Devils lake ND, any one spear it?

[Eric.MN]

Headed to devils lake with my brother for a long weekend in a few weeks, has anyone here speared pike there before? I have done plenty of escouting Navionics and google earth that I have plenty of potential spot on this massive lake picked out but I hear water clarity can be it or miss. So has anyone been spearing there this year or past years that I could bounce some ideas off of? Or anyone been hard water fishing it recently that may help?

Thanks.
Eric.

 

[LopeHunter]

Do you eat the pike? I was on a canoe trip through Minnesota and Canada long ago when barely out of grade school and seemed to me walleye were the cat's meow and easier to prepare for some real food as we were on dehydrated meals unless caught fish. We used to shoot carp through the ice and then score the meat to cut through the ribs then deep fry so the bones "cooked away" and was okay but crappie where a much better meal as caught them during the spawn as the ice melted. Now I am hungry. Good luck on your adventure and if wear a loin cloth can go Full Castaway ala Tom Hanks.

 

[Eric.MN]

Oh yea I eat them. Sure walleye might be better to clean or eat but there isn’t much more fun then spearing pike through the ice. Pickle the smaller ones and filet out the bigger ones and fry them up, just have the cut out those Y-bones.

 

[Eric.MN]

Been out on the ice a handful of times this yea but looking to make a trip out of trying new water.

these two made it into the pan for a delicious fish n chips dinner

 

[mdeerjunkie]

That looks like a blast!

 

[duckhunt]

I dont spear but got this through the ice.

 

[Jason73]

Only problem i ever had on the ice on devils was keeping my beer from freezing!

 

[duckhunt]

30 inches 10 lbs

 

[Gellar]

Only problem i ever had on the ice on devils was keeping my beer from freezing!

Nothing worse then poppin a fresh beer and it turns to slush immediately.

 

[NoWiser]

We did a blind taste test in Canada a few years ago. Pike beat walleye by a landslide.

 

[F250]

North Dakota Fish and Game Dept. recently posted a great video showing a step by step method of filleting Pike to remove the Y-bones.

 

[Gellar]

Grilled or fried pike is awesome! This soup by hank Shaw is pretty fabulous using pike. https://honest-food.net/pike-soup-recipe/ but my favorite way is to catch it in the winter through the ice and freeze it. When the forecast calls for a hot hot hot day in July make a jar of pickled pike about a week before. Sit on th porch with a cold Pilsner and enjoy pickled pike.
pike tip: Pickling dissolves the y bones so you don’t have to worry about those pesky things. The tail section is y bone free. So if you aren’t confident in your y boning then just cut the tail off and pickle the rest!

 

[Eric.MN]

Well headed home from a couple days of spearing devils lake. Had to jump around a little bit to find clear-ish water. First day my bro got a 41” 19lbs pike and this morning I stabbed a 39” 14.5lbs. We only got those two but both were our personal best. Can’t wait to give it a go next year!