Some Work.  Fishing has been tough the past week on Devils Lake as cold conditions make movement difficult and recent weather changes have fish, like the water’s famed jumbo perch, in a funk. DEO Photo by Mike Peluso.

By Mike Peluso

The ice fishing has been tough, Tough, TOUGH up here on Devils Lake over the past week. This cold snap we received has made things a bit on the difficult side, especially on us guides.

We are catching fish, but we are not catching the numbers we would like to see right now to make the days feel a little better. At times we can be pretty hard on ourselves, and we try to control things we absolutely cannot.

Weather and the feeding moods of the fish are two of those elements we cannot control. So, we just continue to punch holes in search of that magical spot. I will admit however it can feel at times as if the fish are not there. Especially during a cold front where the fish hunker down and are very difficult to find on electronics.

The walleye bite on Devils Lake during this time has been okay during the low light periods. But you’d better be on the spot-on-the-spot or you will miss it. The perch have been mainly lookers this week; they will only bite with a ton of coaxing.

My hope is with this cold weather, the perch will begin to head to the basin and group up a little more. Once they do that it creates a competitive environment snapping them out of this funk.

Until that happens, we will continue to drill a ton of holes, move our shacks and our clients countless times a day to try and get them on top of some feeding fish. That is all a guide can do when the elements are in charge! 

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