Devils Lake North Dakota Ice Fishing Trip

Luckily my grandparents have a farm less than 30 miles from Devils Lake, which makes Devils Lake a very convenient location to fish. I have heard great things about the lake and seen it grow tremendously in size over the last decade. From a 45,000 acre lake and a max depth of 20 feet to over 200,000 acres of water with a max depth of 65 feet.

Unfortunately, I have only fished Devils Lake one other time in the past and it was during the summer. It was however some of the best fishing I have ever done. My Great-Uncle Oliver took me and my cousin Michael to a road that was built up that would have been covered in the growing Devils lake waters. There was a strong North wind as we set up on the south side of the road. It was extremely hard to cast into the wind, but it didn’t make much of a difference. The white bass were on a feeding frenzy and we would catch a fish with almost every cast. The limit was 32 white bass and just as we were getting ready to leave, I ended up catching my limit, between the three of us we had between 70 and 80 fish for only an hour or two of fishing.

Location

Before the trip I did some homework, printing off some contour maps and watching a few videos of others ice fishing in Devils Lake. I had a few areas picked out for where I wanted to go.

I left my grandparents house around noon and drove into Devils Lake to get some minnows. I had to back track a little to get to where I wanted. Luckily There was very little snow so I was able drive my car to my spot. A great spot on six-mile bay in around 30 feet of water. I got out my hand auger and started cutting holes. I cut a half dozen holes and put our three tip-ups. It didn’t take long before the first flag popped up and the first fish on the ice was a really nice crappie.

I never stayed on top of a great bite, but like clockwork around every thirty minutes I would have not just a flag, but the same flag pop up and I would put another fish on the ice.

I ended up catching two really nice crappies, a jumbo perch and four walleyes.