Does anyone have experience fishing DL in the spring? I have a trip planned in a month and would like to start making provisions (tying spinners, buying certain cranks, etc). Any insights on colors would also be appreciated.
James did a show there during mid may. 
Here is the link.
Devils Lake Skinny Water
DT
Great place to fish, I caught my beggest eye out there. Very clear water, look for wind blown shore lines. Also work old roads and old shorelines. last time I was out there the eyes weren’t as shallow as they used to go. They didn’t have much runoff this year so things should be similar to last year.
Which part of the lake are you fishing? Talk to people and bait shops in the area that you are fishing, everyone out there is very helpful. make sure you don’t get caught trying just one thing, change tactics and depths to find the fish, things change more than you would think out there.
Another thing to watch closely is water temp, just a 2 degree difference can be a big thing out there. Also make sure and take some blade baits along, I talked to a couple guys that caught over 100 each in 10-12 feet of water when they were out with a guide on blades. The 10-12 feet deep was the shoreline from 2 years previous and there was something there that eyes were hanging around for.
Watch Ed’s bait shop reports as well as Perch eyes guide service reports, fishing buddy also has good DL info. I don’t think you can get under any of the bridges anymore but if you can DON’T, you will get stuck on the wrong side if the wind comes up, I found out the not so fun way. Wish I was going, good luck.
Thanks. It looks like white is the color of choice. Luckily, I’m fairly well stocked with white with the tannic stained lakes up here. If I snag something, I’ll post a report.
Onestout, I never considered blade baits…thanks for the idea. 140,000 acres is a little daunting, so I’ll be doing some homework over the next month. I’m also planning on picking up a map chip; any recommendations on that? I’m running an HDS8, if that matters.
As far as chips go I have a really old navionics chip. My chip works OK but I actually like it for out there, just need to make a mental note of the depth change and add for it. Be careful of the newer chips, I looked at one that had too much detail, the symbol for trees was too big because of all the flooded timber out there and it made it hard to read, that was a newer navionics chip. Most everything is pretty easy to find with the graph, most of the lake is pretty structure free, it used to be old farm fields. find roads/houses/trees for structure and fish it. I don’t think leeches will be going yet when you are there but crawlers could be pretty good along the old shoerlines behind bottom bouncers.
Try and find the shallow shore bit, that is a blast. Look for dirty water, it must be dirty, you won’t be able to get close enough if it is clear. also watch the water temps here.
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Try and find the shallow shore bit, that is a blast. Look for dirty water, it must be dirty, you won’t be able to get close enough if it is clear. also watch the water temps here.
As simple as it sounds… this is spot on advice with water temps playing a major role in fish locations and activity levels that time of year. Find slightly warmer water and you’ll find the fish. The guys that I’ve fished with out there rely on 3 basic presentations that time of year; jigs and plastics (you could use bait if you wanted), casting cranks and pulling spinners & crawlers on bouncers. Some will also mix in bobbers and leeches but that presentation is too passive for me, however, once you’ve found the fish and if they’re isolated in small areas… it would prove to be a good presentation to have at your disposal.
Great advice, thanks. I’m also thinking about giving Jason a call to show me the ropes on the first day.
It’s been several years, but one tactic we employed was “pheasant hunting” the trees. We pulled ourselves through the maze of submerged trees casting #4 & #5 shad raps through the gaps and openings. We had a very fun trip doing this and occasionally throwing 1/8th jigs covering water in the same manner.
Good luck!
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