Ladies and gentlemen...Start your engines because we have an ice free Devils Lake!! It sure feels good to be on the water after a long winter! As for the bite...We have had some pretty good walleye and pike fishing. Very important to be in or near current. Some fish have spawned, others are spawning, and there are some that will be this week. Culverts, bridges, anywhere there is water coming into the lake are all good places to try. Water temps range from upper 40's to mid 50's. The shallow water back bay bite that Devils Lake is famous for is getting very close, all we need is a few days of warm weather and the water temps will be where they need to be for active fish.

Best presentations include: jigs and plastics, pitching cranks, vertical jigging with leeches or minnows, and slip bobbering with leeches. Of late, a lot of the walleyes we have been catching are males. Most of the females have laid their eggs and the males are now milting.We are close to the shallow water bite exploding on Devils...START YOUR ENGINES!!

Come on warm and wind!! The weather is starting to act more like May and the ice is getting softer by the day. At this point I would not suggest ice fishing on Devils Lake. Ice is getting mushy and the edges are open nearly everywhere on the lake. Channel A area is opening up more and more each day. There have been some pretty good bites happening on ice and in smaller boats in the Six mile bay (Channel A area).

Key to fishing this time of year is to fish current. Anywhere there is water coming into the lake, bridges, culverts, etc. all will hold fish. If we can keep up this nice weather, ice should be off shortly! I am hoping for 10 days... Needless to say, everyone in the Devils Lake area is excited for open water fishing!

If you want to get out and experience some of the best walleye, bass, and pike fishing in the country, give us a call or shoot us an email and we will make it happen!

Last year we had the fastest thaw I've ever seen and this year it is the slowest I have ever seen. Actually, it really hasn't even started to melt or thaw in the Devils Lake area. It is still winter and it looks like it might be here a bit longer. We do not have any real warm weather scheduled in the near future.
The bottom line is life goes on. We can ice fish a bit longer. There are some pretty good bites for eyes, perch, and pike going right now. We could have ice fishing into late April? 
We have had a fair amount of people wanting to fish in the next few weeks so we will continue to fish until conditions are unsafe. It looks like we will have at least two weeks of good ice, probably more.
Let us know if you want to do some real late ice fishing!!!

Thanks to all the people that visited Bry’s Guide Service in the Devils Lake/ND Tourism booth at the Minneapolis Sports Show this past weekend. We had a great time talking with previous clients and many future ones as well. Everyone that lives in the Devils Lake area knows just how unique the fishing and hunting is. We feel very fortunate to live where we do and we really enjoy sharing this great resource with people from all over the country. The open water season can’t be to far away….As we get further into spring, remember to use caution on the ice.

We currently have good ice and lots of ice. Weather looks very nice and this is the time to get out and enjoy some late season ice fishing! Slush can be bad in places, but for the most part you can still get around pretty good. Good Luck to all!!

It looks more like mid January than mid March today. We have snow and lots of it. Life in North Dakota is constantly changing and different, last year at this time we were done ice fishing and getting the boats ready. Extensions are needed and it is an absolute must to have tracks of some kind. THERE IS NO WAY TO FISH OUT OF YOUR TRUCK!!! We have seen some brave souls attempting to do so, and they ended up getting a great workout of shoveling and pushing (hours worth).

Weather looks to be getting better in the near future and look for there to be some excellent bites as well. Over the past ten days we have found some good bites out in that 28-40ish ft range. We have caught eyes, white bass, and some enormous perch too. There are days when the buckets are full and if mother nature would just give us a week (or two) of nice weather, it could be hot and heavy. Even though it doesn't look it, it is March and this is one of the best times of the year to be on Devils Lake. One good way to look at the snow is that many people will not be out cause of it, therefor if you find that hot bite, you just may have it to yourself!!

Good luck to all!! Remember extensions and tracks are a must this time of year!!

The bite has been steady! Seems like most days we are working for them, but at the end of the day, the bucket looks pretty good. We are drilling lots of holes and fishing all over the place.

The best bite for perch has been anywhere from 25-40 ft for us. We are fishing flooded timber with buckshots, pk spoons, lindy flyers, genz worms, and dropper-rigs. Minnow heads and wax worms have produced the best results. Walleyes have been caught in with the perch and we have had the occasional pike as well. There are places where the pike action is very good right now. Best presentations are tip-ups or a jigging spoon tipped with a fathead.

Overall, it is a fun time of year to be on the ice. Weather has been beautiful and the bite has been solid. Look for the bite to get even better as we approach the late ice period!

Good luck to all and be safe. There are areas that have lots of slush and deep drifts, vehicle traffic on the lake can be tricky.

We have had some pretty good days mixed in with some just OK days over the past ten days. We have had some dandy perch and pike of late, just not huge numbers of them. The walleyes have been more in the eater class, with only a few nicer ones mixed in here and there. The reality is that just about everywhere we go we are marking fish, the key is triggering them to bite or to be there for that window they are feeding in (which may last twenty minutes or a few hours). So there is a bit of a guessing game as to the time and location that will produce the next flurry...Some days we wait for the bite and other days we go looking for more aggressive fish.

Some of the best ice fishing of the year is traditionally that late ice period. My calendar is showing that March is right around the corner!! We are anticipating more takers and less lookers as the weather warms and more hatches occur in shallow. Seems like everything (walleyes, perch, pike) become more active in the spring.

The Devils Lake area has had a fair amount of snow mixed in with lots of wind which equals tough access and travel on the lake. We recommend snowmobiles or tracked vehicles of some kind as there are some major drifts out there. We have a few openings in March if you would like to book a trip with Bry's Guide Service. Good luck!!