The Decline of Devils Lake

[lunkerslayer]

Not sure I buy into this, The lake was at a greatly reduced elevation for 20+ years leading up to the early 1990's and the perch fishery was very strong. Totally different world technology wise to today. If we look at history, the same sand shorelines exist that existed in the early 1980's just 25ft difference in water.

Before the grade raise on devils lake there was all kinds of submerged vegetation now every major road surrounding the basin is covered in rock. I will agree that ndgf for some reason doesn't want to stock perch fry and continue to stock walleye and other species like crappie. They dont even want to stock perch in any of these lakes north of hiighway 2. You see that the ndgf have decided to make devils lake a walleye lake now and stocking perch in lakes farther south of the state. As far as ice fishing goes, we have been hashing the same dilemmas and that lakes are over run with guides and tbe technology has been a game changer when it comes to finding active fish. I do appreciate your input and will look forward to your updates on what is the leading reason why the ndgf doesn't feel its necessary to stock more perch in the basin.

 

[lunkerslayer]

This guy says perch were first introduced to the basin in the 60s by a local fisherman
https://sportingjournalradio.com/2013/01/31/the-spawn-of-the-devils-lake/
And perch as a fish species is a heartier pickeral to the walleye when it comes to brackish water, I remember back in the late 80s there would be brackish foam that would be caked on the shorelines because of the high salinity. East devils lake and stump lake shorelines were covered in a white crust of salt that would blow like sand storms, so if east devils lake was a higher salinity they wouldn't be able to push that water downstream. It's tested to make sure that the salinity is below a pH level

 

[8andcounting]

I think the biggest joke about perch fishing nowadays is there are probably dozens of smaller lakes within an hour of DL with bigger and easier to find perch, but everyone just drives past them.

don’t be fooled - lots of “devils lake” guides are taking clients to these lakes up to 1-2 hours away each way …. Been happening for years

 

[NodakBob]

This guy says perch were first introduced to the basin in the 60s by a local fisherman
https://sportingjournalradio.com/2013/01/31/the-spawn-of-the-devils-lake/
And perch as a fish species is a heartier pickeral to the walleye when it comes to brackish water, I remember back in the late 80s there would be brackish foam that would be caked on the shorelines because of the high salinity. East devils lake and stump lake shorelines were covered in a white crust of salt that would blow like sand storms, so if east devils lake was a higher salinity they wouldn't be able to push that water downstream. It's tested to make sure that the salinity is below a pH level

That was one of the concerns when they were studying an outlet to the Sheyenne River…

 

[Davey Crockett]

That was one of the concerns when they were studying an outlet to the Sheyenne River…

I forget now , what was their main concern ? Was it water quality or Zebra Mussel, maybe Zander ? I'd still like to see some more Zander experiments in an isolated ND lake or aquaculture facility . I know fish can be sterilized so they can't reproduce. I'm not sure if it can be done in the wild but they do it in aquaculture.

 

[1lessdog]

ND residents going out twice -- nah i was in a campground --- you when out and came back and drank

Do you really think everyone is a drunk like you.

That's something to be proud of and I'm sure your family is very happy with you.

 

[svnmag]

My .02:

^^^^This is a great read. Thanks all.

Back on FBO; I suggested stocking red drum in DL and striped bass in the Tailrace. I believe fisherman like strange shit like salmon in the middle of Northern Prairie; even as they taste like cat food when they come shallow in autumn: They fight great and could produce excellent catfish bait/garden fertilizer.

Why not stock a few true saltwater fish at "ice-out" with a bounty on their heads?!!

IME: Tilapia have a commercial market even as they taste like rotten snatch. I wish I could gut rotten snatch and onions. My life would be easier:

https://www.outdoornewsservice.com/...-the-best-fishery-in-california-to-a-dead-sea

 

[Colt45]

Dont have a dog in the fight for DL, have never fished it and probably at my age never will.
I do fish Sak. tho, and it wasn't stocked last year because of the "high" survival rate of the stocking the previous year, hope thats the right move, its a huge lake and how they determined that is beyond me.
Guides, tournaments, etc..... bring out the worst in people in my opinion, I know that tourneys last year on Sak there were lots of smaller fish pulled out of deep water, boated, and released, game and fish confirmed this was happening, the fish were deep and we all knew that, and of course the kill rate on those released fish was extremely high. I am not a fan of guides, either hunting or fishing, and fishing tourneys are an absolute disaster, just my opinion so let me have it, I could care less, and I think more people tend to agree with me, maybe just not on this site,
You make fishing or hunting about money, whether its guides or tourneys, and it becomes a shit show in a hurry.

 

[shorthairsrus]

Do you really think everyone is a drunk like you.

That's something to be proud of and I'm sure your family is very happy with you.

Sorry: I judge my own sins not others

Bottom line is getting up late hitting the 10-2 bite get off the water bullshit at the cleaning station, someone was always cooking something sit around have a few beers eating more bullshit it dont get any better.

Now that i am old - i have to hit the early stuff fish till 1030am, then go golf, then happy hour and then supper, end up by some ones fire nod off when the sun goes down. Repeat Repeat Repeat.

 

[shorthairsrus]

My .02:

^^^^This is a great read. Thanks all.

Back on FBO; I suggested stocking red drum in DL and striped bass in the Tailrace.

Did you see they took the striped bass record off the ND books. What a bunch of shit -- plus the Zander too. Plus getting rid of daylight savings time too

 

[Davey Crockett]

It should be as easy as setting up cameras in breeding grounds and see what's going on if they really wanted to get to the bottom of it. I looked for a video of fish eating perch ribbons but couldn't find any . I know of of a spot where perch spawn every year , you can walk along the shore where there is brush and weeds and they are just covered with perch eggs. When they hatch they hang close to shore. After the perch phased out in DL there were tons of throwback walleyes, I've been waiting for those 11-14 inchers to get to 20 + but they seem slow growing. Maybe it was a natural occuring event where the runoff created a huge walleye spawn combined with stocking and the walleyes are eating all the perch. Are there carp in DL ? I'm guessing they would scarf up any ribbons on the bottom.

When I was looking for perch predators I ran across this video.

 

[Slappy]

Dont have a dog in the fight for DL, have never fished it and probably at my age never will.
I do fish Sak. tho, and it wasn't stocked last year because of the "high" survival rate of the stocking the previous year, hope thats the right move, its a huge lake and how they determined that is beyond me.
Guides, tournaments, etc..... bring out the worst in people in my opinion, I know that tourneys last year on Sak there were lots of smaller fish pulled out of deep water, boated, and released, game and fish confirmed this was happening, the fish were deep and we all knew that, and of course the kill rate on those released fish was extremely high. I am not a fan of guides, either hunting or fishing, and fishing tourneys are an absolute disaster, just my opinion so let me have it, I could care less, and I think more people tend to agree with me, maybe just not on this site,
You make fishing or hunting about money, whether its guides or tourneys, and it becomes a shit show in a hurry.

+1

 

[Davey Crockett]

There is actually a lot of chatter locally about engaging the G&F about wanting a hatchery on DL. NDGF has been engaged about the perch problem and I personally am very curious about their responses to these questions and ideas about developing a hatchery for Devils Lake.

What would be cool is if they would put a ditch plug in a narrow gap somewhere to keep predators out and use a bay for perch production and let nature do it's thing. I've played with this some on a small scale and it seems like it should be easy on a large scale.

 

[Migrator Man]

The bass have been there since 1971. They were thick even when the perch boomed. In the early 2000’s you could almost walk across the northerns mauvis coulee, still plenty of perch. I don’t think it’s predation.

You’d think so, but the DL guides take their clients from the big lake to all the way south of Carrington if Devils is slow.

Devils Lake having good perch fishing saved those small lakes from the guides but they were fished out anyways just like devils. Low perch populations will reduce the pressure because no one is going to guide for no fish. Unfortunate boom and bust cycle coming to the big lakes now just like the small ones!

 

[Jiffy]

+1

+2

 

[shorthairsrus]

Perch bite is Hotttttt on Hobart

 

[luvcatchingbass]

So how about the people pulling fish out of 40 fow and throwing them back because they are too small? Im pretty sure a guy does that with perch and walleye their life expectancy isn't very good.
Example a few summers back a buddy and I bounced all over the Grahams Island general area looking gor fish, just had a tough time finding consistently in any area and techniques. Finally at the end of the day we 3-5 boats with no less than 3 peopl in each working an area and also noticed they were throwing fish back pretty regularly. We dropped bottom bouncers and mozzied along not really catching much in 20-25fow but just watched them and marked where we thought they were on GPS to check it out early the next morning. Went out next morning and they must have been in 40ft, we hammered out our limit of 15" walleye on bottom bouncers beings all of them popped air sacks. Sure we killed some small ones but how much damage did 3 boats do in the 30-45min we watched them pitching fish back.
Fish deep and plan to keep is what I figured. DL never really excites me to fish, can't say I have ever gone and been impressed.

 

[wslayer]

I really don’t have much to go off of other than last summer up there and last summer was crap!!

I’m spending more time on some little lakes this year.

That is all…

Brother has a site up there, said worst year ever for fishing. Can catch a handful of 13-16" fish but anything larger was almost non-existent. Numerous others in camp having same results.

 

[Jiffy]

Same

 

[Walleye202]

With the resounding replies acknowledging a perch problem in general why is the NDGF not acting? That is my biggest question. Drop the limit immediately to 10, most people are happy with saying "I got my limit". Look into stocking and possibly scale up and think about the future. Knowing there is a problem and doing nothing is basically like banging your head against the wall and thinking everything will get better. I put a ton of fault at the feet of the NDGF right now.