The author employed trolling tactics for muskies and to find larger walleyes last week as summer shifts toward fall. DEO Photo by Mike Peluso.

By Mike Peluso

It’s been a relatively slower week of fishing for me. I did chase muskies one day and went after walleyes on the river south of Bismarck and fished Devils Lake one day guiding. So, this is going to be a mixed report.

I’ll start with the muskie day. We never caught one, but we did spot a few, and a couple were big looking fish on the side scan. We casted and trolled big baits for them. I’m fairly new to the musky game but I’m definitely going to pursue them more often. There is a mystery to these fish.

The Missouri River south of Bismarck, not in the Oahe portion, was interesting. I know they had the Casino Cup down south out of Prairie Knights and the walleyes are still not really going crazy. I think a huge portion of fish went way down south on the reservoir. Typically, when walleyes do this, they are very slow to return. I did find a few decent fish up in the river, but I fear those will disappear this week with the flows being cut. I’m hoping by mid-October we will see signs of life near town.

Devils Lake is just being Steady Eddy right now. The jig bite is solid for eater size walleyes and the trolling bite is better for the larger fish. Weather and wind have been factors on where you can fish. This seems to be the common theme every year no matter what lake you are concentrating on.

All in all, it’s been a slower week of fishing having only fished four days, but it’s been a good learning week for me. I’m taking bookings now for ice fishing on Devils Lake. So, if you’re planning on fishing this winter and want to make it easy on yourself just let me know.

Mike Peluso is a Dakota Edge Outdoors Contributing Writer and a licensed ND fishing guide specializing in the state’s premier walleye waters.