Hunting Perch with Waterfowl Calls From mid-winter through ice-out, Devils Lake guide Jason Feldner “hunts” perch with a system he says can’t be beat. Relying on highly detailed GPS mapping and electronics, signs from Mother Nature and a ‘three call’ system, Feldner quickly locates and ices big perch, day-in-day-out. “When it comes to finding fish, you’ve gotta key in on slight 1-foot depth contours—especially for perch. In mid- and late winter, a good place to start is that 8- to 15-foot range,” says Feldner. Like birds following a migration path, perch slowly travel specific depth contours from mid-winter through late ice to reach their spring spawning areas. “If you can’t get right on those one-foot contours and follow the perch, you’re gonna have a tough time staying on the action,” says Feldner. But to get the contour right, sink an Aqua-Vu camera, and you’ll spy a stockyard of yellow, green and black bars moving amidst swarms of shrimp. “That’s what I try to put my clients on. You look down there and it’s like hordes of Green Bay fans moving out of the stadium and into the streets. They’re hungry and looking for a fight.” To find just the right contours, Feldner utilizes the new Version 4 LakeMaster Nebraska/Dakotas map card in a Humminbird 597ci HD ice unit. “Fishing Devils without a LakeMaster card is like shooting pool with a rope,” says Feldner. “Once I find the contour the perch are following, I simply choose the chart menu in my 597 and highlight that key depth contour in green. Now, with a glance, I know where the money areas are and simply drill my holes throughout that green shaded area on the graph.” Pull up the new Version 4 LakeMaster card and anglers will immediately notice that Devils Lake is set to its current elevation of 1455 feet, which means areas that have recently flooded and are underwater show up as water on the map. But even if that changes, Feldner can readjust the depths on the map with the press of a button. Water’s down three feet? Simply set Water Level Offset to -3 feet. He also adds that fishing Devils Lake without accurate GPS mapping can quickly get anglers in trouble, as the lake is a mine field of barely submerged roadbeds, timber fields, and other structure that can wreck the lower units of the unsuspecting or overzealous. And in the winter, it’s crucial to set a route and be able to follow it back into shore if the wind picks up and anglers face whiteout conditions. Following the waterfowl analogy, once he’s located schools of jumbos, Feldner likes to use a ‘three call’ system to lure the traveling butterballs into biting.