By Mike Peluso

While walleye fishing on Devils Lake this past week, we’ve gone from absolute torture conditions with bitter cold and wind to getting sunburned. It’s been a crazy winter up here in North Dakota!

The last few days have been good news for my kind of work as I’m not freezing my buns off. The bad news with it in my line of work, however, is if the 30-day forecast holds it may be a very short ice fishing season.  Only time will tell, but even with just a couple warm days we are already seeing a couple of the access points up here on Devils Lake getting pretty messy.

With the warmer temperatures it does seem like the fish are coming around a bit, especially the walleyes. The bite is still not up to Devils Lake standards, but it’s solid.

The perch are around but they are very hit and miss right now. If you drill the right hole, you can get some. You can also punch 100 holes and not mark a thing. Again, things are definitely funky for this time of year.

Hopefully the bite for both walleyes and perch will continue to improve as these temperatures stabilize. Another thing I hate while fishing up here is the full moon phase, which we had last week. Devils Lake and that moon just do not like each other.

On a side note, I’m starting to think the new Walleye Slayer rods by icefishingcentral.net are big fish lucky charms! We have seen a couple more giant walleyes being caught on them, give them a try!

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

Featured Photo: Block and Tackle.  One of the author’s clients caught and released this 28.5-inch chunk of a walleye on Devils Lake with a new Walleye Slayer rod. DEO Photo by Mike Peluso.