Devils Lake Fishing Reports

As of Friday, July 15, 2011, access to the east side of Devils Lake will be much easier. A new boat ramp has been constructed by the North Dakota Game & Fish in the Black Tiger Bay area of Devils Lake. The new ramp is located along Highway 20 south, beside the South End R & R campground and is open for public use.

The other boat ramp on East Bay, located south of Devils Lake on Highway 20, by Camp Grafton, will be available for use by the public on Friday, July 15. The weather set back the work on this grade raise and it took a little bit longer than expected. According to Suzie Baisch, the tourism director for Devils Lake, “Access on the east side of Devils Lake has been a little tricky this summer. Because the water level has reached an elevation of 1454, boat traffic under the bridges is no longer feasible. The water level has also made us have to raise or move boat ramps. Because of this setback, anglers have been launching their boats from sunken road ways or ditches. This can be very dangerous. I am glad to see the public ramps are finished and usable.”

Other public boat ramps available on Devils Lake are Lakewood Boat Landing, located on Creel Bay, Six Mile Bay Boat Landing, located on Six Mile Bay, Pelican Lake, north of Highway 19, and Spirit Lake Casino.

Also available for access onto Devils Lake is Graham’s Island State Park, located off of Highway 19. The day pass for the state park is $5, or you can purchase a yearly pass for $25. Graham’s Island is open on a day-by-day basis this year due to high water conditions. Construction on the road into the park should begin sometime in August.

For more information, log onto www.devilslakend.com or call the Devils Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau at 1-800-233-8048 for more information.

I will be heading out to DL July 18-22nd.  Wondering if the spinner bite is in full swing or if I should plan on more shallow water cranks/slip bobbers.  Was out about a month ago and the bite was still very shallow.  I'm assuming the warmer water has pushed things deeper by now but who knows.  Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.  I will post when I get back for those planning trips in August.  I will be staying at Eastbay so will mainly be fishing black tiger and east devils.  Thanks for any tips!

Fished with cranks in the AM. alot of pike & white bass with a few small walleyes. fishing got really good when we moved in to the flat water of 8 to 10 ft in the afternoon. Used jigs with minns & found fish really fast. Alot of 16" to 18" fish that were very aggressive to our jigs. We had alot of boats around us using spinners & lindy's, but not as many fish as we were catching. Last fish of the day was a 26" walleye that went back into the lake. My son & i had our 10 fish in a hour & went back to Jamestown. ALOT of fun with the group we were with, would love to go back this wknd to try again....

Report For Wednesday thru Sunday;

Fishing remains mixed and ever changing. Out east; there has been a lot of fish be caught in the Browns bay, some hit or miss in the Haybale area and Penny bay is starting to heat up. Main bay area, folks are having some luck in the Doc Hagens area, north of the bridge in 6 mile and just south of the six mile boat launch and the south end of Creel bay. Ramp at six mile is in great condition and the fish cleaning station is back up and running. Out West, Howards farm is producing some fish along with a few of the “new” bays created on the south end of the lake. Another hot spot for some has been the north west corner of the lake, north of Minnawalkin/west of old 281/south of 19 if that makes any sense. BE CAREFUL crossing old 281 it is shallow!!!!!! Mauvee coulee has still been slow but shore fisherman are finding some fish towards evening.

Ok, so there’s the spots now how they catchin’em? Once again, mixed bag of tactics. Bottom bouncers with worms and leeches targeting the outside weed lines in about 10 FOW standard gold or silver spinners. Cranks have been decent casting to structure, your standard Devils Lake colors, firetiger, chrome blue, perch, hot steel ect. Slip bobber bite has been kinda slow during the day, lots of little fish, but towards the afternoon it has been starting to heat up. Mimics have been my stable over the last two weeks and yielding good results but expect that to start dying off as the water temps start rising.

Hope this gives you some starting points, fishing in general has been a bit slower than normal for this time of the year and here is why I think that is. Water temps remain low, fished 66 degree water yesterday up in Pelican but the weed growth rate is still very fast. The fish are in the weeds/reeds and with the weed growth they are getting harder to get to and they have no reason (temp/food) to leave from there. With the new rain fall, Saturday night was a doozy, and lower temps for the beginning of this week I don’t see much changing. Towards the end of the week things should start picking back up. We really need to see that water temp get into that 70 range then things will really heat up.

Now a shout out to the set of clients I had out on Saturday. They wanted pictures and big fish, eaters if we ran across them. Their first 4 fished weighed in at 4.7, 5.3, 6.1, and 4.8. There 5^th fish weighed in at a rocking 7.8lbs breaking their personnel best! Congrats guys!! We were fishing in Pelican using 3/8 mimic minnows  in the reed lines that didn’t have a lot of weeds in front of them.

And finally, the big, big, big fish award goes toooooooo…………Two guys on this site. Wont say their names because they can tell their own story but it was just short of 10lb walleye caught on a Salmo Hornet. Congrats guys!!!!