Clearly Ahead.  Clear waters are providing a challenge for walleye anglers on Devils Lake, and locating any areas with a slight stain is advantageous in connecting with fish. DEO Photo by Mike Peluso.

By Mike Peluso

Well since we got cancelled on my first day of walleye fishing back up on Devils Lake for the season, I have only one day on the water to report on.

My first observation was that the water up here is extremely clean. I mean gin clear in areas. My guess is it won’t last long, but for now at least the process was finding areas of water with a little stain to it.

Once we found some dirtier water, we saw a few walleyes that would cooperate. We had to work on them and just continued to throw our offerings at them and by the end of the day, we had a really nice batch of walleyes.

Another observation up here is that the pike and white bass are plentiful. There are lots of pike, and the ones we cleaned are eating lots of perch and smaller walleye. I know today when I cleaned ten pike, at least eight of them had at least one perch or walleye in them, with a couple of them having multiple.

Some guys are doing well slip bobbering and others are doing well casting shallow running crankbaits. Again, I think at least for now it’s to try find a little water with some sort of color to it other than crystal clear.

I’m thinking the bite will just continue to get better and better as we go. Water temperatures dropped a fair amount from the reports I was getting before my arrival on Devils Lake. I guess with the wind event we had last Saturday I’m not surprised it dropped like it did.

I have a few scattered openings from now until August. I have a few more options in August if you are looking to go fishing. Get ahold of me and we can see if we can find you a day (or days) on the water.

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