Pelican Lake (dunvilla)

[Chill62]

Does anyone have any suggestions on spots on the mid-lake portion of Pelican?  I'm going out there on Saturday with some friends and we are NOT going through one of the public accesses so we get a chance to fish the middle of the lake.  I rarely fish the lake but am seeing a lot of mid lake deep holes but most are 45-60 feet of water.  Do the fish run deeper on this lake or do you have to find those big deep basins that are on the lake?  Tips would be greatly appreciated because we are just going out for fun and chasing anything that bites.  Last year we started for walleyes but switched to perch mid day.  I understand we are fishing the wrong time of the day but we are just out to have fun during the day.

[tmoose78]

I had some success on Pelican Monday. I was fishing an inside turn off a sharp break and had holes drilled form 13ft to the lake basin which bottomed out around 27 ft. Caught jumbo perch throughout the day and the walleyes moved in starting around 4:15. Caught one at 4:15 in 27, 4:30 in 24, 4:45 in 20, and then 5 between 5-5:30 in 17. It got very quiet after then. Hopped around holes on top of the 13 foot flat we were near and didn't get anything other than perch at night. My hypothesis is that the walleyes are roaming the main basin during the day then funnel up to shallow structure in the evening to feed. We're now pretty far into winter, so I would definitely focus on mid lake structure such as humps and bars. That sharp break I was on was a secondary drop off from shore, but when I go back out tomorrow I plan on getting even further out into the lake.

 

Since you'll be fishing during the day I suggest targeting deep water adjacent to that mid lake structure. I caught a 26 inch walleye on Lida at 2PM in 45 feet of water while crappie fishing the other day, so don't be shy of popping holes out that deep. I'm guessing you'd have to drill many holes to have any sort of sustained action throughout the day as they aren't relating directly to any structure.

 

Your best bet of getting on a good spot would be to look on a summer depth finder that has a decent lake chip in it. The map that the navionics app has for Pelican is VERY poor and doesn't represent half the structure in there.  The spot I was on doesn't even pop up as an inside turn on it.

[Chill62]

Thanks for the tips.  I normally fish deep so a few spots that has my interest follow what you said.  Hopefully we can plow some roads out there on Friday to the areas we want to get to.  Were you using jigs or spoons covering that big of a spread?

[tmoose78]

I HIGHLY recommend you use a spoon with a perch coloration. All of the large perch we caught threw up their stomachs from the pressure change and they were eating young of the year perch. The walleyes are also present in the same area because they're feeding on the perch. They'll hit the spoon without a minnow head even, but throughout the day they will get more finicky and they then need a minnow head on there to get them going again. Today I set up in 24 feet and pulled in 20 keeper perch and 4 walleye with a couple walleyes that got off. One walleye was caught at 2:30, the rest were caught in a 30 minute window between 4:45 and 5:15. I'm not sure if there's a different type of structure out there that you might be able to find a more sustained bite on or not. The last few trips the walleye have very much stuck to their stereotypical prime time hours, but there's so many factors that go into whether fish will bite/be present or not I don't dare say you can't get into them during the day.

 

Also of note; the schools of larger perch definitely seemed to be deeper. Caught keepers anywhere from 14-27 ft but 75% came from 27ft.

 

If you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle you can still drive cross country to wherever you want. I was still able to bust through the drifts with a jeep today, as the spot I've been fishing is pretty far from any plowed roads. 17+ inches of ice everywhere I've been. Your call on if you're comfortable doing that though. 

[Chill62]

Thanks for the suggestions.  We have started plowing roads in the main lake basin to a few spots we have identified on a lake master map so we can get from John Berry's Point west a mile or so to some structure there so there is approximately 3 miles total now that is plowed by a buddy of ours.  We will have access to his plow on Saturday and his side by side with trax's on it.  27 feet with a spoon sounds like a good start especially since a few spots I have indicated on the map are 30-35 foot holes/flats

[tmoose78]

Did you find any success out there?

[Chill62]

We fished a few breaks from 18 fow to33.  Live minnows we couldn't keep perch off of our lines and was pissing me off with how small my shiners were the perch wouldn't leave them alone.  Best luck for perch were in the 25-29 fow but they were 5-8 inches long.  We had a bunch of guys out there so we set 9" as a minimum for a fish fry Saturday night so everything went back.  i went deeper trying to stay away from the small perch and in 33 fow we were pulling up 2.5-4" perch.  Buddies fished other spots by the mansion and got a few misc fish and some fished a mid lake hump on the west side and got a few walleyes at dusk.  We fished hard till mid afternoon and the girlfriend was getting cold and that wind had a bite.  Rest of the guys were fishing in Ice Castles and when we were getting cold and hungry  we decided to head for another lake to try for crappies.  The girlfriend is in a crappie tournament till end of February so trying to get her fish on that.