Lake Oahe (North Dakota) Fishing Reports

 Despite the cold weather we did have a couple boats out this past weekend. One fished down south out of Beaver Bay and one out of Bismarck on the river portion. The best action came out of the river despite poor water conditions with fast moving and dirty water. Last week recorded some of the most consistent strong wind days the state of North Dakota has seen.

For one boat, Saturday started out slow but when they finally found a pod of active fish, boating their 10 keeper walleye came in fast order with the biggest being 21 inches. Best methods were jigs and minnows and plastics in shallow water. The second boat had limited fishing down south but there are still mixed reports of nice fish coming in from the lake part down to stateline.

Sounds like this week should bring some warmer weather and hopefully that holds out. Still seeing a ton of pheasants out and it looks like a lot of crops are coming off so that’s good for the bird hunters. It’ll be interesting to see how many nice deer show up next week as well. Can’t wait for those pics!

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Put in at Fort RiceWednesday 10/20 caught 2 eyes, 18 inchers very slow using a jig w/minow. Water is moving very fast and very dirty.  Has anyone been fishing south.  Would like to know if things are any better before making the trip.  Fished the riffle rang two weeks ago only caught one eye. Seen other boats but never seen anyone put the net in the water.  Good Luck as the weather is soon to change maybe they will slow the flows and one can put some eyes in the boat before things get to cold. 

The Kipper

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Went out twice over the Columbus Day holiday.  Once out of Hazelton and once out of Beaver Bay.  I wouldn't exactly say the fishing was good on Monday when I put in at Hazelton, but it really wasn't poor either.  Well, at least not number wise.  Lots of smaller fish to be had as already mentioned.  Out of the roughly 25 boats I saw between Hazelton and mouth of the Cannonball, only saw 3-4 fish boated of any size.  Talked to a fella at the boat ramp who had run north from Hazelton and they only had one keeper.  All said I should have been there a week earlier (that's when I was catching all the 13 inchers I could stand by Bis).  The one I did keep was a solid 23 inch fish along with a 13 incher that came out of 30+ ft of water.  All on jigs and minnows or spinners and minnows.

Then I went to Beaver the next day with a friend.  We found fish pretty much every place we looked.  Again, most were small but we ended up with 6 keepers over a 5 hour outing.  Literally caught a keeper in every depth from 14-30+ ft.  Again most came on jigs and we had 4-6 small ones for every keeper. 

A few nice perch are also being seen.  If they school up for the winter this stretch could be a lot of fun icefishing!

Oh yeah, windier than heck out on Tues.

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 Fished with Rustie and Charlene from California as they were making their trip to do some pheasant hunting.  Fished out of Hazelton and had non-stop action.  We caught a ton of fish.  Most were small, but when you caught a keeper, it was a good one.  So, either it was a 10-13 incher, or it was a 20+.  Definitely a little different compared to the past few years, but look out in a couple years.  What a spawn there must have been last year!  Jigs and minnows in 9-13 foot and also pulling cranks in the same depths.  Water temps are still above normal for this time of year and the best fishing is still knocking at the door.  Good luck to everyone else.

 

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Fished Hazelton on Monday from 12:30-6pm, we started just north of Ft. Rice and worked our way south about 2 miles.  Tried everything in the boat except for pulling cranks, watched a few people pulling cranks and the only thing they were catching was sun and grass.  We started with jigging using worms, gulp, and minnows and had no luck.  Changed over to old faithful spinners with worms and started hooking some eyes and managed to bring home 7 keepers.  Our best luck was in 7-11 fow with chrome flashers and worms, had no luck with minnows.  Good Luck!!!

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 The fishing is really starting to take off from the lake portion to south of Beaver and in between.  Jig and minnows have been doing the best but crawlers and cranks are still catching fish.  Sometimes it’s best to bring them all and give them all a try till you find which one works.  I’ve preached to the hills that you can’t beat pulling cranks on this Lake, but this year has been a different story with live bait doing the trick more times than cranks.  Time and time again. 

 Anyways, this bite should continue to hold up through the rest of the fall and you can expect them to start sliding up into the river portions as well.  I’m still waiting for that to happen.  I know it’s pheasant opener this weekend, but I’m going to be chasing some walleye around in the boat and it sounds like the weather should cooperate somewhat with the exception of a little rain, which I don’t mind too much.  Anyways, hope everyone has a good pheasant opener and good luck fishing.  Too fun. 

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Fishing on Lake Oahe continues to improve with a numbers of fish that were caught during this past week’s Prairie Knights Casino walleye tournament. We caught numerous walleye with live bait rigs and crawlers fishing 19-27 foot of water. Just didn’t get the numbers of big fish it takes to do well in tourneys. Nonetheless, certainly a fun day on the water with a lot of action. I haven’t heard much about the bite closer to Bismarck and I don’t think there’s much going on. The river water has been a bit dirty with all the water releases. Best chances have been from the Cannon Ball south to Stateline.

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 Walleye activity is starting see better action around the Beaver Bay area with numerous different spots holding fish.  Bigger fish have been caught trolling cranks from 14-26 foot of water.  Water temps are hitting their magic spots and with the cold weather and rain we've been having, the spark should really light for these fish.  I'm predicting a solid weekend of fishing and also nice baskets of fish at the upcoming Prairie Knights Casino tournament to be held on September 18th. Should be another fun tourney.  They did a great job running this event last year.  

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Went out on Saturday and Sunday for a couple of hours each day while camping at Beaver Bay. Basically pulled cranks in 10 to 14 feet of water. Did not catch a fish. Talked to a number of campers in the camp area and everyone had the same about the same kind of luck. The other fisherman were using live bait presentations. If they did catch one it was a small walleye or northen.

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Planning trip this weekend and would greatly appreciate a current Walleye fishing report.  This is my first trip to Oahe and I am taking my brother from Colorado.  What depth, cranks or spinners?  What kind of live bait.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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 Put in at Beaver Bay this weekend. Fished the Porkupine area Saturday and South of Fort Yates on Sunday. Larger fish came off cranks in 17-22 fow pulling cranks and targeting fish suspended just above the shrubs. Between the perch, walleyes,, northerns and 2 18 in striped bass it was a good day. Missed three eyes at the boat and one lunged out of the water and missed my crank as I pulled my crank out of the water.

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Just playing the waiting game…..Anyway, got down to the cabin Friday afternoon hoping to get the boat in the water for the start of some serious fishing for the weekend. Well….let’s just say things didn’t work out. Back to Friday….took two steps into the cabin and noticed that the freezer had been unplugged since we left from the previous weekend. Things were a bit of a mess if you can imagine. So, that took about an hour out of my time. Finally got down to the boat dock around 5pm, went to back the boat in the water and wouldn’t you know. The key and power switch had been left on for two weeks. So, of course there went Friday night’s fishing. Put the chargers on thinking that I’ll be good to early Saturday morning. Got up Saturday morning. Everything was working fine except the motors wouldn’t turn over, nor the trims, nor the radio or marine band.

Thankfully my Dad showed up as he’s pretty handy when it comes to this stuff. I mean, I could have figured it out – I think – but his thought process is much more mechanically inclined than mine is. Long story short – the main engine fuse was out, trim fuses, marine band fuse and radio fuse. Got em all replaced just in time to get the boat in the water when the temperature was peaking for the day. Needless to say, I made one pass with about 10 northern pike, one tiny walleye and one perch all on cranks.

It was back to the cabin to soak in the water the rest of the day. Sunday was out of the questions. This weekend’s game plan will be last weekend’s game plan providing everything goes right. I’m going to target deeper mid-lake tree lines with cranks pulling the tops and sides in 20-35 foot of water.

Again, cooler temps that were going through right now have to WAKE these walleyes up on the northern end. Sounds like the suicide bite is still going on in the Mobridge area.

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Fished the border of ND/SD........eastside,  pulled cranks in around 30 feet.........catch a few nice size walleyes, after catching some big northerns...hot

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