2012 Fishing Reports

Friday, May 11 2012

Can't imagine that fishing could get much better than we have had the past 10 days!  Limits of walleyes and lots of beautiful walleyes were caught and numerous northern pike mixed in between.   We want to Thank our clientele that we have had in camp for letting some of these walleyes over the 23 to 24 inch mark back to swim another day.  These are some of our best reproducers in the system and it is just nice to see that so many of our guests not only understand how important these fish are to the future of our fishery.  We had Ken Miyamoto from Bloomington, Minnesota catch a 30 inch walleye, release it and is going to have a replica made.  He had to lay down for a minute after that one!

We have been having all of our success either slip bobbering in 4 to 6 feet of water with leeches and pitching Mimic Minnows the 3/8 oz size on wind swept shorelines.  As I mentioned earlier, we are catching pike right with the walleyes.  When you combine the two species, we are having 100 fish days.  Tough on the hands, and the tackle box!  But it truly is a ton of fun.  These are the kind of fishing trips people dream of taking and they are happening right now with Mitchell's Guide Service!  Call in sick, lie to the wife, just get here!!!

Tuesday, May 1 2012

Can it be?  Are we finally turning the corner on this weather and allowing summer to start?  I don't want to jinx it, but the forecast for this upcoming week looks outstanding!  Since our last report, the weather went the other way on us.  Lots of wind and cold put a damper on fishing but again we did sneak out during the nice days and do very well fishing.

On these nice days...the walleye fishing has been incredible.  Seems like the mornings have been slow but late afternoon and the evening hours - HANG ON!  Limits of some of the most beautiful walleyes you could ever imagine.  Some are too big and do need to be released but we are also catching the good eating 15 to 18 inchers mixed with them.  The northern pike have been absolutely NUTS.  I know we can put 100 fish days together if you wanted to keep track. 

We are catching most of our fish in shallow water either casting mimic minnows and no. 5 shad raps or we are anchoring and slip bobbering some of these same areas with leeches.  We have had some days where we have gone through a pound of leeches.  The bait vendors have been loving us lately!

Well May is here and because of our early spring, mother nature is still way ahead of schedule.  Our fish will stay shallow for quite a while now and now is the perfect time to cast crank baits and work these wind swept shorelines.  Nothing quite like feeling that explosion of a fish chompin on a mimic minnow or a shad rap as you are reeling it in!  This is one of our favorite times of year and we do have plenty of room in May to take your party fishing.  Come on out and see us, we would love to have you!

Good luck fishing everybody!

Tuesday, April 17 2012

Well mother nature kind of showed us who's boss the past ten days.  High winds, rain, and frigid temperatures took away a lot of desire to go fishing lately.  We were able to sneak out on 2 of the nice days we had and we did catch some dandy fish.  The walleye fishing was by no means on fire but the size was incredible.  When you are catching only 1,2, or 3 an hour that sounds slow but when you see the size of them it definitely encourages your patience to kick in.

We have been catching most of our fish on slip bobbers.  We are just anchoring along shorelines in 8 feet of water and casting our bobbers into the shallows.  Plain hook and a leech have been the best.  We also did catch some fish casting mimic minnows with the paddle tails on a slow to medium retrieve.  The fish have been scattered.  It seems like nothing, nothing, nothing and then boom! You catch 2.

The forecast the rest of this weeks into next looks very much improved.  Mostly highs of 50s to 60s with light winds.  Next Monday it is supposed to get up to 73 degrees!  Now that sounds a little more like it!  This should really warm up the shallows and give us some excellent fishing.  We do have room if you want to get an early trip in, we would be happy to take you!

Good Luck Fishing Everybody!

GAME ON!!!

Friday, April 6, 2012

The ice is off Devils Lake and the fish are hungry!!!  There has been some pretty impressive catches of walleyes and northern pike the past 10 days on Devils Lake.  The water temperatures are still pretty cold in the low to mid 40s but fishing both fishing from shore and jigging from boats have proven to be very successful.

We would like to thank all of you that practice catch and release on some of these fish this time of year.  It is no secret that this time of year produces a lot of females that are full of eggs and ready to spawn.  These are the same fish that provide us with a lake full of walleye and northern pike in the near future.  We would like to remind everyone of that and we want to encourage everyone to practice common sense catch and release.

This is some of the earliest spring fishing we have ever had on Devils Lake.  The weather has been beautiful so far and with this much sunshine we are bound to experience some warmer water temps right around the corner.  If you are interested in getting a jump on everyone and want to sneak in an April trip, we are ready to take you fishing and would love to have you!

Tuesday, March 20 2012

Greetings to everyone!  Well we are having an earlier than normal spring.   The 2012 ice fishing season came to an abrupt end last week due to the rapidly deteriorating ice conditions.  As I write this report, Devils Lake is still iced over but it is very dangerous and we encourage everyone to stay off of it.  The good news is this is really going to make our open water season happen much earlier than normal.  Probably the earliest we have ever seen.   Our guides will go from putting their ice fishing equipment away to immediately getting their boats ready, putting new line on their reels, and preparing for what looks to be another very busy summer. 

Whether you are a repeat guest or you are considering a fishing adventure with Mitchell's Guide Service for the first time, we want you all to know that we are anticipating another fantastic year of fishing on Devils Lake.  The walleye population is at an all time high, the northern pike numbers are healthy as always, and the white bass are as big and plentiful as ever.

We often get asked, "When is the best time to come and fish Devils Lake?"  The honest answer to that question truly lies in what are your favorite methods to catch fish?  The fishing is very good in the months of May and June.  During these months the fish are very shallow and we spend a lot of time pitching crankbaits and plastics into 1 to 7 feet of water.   We also do a lot of slip bobbering along weedlines and flooded timber.  The months of July and August the fishing is just as good if not better.  The weedlines start to take over the shallows and we spend a lot of time trolling along side these weedlines with bottom bouncers,spinners and nightcrawlers.   We also troll crankbaits and the slip bobber bite continues on as well.   The months of September and October are also very good.  This is our fall fishing season and it can be a combination of all the methods depending on where we fish, and we do some jigging rock piles as well.  The variety of methods is partly what makes Devils Lake such a popular destination. 

We will update these fishing reports as our open water season gets closer and will update them on more of a weekly basis once our guide season begins.  We hope you will strongly consider a trip with Mitchell's Guide Service this summer, we would love to have you!

Good Luck Fishing!