I am planning heading to DL sometime in February (probably towards the end of the month) for a long weekend (3-4 days) to do some ice fishing. Club members have asked me about "guiding" on Devils Lake for an ice fishing trip for a few years now. So I am asking if anyone would want to go. I can help suggest places to stay and can set up a block of rooms somewhere if we get enough interest.
Things you would need (should consider having) for this trip:
Ice fishing rods and tackle (if you don't have any we can probably help you out).
I highly recommend a depth finder or flasher.
Powered ice auger (hand augers will not be very fun with the thick ice and lots of holes to drill).
Portable ice house (or partner up with a buddy that has one).
Transportation on the ice (ATV, UTV, snowmobile, ect.) Do not need one per person but we should have a few as a group to get around if we cannot drive trucks out on the lake due to snow depth.
Here is what we are looking for each day.....
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Heading to DL this weekend for Thanksgiving and plan to get out on the ice. There are reports of 5-6 inches of ice on the north bays and on some of the smaller lakes connecting to Devils Lake. Also the main bay capped over this weekend so I would expect there will be a lot of ice getting formed over the next couple weeks.
DL did not have safe ice or at least ice that I was comfortable walking on so I went out on Friday for an hour on a little lake near DL that had about 6 inches on it and got 5 perch over 11 inches. Went back on Saturday with a couple more guys and ended up with 36 perch. I am pretty happy with that for the start of the 2017-2018 ice season. Unfortunately, it looks like we won't be out on ice here in IA for a while yet with the temps coming this week.
The dates of this trip will be February 16th-19th. Please let me know if you are still interested I am trying to get a list of people who are planning to go so I can get a block of rooms set up.