Devils Lake’s walleyes are just firing up, with cooler water temperatures dictating fish action at this point. DEO Photo by Mike Peluso.

By Mike Peluso

As I was over on Devils Lake this weekend fishing the AIM Walleye event, this week’s report will cover both the walleye fishing on the Missouri River near Bismarck and also feature a little update from Devils Lake, which is where I’ll start. 

Things are just starting to get going up here.  Water temperatures on Devils Lake were still a little cool and water clarity is pretty clear.  The walleyes should really start to fire up as the water continues to warm. 

We have concentrated on wind-blown shorelines, casting both shallow diving cranks and jigs with plastics.  In the AIM tournament, we had a decent day finishing in tenth place with five walleyes weighing just a little over 20 pounds.  If you like pike action, Devils Lake is on fire right now, it’s crazy! 

As far as the Missouri River walleye fishing near Bismarck goes, things continue to be really good.  There are lots of active males now in the spots where we were catching a lot of bigger females this spring.  There are still some monster fish around, so every pitch of the jig can result in a 30-inch fish or bigger! 

I have all this week yet here on the Missouri River and then the coming weekend I’ll be back up on Devils Lake for three days.  After that, I’ll have one last week back on the river. It’s hard to believe I’m already having to travel around for my guide trips.  It’s been one heck of a great spring and I just don’t want it to end!

I don’t have much for openings until August.  If you are looking to fish Devils Lake or Sakakawea I’ll have plenty of dates for you in August, but not much from now until then.

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