Dean's Trip to Devils Lake, ND
After watching several online videos of pike spearing in North Dakota, I decided to plan a trip for me and my wife. The planning started in January of 2015.
I called a few outfitters on Devils Lake, and after discussing what I was looking for, I chose to book a trip with Bry's Guide Service. I had never been to North Dakota, and the first thing that I realized was that it is immense. Devils Lake itself is at historically high levels, encompassing 140,000 acres. From our lodge near the eastern end of the lake, it was a 45 minute drive to where we would set up to spear near the northwestern end of the lake. After meeting and discussing what my goals were with the lodge guides, it was decided that since all I needed was directions, my wife and I would go alone. Our first morning sit was to target large pike. As many people know, large pike and numerous pike generally do not go hand in hand. By noon we had only seen one very small pike. After more discussion with the guides, we moved to a numbers location. My wife had yet to spear her first pike, so I put her on first. Very soon after getting set the pike started showing up. All were perfect eating size, between 26-33". My wife quickly hit her first, followed in short order by filling her limit of 5 pike for the day. We lost count of how many came in the hole, sometimes as many as 3 at a time. After her limit, I took my turn hoping bigger pike would show. When it became clear they would not, I chose to fill my limit when easy sure shots presented themselves. Our next spearing day found us back at the same location. We had decided to see if bigger pike would show, and gave them until noon to do so. Nothing larger that 32 showed up, so with a time limit of 3pm to leave, we had fun filling our limits of 5 apiece. The most enjoyable parts of the trip were just being together, watching the pike and their attempts at catching our decoys. To see my wife's smile after spearing her first pike was worth the year long wait after initially booking a trip. |