Devil's Lake OPEN SEAT(report)

[trollin4trout]

Buddy cancelled and so have room for 1 or 2 people Saturday morning. Will be there at 8:00am- you can arrive and leave at any time-let me know when to pick you up at the dock. We'll be trollin', trollin' trollin' 'till the cows come home. I have all gear if you don't.

I'll check PM's until 10pm tonite.

[trollin4trout]

YOU need to go trout fishing tomorrow!

[Gillfish3]

Wow Jim, you must have a reputation.

If you guys want to catch fish this is the guy to go with. I have fished for trout for many, many years and Jim showed me a thing or two. This is a trip worth taking.

If I did not have to go out of town I would take the seat.

Good Luck Jim.

George
Gillfish3

[Penobscot]

Ditto that. I fished with Jim at Swift last summer and boy did we catch fish. Lets do it again this year.

[trollin4trout]

Got off to a very slow start- trolled around the Blue heron Moorage for the first hour without a hit.

Then I saw "Willis" with his way cool Bayrunner across the lake., so I trolled over and chatted with him about how we so far sucked!



It seemed odd that we hadn't touched a stocked trout yet. We talked about where they might dump the fish in and if they might still be in a small school somewhere.

We trolled south towards Regatta Park and as I looked away for 5 seconds to gawk at the shoreline, I heard one little click from my reel-what? was that?- I looked back to see my rod folded over! He was jumpin' already and was a crazy fish- I thought it must be a coho as it was pulling hard and darting all over- nope just an upset holdover rainbow- maybe not quite 16 inches. Ahhhhh- skunk out of boat!

Continued past Regatta and covered all the shallow water near the lily pads and the little island with nary a bump. Came back towards Regatta and stayed close by the shore- then tap...tap..............tap- that was weird- picked it up and teased the lure a couple times and bang! There's a stocker! Tossed it back out, trolled 5 ft. and bang there's another! Turned around, trolled 30 seconds and there was another. I think I found a small little spot where they're still holding fom the stocking truck. Took a quick cruise down the lake to tell Dave I had found some fish and we went back and caught the heck out of 'em the rest of the day. They seemed to like an orange Needlefish from me but Dave said he tried all kinds of things in his tacklebox that seemed to work also.

Did lose another big one trolling down the middle of the lake later in the afternoon. Hit a small silver spoon and made my reel scream until I picked it up and then it was gone.

Nice to meet you Dave- let's do it again sometime.

[Willis]

After a cold start to the day and a couple bad days fishing on the lake and the bay due to the crap weather, I ran up to the north end of the lake and found trollin. We made our way back down the lake and saw him catch one nice holdover and thought I would try back north again. So here I am trolling allong and here come trollin burnin up the lake towards me, he tells me he has found the fish, 3 in 5 min to be exact...so we bolth turn and burn down the lake getting back. I fall in behind trollin in about 5-8ft of water near regatta grounds and sure enouph he hooks one right in front of me and 5 seconds later I have a fish on.....over the next hour the action is hot burnin hot fish every couple minutes (catch and release). Most of mine came on a small orange and yellow neddle fish with a split shot 3 ft up the line. We even tried to let some other folks close by know about the hot fish but they went on there way, after a few a guy who lives close joined us in his boat and soon we had the doubles and tripples going. After a bit the fish seemed to get spooked by the motors so we all anchored up and started casting to them. probly my favorite part of the day, we were all trying different lures some that we wont admit we used ever.....and still were catching fish fairly well. Trollin headed out around the lake a few times to try to find other pockets of fish but it was a no go. I had a few friends join me and they wanted trout for dinner so we got them a fast 6 fish and called it a day I dare say a EPIC day I have never caught so many fish in one day in my life I ended up with 30+ fish C&R style and 3 keepers that were bleeders. I still think trollin won the day with the most fish caught and the biggest fish of the day but ill let him tell you the numbers. I look forward to taking a open seat and going for some bigger fish sometime great to fish with you. trollin is very good at what he does if he has a open seat take it he will get you into the fish.

Devils Lake March 15
water temp 50
great visibility
lots o fish in the honey hole
used everthing in the box got some on flies as well as small lake trolls, Blue foxes, needle fish, spoons.

[ploftis]

hey guys thanx for the posts. really appreciated. i'm heading out there in a few more weeks. will fish mostly for trout but will probally throw a few bass jigs too