By Mike Peluso

I split my time again last week fishing walleyes on both Lake Sakakawea and Devils Lake. There is still a lot going on with the change in weather and a massive bug hatch on Devils Lake, and that’s where I’ll start.

The walleye bite has been fairly tough on Devils Lake and very inconsistent the last four or five days. Water temperatures dropped like a rock (roughly 10 degrees) and the bugs have hatched. The combination of these two events has made putting fish in the live well tricky at times. A normal August bite up here would be lots of walleyes and fairly easy to catch, not so much this week.

We have resorted to current areas (especially on windy days) and the mud flats (where the bugs hatched) to catch some fish. For me slow death rigs have produced the best results in the mud. Dragging them over the walleyes at a slower pace seems to trigger a few to eat.

In the current areas I’ve pitched jigs with leeches and crawlers and also a few different versions of glide baits. My boat looks like a disaster by day’s end wSith a land mine of JT Customs all rigged with different lures to scratch whatever we can get.

Moving on to Lake Sakakawea, where the news is better. The bite remains strong even with the cooler temps. Having a bigger body of water takes it a little longer to cool off. The bulk of the fish remain in that 22-to-28-foot range of water. The midsection of the reservoir is starting to shine!

On Sak, there are still some really big fish up shallow if you want to reduce the numbers caught and go after quality.

I’m no longer booking trips on Sakakawea or Devils Lake for the season. I am however booking trips as I type for the Missouri River near Bismarck for October and November (weather permitting). If the walleye bite is half as good as last year we should have a successful fall once again! Get ahold of me if you are interested in booking a fall river trip.

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

Featured Photo: Sakakawea walleye fishing withstood the August cold front, but the bite was tough on Devils Lake last week. DEO Photo by Mike Peluso.