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Lake Sakakawea Fishing Reports
Regions Covered: Click on the region name for region report, weather, maps, and more...
Lake Sakakawea | Van Hook Arm | New Town / "River" Area | Beulah / Douglas Bay Area | Tobacco Gardens / White Earth Bay Area | Deepwater / McKenzie Bay Area | Indian Hills / Mahto (Red Butte) Bay Area | Garrison Bay / Pick City Area | East End | Garrison Dam Intake Area | Salmon Report - Lake Sakakawea
East End - Sunday, February 5, 2012
By:
multi-species-angler
on 02/05/2012 12:10 PM
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Fished the east end with the kids for about 5 hours saturday feb 4th. tried 30 to 8 feet of water. couldn't keep a line down. the whole area I fished was infested with 6" perch. even tried tip ups with smelt and the perch would instantly grab the smelt and take off with it poping the flag. in 20 feet of water the perch would follow jigs from the bottom all the way up to your hole.
The lake looks to be about 20 to 25 feet lower than its peak at 1854 this summer, and the water line has recieded past the cottonwood trees. The little fish obviously have no where else to hide. gonna be interesting trying to baitfish this summer. |
New Town / "River" Area - Saturday, January 28, 2012 | |
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FINALLY made it out on the ice.
Of course, with finally came wind gusts to 35 to 40 MPH but hey, gotta do what you gotta do. Initially the trip was more of ice exploration. In short, we found the ice to be 10 to 12 inches in most places. However, there were areas of open water near shore and you could also find areas of 6 to 8 inches of ice near cracks and late forming ice locations. It will be difficult to know those areas that froze last so the point is, be very mindful of changing ice conditions. That is always important even on cold winters but it is crucial with this year's conditions. Fishing was I suppose seen as okay. Our Friday and Saturday locations were not the greatest. Each day produced a couple smaller walleye/sauger. We wanted to move to a different location but with ice conditions somewhat iffy and with wind blowing a mini dust storm off the beach we decided to hang where we were. Not too often you have sand dunes building instead of snow drifts by the ice house!! By the way, I challenge any Strikemaster or other serrated curved blade auger to a drill off. Ice is full of grit! The Strikemaster chipper blade worked great. Sunday it was time to move. We made the move and set up with almost instant success. The rest of the evening bite was pretty active but it was a quantity over quality situation. Short and sweet, a person needs to prepare himself for what is about to annoy boat fishermen all year. The 08-09 and 09-10 year classes are showing up in 10 to 14 inch fashion (most in that 10 to 13 inch range). We did have a couple bigger fish mixed in but nothing exceeded 18 inches. Good news is the year classes are bringing life again to Sakakawea. In the interim, we will be battling the attacks of perch and small walleye for a couple years. Gotta take the bad with the good. My brother landed a very nice smallmouth which broke the attack of the 10 inchers. Jigging and tip-ups were pretty equal. Depths were 10 to 40 feet. Very wide range. Last I heard the guys that stayed last night after I left iced 12 to 14 one pound shiners. They came in hot and heavy stealing many minnows from their supply. Would be fun and annoying at the same time! |
Van Hook Arm - Tuesday, January 24, 2012 | |
Just wondering how the ice conditions are. Looking to head out this weekend. See if anyone has been catching any fish
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Lake Sakakawea - Sunday, January 22, 2012 | |
Been fishing white earth the past couple of weeks, caught 17 walleye two thursdays ago, this week has been alot slow caught 3 yesterday and two today. Lots of people and houses, too many for me, time to relocate. Ice is around 18 inches. minnows and buck shot or them jigs with the propellers have been best.
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Beulah / Douglas Bay Area - Saturday, January 21, 2012 | |
Our first intention was to fish Beulah Bay which has 6-8 inches of clear blue ice but decided to fish Dakota Waters instead because of the wind. Got out later that i had wanted but had a good time anyway. Used Smelt under a tip-up and under a bobber in the house about 8-12 inches off the bottom. Three good fish one was 17lbs and the others around 10lbs. Fished a rock to gravel shelf in 12-26 feet of water. Ice is good, clear blue and measures 12.5 to 13 inches. Able to drive on and permanent houses showing up every day. Over all good fishing.
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Deepwater / McKenzie Bay Area - Tuesday, January 10, 2012 | |
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Any ice in the bays yet? Hoping to fish skunk bay in a few weeks.
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Lake Sakakawea - Thursday, January 5, 2012 | |
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By the looks of it, I'd say twice!
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Lake Sakakawea - Wednesday, January 4, 2012 | |
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might go fishing on sakakawea in a boat!!! how often can u say that in january?
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Lake Sakakawea - Tuesday, January 3, 2012 | |
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Daily Satellite images: http://ge.ssec.wisc.edu/modis-today/
You can get an idea on what maybe froze and what isn't. |
Lake Sakakawea - Tuesday, January 3, 2012 | |
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Would sure like to know if there is any ice on the lake, especially around the skunk bay area.
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Lake Sakakawea - Wednesday, November 23, 2011 | |
Heading up to Garrison to the inlaws for the holliday weekend wondering if i should throw some ice fishing stuff in to get out of the house for awhile. Any info on ice near by on big lake or close by would be helpfull. Thank you
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Deepwater / McKenzie Bay Area - Friday, October 14, 2011 | |
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Fished the slides, up to whopper Island and everywhere inbetween. We pulled bottom bouncers, lindies, cranks, and tried a little bit of jigging.We used crawlers and minnows, most of the fish were caught on minnows. We fished from 6 fow to 36 fow. The lake surface temp was still at 59*. We caught over 40 small mouth bass, a couple of snot rockets, 3 perch, 2 goldeye, 4 striped bass, and 4 walleye. Was a balmy 40* and 30 mph winds which didnt help much. Over all a good season ending open water trip.
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Salmon Report - Lake Sakakawea - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 | |
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Do you guys ever try cured salmon eggs for salmon at the tailrace?
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Lake Sakakawea - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 | |
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I'm going up the lower end of the lake next to douglas bay, what is a good way to fish the small bays east of it? particulary northern. I also plan on fishing the custer mine pond, any good technequs there? I will make a big report on sunday afternoon! thanks in advance!
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Salmon Report - Lake Sakakawea - Sunday, October 16, 2011 | |
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Forgot to mention Chuck Norris or The Guy on a Buffalo waded out to his chest south of ramp and seemed to experience much success. Unknown species/brisk wind out of NW.
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