Devils Lake Fishing for walleyes

"Walleyes like those places where they can move back and forth between clumps of brush or between points," noted Dosch. "And they will move into those clearings to feed. The other good thing about finding these areas is that you don't have to worry about hooking a fish and not being able to get it out of the brush.

"Finding these areas is where I really like my Aqua-Vu (underwater camera). It eliminates a lot of the guesswork and the moving around drilling holes to find the openings."

Anglers who don't have access to a camera can narrow down the search by finding water where the tips of the buck brush are sticking through the ice, and then working their way down the slope and out into the lake from there.

Once a location is chosen, the trick is to get the walleyes' attention. All the debris in the water limits their vision, Dosch explained, so anglers must appeal to the fish's other senses.

"I like lures like Northland Tackle’s Buckshot Rattle Spoon or Sonars" he said. "A lot of times I'll take a jigging rod and jig two feet off the bottom to attract the fish. In another hole, I'll have a dead rod with a minnow on a bare hook sitting about six inches off the bottom. About 75 percent of the time, the walleyes come eat the minnow."

Take plenty of lures along, Dosch added.

"Inevitably, you are going to lose some tackle," he said. "It comes with the game. You have to go where the fish are. It's that simple."

Anglers can improve their chances by getting to their fishing location early.

"You want to get there and set up before primetime, which is usually about the last hour of daylight," said Dosch. "Especially in shallow water, those fish spook easily."