth we were fishing in was amazing to me. There was a solid 12 inches or more of ice, then only 2 to 4 feet of water! Not much line out under the tip up because we wanted our smelt to be just under the ice. By 8:45 we had our first flag which turned out to be the first of a number of “misses” through out the day…but that’s fishing. A few minutes after nine, I saw more flags than Main Street on the Fourth of July! Jeff said that it was a slow day. I was scratching my head wondering how a person could keep up if we would have four tip ups out per person and a GOOD day?

I lost count of the number of fish and it was impossible to keep count of the number of flags. In fact, I forgot to take pictures most of the time! We ended up keeping two dandies in the 4 – 5 pound class because their survival was questionable. All others were released to be caught another day by you. I’m guessing the average northern came in around 3 to 4 pounds with none smaller than 2.5 -3 lbs. They all were very nice looking fish with a slight pink tinge to the skin. This is apparently from the freshwater shrimp that’s so abundant in the lake.

I have to admit, Mr. Deitz missed more than his share of flags. That’s all part of fishing too…however he did come through when it counted. At the end of the day he brought up this dandy walleye . Good job Deitz!

If you get a chance to get a way for the weekend, check out Great American Inn & Suites www.greatamericaninn.com . All the accommodations a fisherman could want. Bar, Grill, indoor fish cleaning room, indoor pool, hot tub and more, for a very affordable rate. Randy the manager couldn’t have been more hospitable!

We drove straight through in 5.5 hours leaving on Friday, fishing the daylight hours on Saturday and taking our time coming home on Sunday. Another thought would be pick up the AMTRACK and leave the driving to them!

I have to tell you folks, (I got that line from Deitz) if you want a short trip with some great action with pike, look up Jeff Dosch www.doschguides.com and book a pike or even a perch or walleye outing. He will put you on ACTION!

Here’s to Good Weather, Good Fishing and Good Friends!