All Is Calm, All Is White.  Many areas on Devils Lake have six inches of ice, making foot traffic possible to good early hardwater angling locations; but some areas of the main basin and places with moving water remain thin or open altogether, so tread carefully. DEO Photo by Mike Peluso

By Mike Peluso

First ice is here!  It’s time to dive into the ice fishing and ice condition reports to get the season started.  As most of you already know, a majority of my reports are centered around Devils Lake each winter where I do most of my fishing. I will touch on a few things I know for now, and a little that I know outside of the Devils Lake area.

First thing first, being focused on safety this time of year,  am hearing of some people getting themselves into a little trouble hurrying out in areas with their fishing units. So, make sure wherever you are going, you do your due diligence to make sure everything is safe, including ice depth and condition. 

Devils Lake is starting to shape up well, as far as ice goes. The average around the entire basin is 6 inches as of this report. Some places have more, and some places actually still remain open. So again, make sure you are checking things before venturing out.

I am hearing some reports of guys getting on the ice down south on Lake Oahe and also hearing of some of the sloughs that are producing already, but I have to keep the names of those quiet or I’ll be off the Christmas list, but if you check the North Dakota Game & Fish Department pages, you’ll find some of those hidden gems through the stocking reports from this spring and survey results from this summer.

I personally fire up my guiding efforts this week on Devils Lake, so I’ll have a more in detail fishing report next week. I’ll also have my schedule for January, February and March next week. So, if you are interested in booking a trip, I’ll know what I have available for the rest of winter by next week.

Mike Peluso is a Dakota Edge Outdoors contributing writer and a licensed ND fishing guide specializing in walleyes on the state’s premier waters