Latest Fishing Report 3/24/08

Another great week of fishing!  The weather was warm enough to melt just enough snow to improve our travel conditions and then it cooled off just enough to freeze everything solid.  Just what the doctor ordered.  We are starting to get some random slush pockets and it is difficult to know just where they are as we still currently have 10 to 12 inches of snow cover on the ice.  We have yet to lose an inch of ice and because of our improved conditions we are enjoying some of the best fishing of the year.

The walleye bite has been phenominal and so has the northern pike.  These are some of the nicest walleyes we have caught in years and again we would like to thank our guests for releasing some of the trophies that were caught this past week.

The perch fishing has been very good as well.  We have located a number of schools of perch in many different parts of the lake.  The perch bite treated us very well for a couple of days early in the week and again towards the end of the week.  With so much good fishing going on at once it has been a little challenging trying to decide what species to go for each day.

This Weeks Perch Patrol Honor Roll

Tom Zenanko from Vexilar admires a beautiful Devils Lake Walleye!	The Gander Mountain Crew representing 6 Gander stores throughout the midwest after a day of awesome pike and walleye fishing.	Doug Olson from Summerset, Wisconsin caught this 2 pound 4 oz. Jumbo!  Welcome to the whopper club Doug!

Latest Fishing Report 3/18/08

March Madness is definately here and in full swing and so is the fishing!  Warmer temperatures have shrunk the snow enough so we can now go anywhere on Devils Lake.  We still have enough snow cover to protect the ice from the warm sun and we have not yet begun to lose any ice.

This past week the Perch Patrol and our guests have enjoyed some phenominal fishing and we are hitting on all cylinders!  We have enjoyed some outstanding walleye fishing, perch fishing, and pike fishing.  For both numbers and size this past week has been a lot of fun.  On behalf of the Perch Patrol, I would like to personally Thank all of our guests for putting back some of the trophy walleyes that were caught.  These truly are Devils Lake's number one reproducers and the future of our great fishery depends on these fish for reproduction.

This has been by far the best walleye fishing we have had in quite some time.  Group after group have come and gone and limits have been caught.  It has been a lot of fun catching pike along with them as well.  The perch fishing has been decents as well, but I have to admit, with the walleye fishing being so good, nobody has really cared!  Every group has been given the options and so far everyone has wanted to fish walleyes and pike. 

This Weeks Perch Patrol Honor Roll

Randy Fries - Colgate, WI Dan Owens - Hales Corners, WI Jimmy Berenz - Waterloo, IL Dean Thelen - St. Cloud, WI	Jason Parker of Hartland, WI and his 9lb Monster!	Jerome Bennett, Moose Lake, MN Brad Luiken, Faribault, MN

Latest Fishing Report  3/10/08

This past week we were again hampered in our ability to get around with all the snow but you know what I am sick of talking about all the snow!  We had a very successful week all in all.  On Thursday and Friday we were finally able to put together two good days in a row on perch.  These were some of the nicest perch of the year with several in that 13 to 14 inch range.  This is a huge school of fish.  On Saturday and Sunday, the perch slowed down with Sunday's storm and really have been tough to get to bite ever since.

Walleye fishing has been pretty decent as well.  We had a group from southern Minnesota do pretty good this morning.  No trophies but a lot of nice eaters in that 14 to 17 inch range.

Pike fishing remains incredible.  This is by far the best pike fishing year we have ever seen and we have had some pretty awesome pike fishing in years past.

The good news is that it was 46 degrees today.  It was very noticable in our abilities to get around.  It did shrink some but just that fact that it got soft and sticky provided us the ability to plow right through it.  I don't want to say that we can drive anywhere yet, but if we can get two or three more days like today, our ability to go most places should happen very soon.

This Weeks Perch Patrol Honor Roll

Herald Howard of Taunton, MN and Bernie DeCock of GHent, MN proudly display some of their jumbos from earlier today.  Nice job fellas!

Good fishing everybody!

Steve "Zippy" Dahl               (701) 351-3474        zippy@perchpatrol.com

Latest Fishing Report  3/03/08

Some say a picture is worth a thousand words, in our case we say a thousand scoops!  This is what life is like for the Perch Patrol on Devils Lake these days.  Day after day our spots keep getting eliminated by snow and wind.  The trails fill in, the accesses are plugged, and on cloudy days travel is near impossible.  The problem is 3 foot drifts are as hard as concrete.  So hard we can't even plow them with our Bombadier.  But March is here and things can only get better.  Warm temperatures means softer drifts and shrinking snow.  The best is yet to come!

The show must go on!  Every day we are swamped with customers and we somehow manage to make something happen every day.  This past week our walleye and pike fishing continued to hog the headlines.  Limits of pike and near limits of some of the most beautiful walleyes of this season continued to produce for our guests.  The perch fishing is improving as well.  Our ability to affectively hunt for new schools of perch has been hampered more than any of the species but we did do fairly well on perch over the weekend and today Mr. Dave Tronson of the Perch Patrol showed the rest of us what we can do with our walleyes and pike.  His group of two caught their limit of perch today.  I am sorry I wasn't able to get to them and get a picture but they were some pretty happy people with a 5 gallon pale full of Jumbos. 

For those of you thinking of a late March trip, I believe you will be hitting it just right.  Hopefully by then most of our snow will be diminished and we can drive anywhere and everywhere.  We will have plenty of ice.

This Weeks Perch Patrol Honor Roll

Ron, Dan, and Mike Eaton of Milwaukee, Wisconsin displayed some of their larger walleyes.  This trio had a great time catching walleyes and pike on March 1st.

Latest Fishing Report 2/25/08

The weather stabilizes and so does the fishing!  This past week our rollercoaster weather pattern came to an end by the weekend and magically the fish started biting all over the lake.  The Perch Patrol experienced some very impressive catches of perch, walleye, and northern pike throughout the weekend and we have heard several reports of other very good bites as well.

The jumbo perch have still been coming very deep 42 to 48 feet.  The perch that we are catching have been very impressive in that 10 to 13 inch range.  The number 8 Genz worm, silver halis, and forage minnow spoons tipped with a small minnow head seems to work best. 

The northern pike fishing is still very good.  We have had group after group catch their limit of pike at least one day of their 3 day trip.  These pike range anywhere from 3 to 6 pounds with a few in that 7 to 10 pound range.  Larger spoons tipped with 2 or 3 minnows have been working very good as is the immitation rubber blue gills, crappies, and perch.

The walleye fishing has really picked up.  For both numbers and size.  We would like to thank our guests for turning the trophies back to help preserve the Devils Lake fishery.  We have had numerous walleyes caught from 15 to 20 inches and there was quite a few trophies caught between 24 to 29 inches as well.

Travel on the lake is still challenging but as long as the sun is shining and we can see the drifts, we can pretty much pick our way around and get most places.  There have also been quite a few new trails plowed on the main lake and east bay as well.

This Weeks Perch Patrol Honor Roll

Despite over sleeping Saturday morning, (sorry fellas, I couldn't resist) Jeremy Wagner, Brian Klimek, Jamie Suchy and Bill Koep of Brandon, Minnesota had an awesome day of walleye and pike fishing.  These walleyes were caught in anywhere from 7 feet to 23 feet of water and all came on the buckshot rattle spoons with a minnow head.

Good Fishing,

Steve "Zippy" Dahl            (701) 351-3474       email zippy@perchpatrol.com

Latest Fishing Report 2/18/08

Old mother nature has been relentless this past week, providing us with three cold fronts including one storm.  Added snow early in the week and bitterly cold temperatures have made our travels around the lake very difficult.  We broke out the bombadier trail groomer yesterday and tried plowing trails only to find out that the drifts are so hard it is impossible to plow.  Needless to say we have become very limited to a handfull of perch spots, a few walleye spots and a few pike spots.  The sunny days we can see the drifts and can distinguish between them and the low spots but cloudy days we spend most of our day either shoveling or pulling each other out.  Not a lot of fun.

The fishing however has been great for morning walleyes and pike but perch right now are not coming easy.  With all the fronts, we have been concetrating more on walleyes and pike.  Nice limits of each have been caught this past week.  On the bright side, our best fishing is yet to come.  As cold as it has been, Devils Lake is now approaching 30 plus inches of ice.  Most of us have put the extensions on our augers.  We are going to have ice for a long time.  Infact, we have started to take reservations into April.  Our March Schedule is really filling fast with only a handfull of openings before March 17.  After that we still have room but if you are still thinking about a trip with the Perch Patrol and want to get in on some of the potentially best fishing of the year, March 17 through the 30th looks to be a great time to come.  I know our ability to get around and put hooks in front of fish that haven't seen a luhr for soon a month will be hungry!

Good Fishing,

Steve "Zippy" Dahl             (701) 351-3474           Zippy@perchpatrol.com         

Latest Fishing Report 2/10/08

This past week the Perch Patrol Guide Service experienced some fabulous fishing despite the bitterly cold weather.  Granted Monday through Wednesday was pretty slow for perch, but Thursday and Friday the perch bite was on!  Of course with the good news we must also give the bad news...Friday night and all day Saturday we had a major Alberta clipper blow through our region and provide us with gail force winds of 40 to 50 mph and bitterly cold temperatures.  Needless to say Saturday's bite was completely shut down and Sunday-today we fished mostly pike and walleyes.

Walleye Fishing has been hit and miss but we did get into some nice ones both Thursday and Friday evenings.  Pike fishing is still rediculous.  We are still catching limits in a very short period of time on jig rods and reels, no tipups.  These pike have been ranging from 3 to 10 pounds.

It sounds like our weather is going to start to straighten out.  At least we are going to warm up a bit.  It is supposed to be highs in the 20s by midweek.

This Weeks Perch Patrol Honor Roll

Todd and Al Kuhse from Chicago, Illinois and Edgewood, Iowa nearly limited out as they caught 35 jumbos mixed with some huge white bass.  The Jim Curran and Brad Fanello group of 6 from Lake Mills, Wisconsin also kicked some serious tail on Friday they caught their limit of pike in the morning, over 30 perch, and 12 to 15 nice walleyes to boot.  Not bad for 8 to 9 hours of fishing!

Good fishing everybody!

Steve "Zippy" Dahl          (701) 351-3474       email zippy@perchpatrol.com    

Latest Fishing Report 2/04/08

This past week we have had some very interesting weather.  Last Monday we cancelled all of our groups due to 55 mph plus winds combined with about a -60 below wind chill.  Another arctic blast, cold front hit us very hard in here in perchville.  So you don't have to guess too hard at what the perch bite was like for the remainder of the week.  Pretty nil to say the least.  We spent most days walleye and pike fishing.  We did have some groups do pretty decent on walleyes early in the mornings. 

Pike fishing has just been incredible.  We have seen some pretty awesome pike fishing over the years, but we have never seen it quite like this.  Can you imagine catching 60 to 80 pike a day between 3 and 10 pounds with no tipups! (that would be cheating).  Yes, they have all come on a rod and reel.  Some of our Perch Patrol guides have really taken this to the next level.  From jigging spoons tipped with 3 minnows to the latest craze -- plastic and rubber blue gils, perch, and crappie about 3 inches long.  It has just been awesome.  Our clients have been limiting out and then of course catch and releasing until their arms are sore.  We had the Devon Chupp group of 4 from Shipshewana, Indiana limit out with 20 pike in 46 minutes on Tuesday.

As for the perch, well it can only get better.  Our weather needs to stabilize, and it will.  We have found so many schools of perch on so many different parts of the lake.  We visit them everyday and the results have pretty much stayed the same. We mark all kinds of perch but just can't get them to go.   Panfish and weather fronts simply do not mix, never have and probably never will.  This is why we are so lucky to have a fishery like Devils Lake that also provides us with some of the best walleye and pike fishing opportunities in the country.

Good fishing everybody!

Steve "Zippy" Dahl                 (701) 351-3474          zippy@perchpatrol.com

Latest Fishing Report 1/28/08

Despite some ever changing weather patterns this past week provided us with some pretty decent fishing.  We had 3 or 4 solid days of perch fishing but it was hard to put two good days together.  It was either fiest or famine.  We would have one day where the perch hit very aggressively and then the next day we couldn't buy a bite.  The walleye fishing was kind of the same.  We would really nail some 18 to 24 inch walleyes in the morning and then go back to the same holes for the evening bite and we got the old skunk hole.  Pike fishing overall has been very good to excellent but we honestly haven't done a whole lot of it with the Perch and Walleye fishing picking up. Without further due it's time for:

This Weeks Perch Patrol Honor Roll

The Dan Robinson Group from St. John, Indiana,enjoyed some of Devils Lake's Finest perch fishing with the Perch Patrol this past weekend.  The group of 4 nearly limited out their first day of their Perch Express 3 day trip.

9 year old Evan Davis from Sauk City,Wisconsin had a "Big Time!"  Not only did he get to drown himself in some pike slime he got to proudly display a true Devils Lake Jumbo.

Rev. David Bibbee and his wife Sue from Elkhart, Indiana show off some jumbos that the pulled out of 48 feet of water.

Latest Fishing Report 1/20/08

Our condolences go out to all Green Bay Packer fans through out the land.  That one had to hurt.  As a Viking fan, I can tell you, we know the feeling.

BRRRRR!!! It's cold out!  Every morning the Perch Patrol takes to the ice and its a balmy 20 to 24 degrees below zero.  Devils Lake is filled with some of the smartest perch.  They seem to know when not to bite.  We mark them all day long and to get one to bite these past few days, has been like threading a needle in a hurricane. Major cold fronts and perch simply do not mix.  We have had a tough time the past few days and all I can tell you is thank God for northern pike.  Our pike fishing is so incredible we are able to bring limits in just by jigging for them.  It has been too cold to run tip ups, we put out a few, but it is a dip the whole every 15 minute ordeal.  When we did get a flag, we honked the horn and guess what?  None of our clients came out of the fish house to get the fish!  Now that's COLD!  Oh well, I can't say we can blame them.  They are more fun on a rod and reel anyway. 

Walleye fishing has been inconsistent as well.  We have had a hard time getting the big marks to bite.  The little ones are sure hungry however.

The good news is the weather is supposed to warm up and stabilize throughout the week.  It is supposed to be 18 above by Thursday, so hopefully our next report will be much more encouraging. 

Good fishing everybody.

Steve "Zippy" Dahl             (701) 351-3474          Email zippy@perchpatrol.com

Latest Fishing Report 1/14/08

Perch fishing has been very inconsistent this past week.  We are finding and locating perch in many areas on Devils Lake in a variety of depths.  These depths range anywhere from 22 to 48 feet.  The problem is they have been extremely hard to catch.  Our customers are having the best luck on Genz worms, halis, or small rat finkie jigs below a dropper rig or a pencil weight.  We have been tipping these luhres with maggots 2 wax worms or small minnow heads.  I don't want to sound completely doom and gloom as we have had groups come in with some decent perch catches, but by no means did we get limits of perch this past week. 

The good news is that our walleye fishing has picked up.  Bob Greenfield and Wes Schon from South Dakota had some good luck over the weekend on walleyes.  We would like to congradulate Bob on his 8 pound 4 oz walleye and welcome him to the North Dakota Whopper Club!

Pike fishing continues to be very good to excellent on area lakes connected to Devils Lake and we did have a group all the way from Sweden that release a 42 incher by mistake.  The big one that got away!

It sounds like our forecast for the next 5 days is going to be quite challenging with temperatures raising and falling 30 to 40 degrees over night. 

Good fishing everybody!

Steve "Zippy" Dahl     (701) 351-3474    email zippy@perchpatrol.com

Latest Fishing Report 1/05/08

Happy New Year Everybody!  Sorry for the delayed report, things have been busy here in Perchville!  Ashley and Drew from Omaha, Nebraska had a very nice bucket of Jumbos between Christmas and New Years.    This brother and sister combination came with their Grandpa Larry Green.  What a nice way to spend some Christmas vacation hammering on some of the finest perch we have seen so far this winter.  Perch fishing overall has been inconsistent this past week.  We have had some groups do very well and others not so well.  It has really followed our weather patterns.  On days our weather has been stable we the perch fishing was good.  On days our weather changed either cold or warm, the perch turned into sniffers instead of biters. 

The good news is on the slow perch days our walleye fishing has picked up.  We had some real slabs (8 to 10 pounders) that were caught and released by some of our clientele.

 Pike fishing has also picked up.  We haven't done a lot of it but we did have one group from Chicago, Mike and his son William, who cleaned house on them both yesterday and today.Hope all of you were able to catch the Kent Hrbek Show that aired this past week throughout the midwest.  By the number of phone calls and reservations that were booked, I can tell a lot of you did.  We will be shooting an Up North Outdoors / Minnesota Bound with Bill Scherck and Ron Sherra on Monday and Tuesday of this week.  So we would like to issue a warm "Perch Patrol Welcome" to them.  

Things are in full swing for the Perch Patrol.  We are guiding clients everyday now and we are happy to announce the ATV season is officially over!  We have 12 to 16 inches of ice and we are driving our trucks and we are able to cover the lake to the best of our abilities.  We do still have room to take your party fishing and it is not too late to plan a trip.  We would love to have you!

Steve "Zippy" Dahl         (701) 351-3474              email zippy@perchpatrol.com

Latest Fishing Report 12/26/07

Merry Christmas everybody!  This past week fishing has improved.  We enjoyed beautiful weather for most of the week and the perch bite definitely improved.  Saturday and Sunday, however things got tough.   30 to 40 mile per hour winds with frigid 10 below temperatures made things challenging to say the least.  Of course we were guiding during these times and we had a group of 5 that still was able to scratch out a 5 gallon pale of perch on Saturday, but did not enjoy much success on Sunday with the bad weather.  The perch we caught were in 22 to 30 feet of water.  Walleye fishing remains mixed, a few decent ones but also a lot of small ones.  Of course pike fishing is very good as always.

The ice conditions are about the same.  Mostly 10 to 12 inches.  The problem is we have not gained much ice in the last 10 days.  We still have 10 inches of snow insulating the ice and our temperatures really have not been that cold.  Starting the December 27, the Perch Patrol is in full swing.  We have clients to take out nearly every day from now to the end of March.  We do still have plenty of room for more and it is not too late to plan a trip for you and your party.

Steve "Zippy" Dahl                (701) 351-3474             zippy@perchpatrol.com

Latest Fishing Report 12/17/07

We had our first clients of the year this past weekend and wouldn't you know it we also had our toughest fishing of the year so far.  We marked fish all day long and it became rather obvious to us that we were definately fishing sniffers instead of bighters.  Some of the guys discovered that putting a minnow head on a Genz worm and holding the rod perfectly still was the only way we could get them to bite.  All and all, 8 clients 36 perch.  Sunday, we took a group of 6 to a dam 50 miles away, acting on a tip of one of our good fishing friends that after sorting through about 80 perch of various sizes, he bagged a limit of 1 pound perch on Saturday.  That sounded pretty to good to us, so off we went.  Needless to say way more small ones (6-7inchers) than pounders. 

It did feel good to get back in the saddle again, guiding ice fishermen.  We are definately already growing tired of using ATVs.  Looking forward to guiding out of our pickup trucks.  The bad news is that we are not making a lot of ice.  We still have ice ranging from 6 inches to 1 foot.

Steve "Zippy" Dahl              (701) 351-3474      email zippy@perchpatrol.com

Latest Fishing Report 12/08/07

JACKPOT!!!

Things are looking like they are picking up right where they left off last season.  Good numbers of perch and "Jumbo" size.  At least for today anyway.  Three of us from the Perch Patrol hit the ice today for the very first time.  We had to do a little drilling but the end result was 46 jumbo perch.  Our best holes were in 22 feet of water and the gold Genz worm loaded with maggets and later perch eyes was the hot ticket.  We fished from about 9:00 am to about 12:30pm before we eagerly submitted to the cold temperatures and cold perch slime!

Every where we drilled today we found 7 - 8 inches of ice.  We do have about 8 inches of snow covering the lake but we were able to baja right through it on our ATV's.

It sure felt good to get out on the ice again and officially get the 2007-08 ice fishing season kicked off with a very successful day of perch fishing.

Steve "Zippy" Dahl       (701) 351-3474        email: zippy@perchpatrol.com

Latest Fishing Report 12/04/07

A huge Thank You for all of you that visited the Perch Patrol Booth at the St. Paul Ice Fishing Show this past weekend.  Great show and great turnout despite the weather.  It is very exciting to hear so much enthusiasm from all of you for fishing perch on Devils Lake this winter!!!

She's a bit of a winter wonderland here in Devils Lake, North Dakota.  Today we are supposed to get up to six inches of new snow here in the Lake Region.  We are also supposed to get a lot of wind later, so hopefully that will blow a lot of the snow off the lake.  We do still have ice and it has been growing in thickness.  The back bays (Creel Bay and Six Mile) and most of East Bay already have 4 to 5 inches of ice and some of the smaller lakes up north already have up to 10 to 12 inches of ice.

Members of the Perch Patrol have not been fishing yet.  Most of us are busy getting all of our equipment ready.  So far our first clients are scheduled for December 10th.  So by this time next week I am sure most of us will have been fishing a couple of times.

Now is the perfect time to organize your group and make some reservations to come and fish Devils Lake with the Perch Patrol.  We have taken a lot of reservations already and if you are planning to come with a large group (6 people or more) we need to get this scheduled while there is still room.  We do currently have a lot of options for you, but we also have a lot of dates that are already sold out.  We just don't want you to be disappointed.

Steve "Zippy" Dahl          (701) 351-3474       email: zippy@perchpatrol.com    

  Photo taken 11/27/07

We Have ICE!!!

Latest Fishing Report  11/27/07

The warm community of Devils Lake, ND woke up to some pretty frigid 9 below  zero temperatures this morning and the waters of Devils Lake are providing us with a brand new sheet of ice.  Isn't life wonderful?  So winter is officially here.  It won't be too long and these fishing reports will soon be filled with actual reports on fishing.  I would like to remind everyone that by no means is Devils Lake ice safe enough and that everyone should use extreme caution when venturing out onto the ice, no matter where you live.  Fishing with a buddy, wearing life jackets, walking with a spud bar, bringing along a long rope with a floatation device, or simply waiting until the ice is a consistent 4 to 6 inches.  This is all good advice to anyone venturing out on a newly frozen over lake.

The Perch Patrol and Woodland Resort will be travelling to St. Paul, Minnesota on this Thursday for the 15th annual St. Paul Ice Fishing Show.  It is my first year that nor myself or Kyle Blanchfield will be there.  I have a niece getting married this weekend and Kyle's kids have a hockey tournament.  But never fear Bubba is near!  Perch Patrol Guide Jason "Bubba" Hodous, Ron Ellis, and Glenn Kurtz from Woodland Resort will be manning the Woodland Resort/Perch Patrol booth.  Stop by and say "hi"  They will handing out our latest brochure and answering any questions you may have about Woodland Resort, the Perch Patrol and the World Famous Perch Express.

Steve "Zippy" Dahl        (701) 351-3474       email zippy@perchpatrol.com

Latest Ice Fishing Report -- 11/21/07

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!  Sorry to report no ice as of yet, although I did hear a rumor that Lake Irvin was completely froze over.  The water temperatures must be getting close.  Last year was pretty similar to this fall.  It stayed nice for a long time and then boom the cold hit and we got some snow and it was heaven until late April.  I have been taking quite a few reservations lately and one question that I keep getting asked is when is the best time to come and fish Devils Lake?  I have trouble answering this question.  As a guide on the Perch Patrol, we fish this lake every day and honestly the bite changes from hour to hour.  There is no magic time that I can tell anyone that "Hey, drop what you are doing cause you need to be here Feb. 4 - 14th."  All I can do is remember patterns from previous years.  Some years early ice was awesome, some years late ice was best, some years it was the whole month of January.  But every year is honestly very different.  The best advice I can tell anyone is to come with an open mind.  True, our perch are back!  But, it is also true they are not going to commit suicide everyday.  If you keep an open mind, no matter when you schedule your trip, if the perch aren't hitting, we can put you on some of the best walleye and pike fishing on the continent.  This is what makes Devils Lake such an awesome fishery and it is also the reason we have such a high number of repeat guests.  I will say this, and I can speak for all the guides on the Perch Patrol.  I do not remember a year that we have been so fired up to get out on the ice and prove that last season's perch fishing was not a fluke.  Hopefully our temperature will continue to fall and next time I give a fishing report I can report on some hard water!  Have a great week!

Steve "Zippy" Dahl  (701) 351-3474     email  zippy@perchpatrol.com

Latest Ice Fishing Report -- 11/15/07

Just want to announce that neither myself or any other representative from the Perch Patrol Guide Service will be attending the Ice Fishing Frenzy Show at the Minneapolis Convention Center this weekend as previously reported.  Devils Lake Tourism, whom I was going to represent has decided to pull out of the show due to lack of vendors signed up for the sport show.  If you are planning on going to this show, I apologize and regret that I will not be there to visit with you.

Steve "Zippy" Dahl  (701) 351-3474  email zippy@perchpatrol.com

Latest Ice Fishing Report -- 11/11/07

Well no ice as of yet.  In fact, weather here is still pretty balmy for November.  With the deer season in full swing and the waterfowl season still in progress, not many fishing on Devils Lake these days.  We are kind of in that in-between season with temperatures a bit chilly for open water fishing but not cold enough to make ice.  I am heading to the Ice Fishing Frenzy sport show at the Minneapolis Convention Center this weekend (November 16, 17, 18).  Since we cannot yet ice fish, I figure I may as well talk about ice fishing with those who share the same passion.  I will be promoting Devils Lake in the Devils Lake Tourism Booth.  If you get a chance, stop by and say "Hi."   If you are considering putting a trip with the Perch Patrol together for this winter, now would be a great time to do that.  We are just entering our promotional season and right now is a great opportunity to have that first chance of all the available dates for this winter before we do any sport shows or the outdoor television segments filmed last season hit the air waves.  Hope to see you at the Ice Fishing Frenzy!

Steve "Zippy" Dahl  (701) 351-3474  email: zippy@perchpatrol.com
For more information on the Minneapolis Sport Show visit www.icefrenzy.com

Latest Ice Fishing Report --11/5/07

November is here and everyone's thoughts are turning towards ice fishing.  Summer fishing on Devils Lake was outstanding through July and then the nice walleyes became more scarce.  It seems that the Devils Lake fishery is booming so much with reproduction, we seem to have to sort through the smaller walleyes much more than we are used to doing.  Not that any of this is bad news, it certainly bodes well for the future.  The good news is THE PERCH ARE BACK!!!  We had an unexpected Outstanding winter last year, and so far this fall, there were quite a few fisherman bringing in some limits of really nice perch.  The following article appeared in the Grand Forks Herald on 10/14/07:

Devils Lake: Survey shows abundant young fish
By Brad Dokken , Herald Staff Writer

It's too early to guarantee good fishing, but populations of young walleyes, yellow perch and white bass in Devils Lake are at their highest levels in several years, results from a fall Game and Fish Department survey show.

According to Randy Hiltner, northeastern district fisheries supervisor for Game and Fish in Devils Lake, the annual young-of-the-year fall gillnetting survey produced a stunning 101 fish per net.

That's the highest cumulative catch since 1991, Hiltner said, and considerably higher than the 16-year average of 38 fish per net.

Two years ago, by comparison, the cumulative catch was 18 fish per net.

“There's lots of baby fish in the system this fall,” Hiltner said.

About the survey

Game and Fish conducts the survey by setting gill nets at 37 sites from east to west. The nets are set in the same locations every year, Hiltner said, and left in the water overnight.

This year's survey started Sept. 10 and took about a week and a half to complete, he said.

The catch was evenly distributed between the three main species, Hiltner said, along with a small percentage of crappies. The survey produced an average of 37 yellow perch per net, Hiltner said, the highest since 2001 and up from 19 last year and less than two in 2004.

The walleye catch also was the highest since 2001, while numbers of young white bass were at their highest levels since 1991, he said.

Despite the results, Hiltner said it's too early to say the banner numbers will mean high populations of catchable-size fish in a few years.

“It doesn't translate directly to a strong age-class, but if I had my druthers, I'd start out with a lot of little fish rather than a few little fish,” he said. “The potential is there down the road.”

Stocking questions

Game and Fish stocked Devils Lake with 1.7 million walleye fingerlings and 931,000 perch fingerlings this year, Hiltner said. Stocked fish were “marked” with oxytetracycline, a chemical that shows up in the ear bone when viewed under a microscope. Hiltner said 130 baby walleyes and 130 baby perch were sent to a lab Tuesday for analysis to determine the percentage of stocked vs. natural fish.

Results will be available in a couple of months.

“If it's like several of our other samples in years when we have good young-of-the-year catch rates, the majority typically is from natural reproduction,” he said. “We certainly know that's true for white bass, and we didn't stock those.”

Hiltner said the high water levels in Devils Lake have flooded areas of sand and gravel, creating better spawning conditions than the mud that dominated shorelines when the lake was low.

That ups the odds for natural reproduction, he said.

The fall assessment doesn't sample young northern pike, which by September are too large for the half-inch mesh fisheries crews use in the survey, Hiltner said. Other surveys and spring egg-taking efforts continue to show strong pike populations, he said.

“We have a pretty good idea that northern pike are thriving out here,” Hiltner said.

Game and Fish also sampled Stump Lake for young-of-the-year fish. That survey produced only five walleyes per net, despite a spring stocking of 790,000 fingerlings.

The nets did produce 40 perch per lift, however, and Game and Fish didn't stock any perch in Stump Lake this year, Hiltner said.

Reach Dokken at 780-1148, (800) 477-6572 ext. 148, or bdokken@gfherald.com.