Tag Archives: devils lake

April fishing excursion seemed more like February

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Sometimes, all you can do is laugh and shake your head, and that was the case this past weekend when a group of us converged on Devils Lake in hopes of chasing a few tip-up flags for northern pike.

Typically, ice fishing in April on Devils Lake — or any other lake in this part of the world — can an iffy proposition as ice and access conditions deteriorate to the point where they’re no longer safe.

Not this year.

Brad Durick of Grand Forks watches a tip-up set for northern pike Sunday during a weekend pike-fishing excursion on Devils Lake. There would be no flags on this day’s excursion, which was cut short by heavy snow. So much for fishing in April. (Brad Dokken photo)

The conditions we encountered Saturday and Sunday were more like February than April. Nearly a foot of snow on the level covered the lake, fishermen were driving pickups in areas where the plowed access roads allowed them to travel, and the ice was as hard and thick and blue as it would have been in the middle of the winter.

Last year, by comparison, most of the ice was off the lake, and plans for a spring tip-up excursion were scrapped.

During a typical April pike excursion, the snow  is gone, the ice has the consistency of a snow cone and skeins of snow geese pass overhead en route to their arctic breeding grounds.

This year, the only geese we saw were a handful of honkers standing on the ice and looking very much confused by the absence of open water.

The fishing Saturday wasn’t fast and furious, by any means, but we managed to land five pike — more than enough for an evening fish fry — and also missed a handful of other fish that tripped the flags. The temperature was bearable, but far from the shirtsleeve conditions we’ve encountered some years.

The sun poked out briefly Sunday morning but the clouds quickly won out. Even the pike that should be snapping right now were in a weather-driven funk. When heavy snow began to fall early in the afternoon, we decided to reel up the lines and call it a weekend.

At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a repeat of 1996, when four of us ice fished Lake of the Woods on the Minnesota walleye opener.

There wasn’t another boat in sight.

Seven-year-old lands a fish tale to remember

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Young Evan Hansen was fishing Devils Lake with his grandparents, Glenn and Bridgie Hansen of Grand Forks, on Sunday night when he hooked into a fish tale none of them will soon forget.

As Bridgie tells the story, they had just started fishing East Bay in 30 feet of water, and Evan, who turns 8 Saturday, was fishing with a crawler and a spinner. His bait had barely hit the bottom when he hooked into a fish, Bridgie said.

“As he was pulling in, he said, ‘it’s tugging,’ and he got it closer to the boat and Glenn said, ‘Do you think you’ve got a big one?’” Bridgie said. “He said, ‘I don’t know, Poppa.’”

That’s when Bridgie saw the walleye Evan had hooked — in the jaws of a big northern.

“It took a figure-eight and spun away from the boat three different times, but it never released the walleye,” Bridgie said.

Evan Hansen, 7, holds the walleye he caught Sunday night on Devils Lake and “Poppa,” Glenn Hansen, holds the 30-inch northern that attacked the walleye as Evan was reeling it to the both. The two fish are being mounted with the walleye in the jaws of the northern.

Luck was on Evan’s side Sunday night, and it wasn’t long before “Poppa” had both fish — a 15-inch walleye and a 30-inch northern pike — in the landing net. Bridgie says they’re planning to have the two fish mounted just the way the story unfolded — with the walleye in the mouth of the northern.

“You read about things like that, but you don’t ever see it,” Bridgie said.

Earlier that day, Bridgie said, her husband had remarked that he hoped they could give their grandson a day to remember. The son of Jordan and Riana Hansen of Shakopee, Minn., Evan was spending a few days visiting his grandparents.

No doubt, the two fish he caught at once Sunday night gave all of them a day to remember.

And if that wasn’t enough, Bridgie said, Evan continued on and caught seven of the 10 walleyes they landed that night.

“I said if I never fished again, I’d be OK because I witnessed that,” she said of the northern latching on to the walleye. “It couldn’t have been more perfect because it was so unexpected.

“Truly a Sunday evening fish event to remember!”

Devils Lake produces new state record white bass

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North Dakota has a new state record white bass, and of course, it came from Devils Lake.

Charlie Vang of Brooklyn Park, Minn., broke North Dakota’s state white bass record with this 4-pound, 10-ounce fish he caught Sunday on Devils Lake.

Charlie Vang of Brooklyn Park, Minn., broke the record this past Sunday, when he landed a 4-pound, 10-ounce white bass that measured 19 inches in length. Vang’s white bass bested the previous record of 4 pounds, 8 ounces, taken from Devils Lake in 2000. Randy Hiltner, northeastern district fisheries supervisor for Game and Fish in Devils Lake, said the new state record also is 1 inch longer than the previous chart-topping fish.

Hiltner said he was told the new state record came from the north end of Six-Mile Bay near Channel A. Hiltner said he’s still trying to come to grips with the idea of a white bass that size.

“There’s a lot of white bass closer to 3 pounds than 4 pounds, 10 ounces,” Hiltner said this morning in a phone interview. “That’s really big. I’m sure it’s in the upper couple percentile of bass swimming around out there.

“It’s not a real stretch. There are some nice, big white bass swimming around Devils Lake.”

Ironically, the timing of Vang’s record catch suggests early June is prime time for big white bass. He caught the fish Sunday, which was June 10, while the previous state record was caught June 9, 2000.

The bass also tops Minnesota’s state record white bass, a 4-pound, 2.4-ounce fish caught in 2004 on Pool 5 of the Mississippi River near Wabasha, Minn.