Lake Sakakawea Fishing Reports

Fishing at Van Hook is fair to good. My last two trips out resulted in 10 or more walleye that were really nice fish. Most are around that 2.5 to 4 lb range. The majority of the fish moved away from the shallow water areas and have gone deeper and changed their diet to smelt or other deeper baitfish. Places like Shell Village, 8 Lb and 8 Lb Flats are all holding fish. We've been taking most of our fish in 22 to 35 fow but still the half crawler on a lindy is working best. The most difficult part now is detecting the bite. It seem the fish will just load up the rod with a little extra weight. When you pick it up gently there's a slight tug, that's the time to set the hook or the fish is gone! Good luck out there. ~Evan

• South shore: Continued fair for walleye with most activity farther west using spinners with bottom bouncers or floating jigs with nightcrawlers in 12 to 15 feet. Some walleye success also from Renner and Beaver bays. 

• Van Hook: The lake remains fair for walleye in the north end of the Van Hook Arm as well the southern part of the Arm around Fox and 8-Pound islands with a minnow bite starting. Try spinners or Lindy rigs.
    
• Garrison: Lake Sakakawea is transitioning to main lake points and rock structure for walleye so the fish are finally starting to move deeper. Try 8 to 25 feet, depending on the wind and sun, using spinners and leeches or nightcrawlers. Some anglers are finding success with crankbaits, as well.
   
• Pick City: The east end of Lake Sakakawea is finally starting to produce a few more walleye. Try 10 to 12 feet using Lindy rigs, spinners or Gulp! but it doesn’t hurt to work deeper with crankbaits, as well. Bass, northern pike and perch are active in the bays using nightcrawlers. Anglers are finding an occasional salmon from the face of the dam. Try 65 to 85 feet, trolling with flashers and squids or herring. They should start to move in soon but so far things have been light for salmon success.

North Dakota Rivers Report, featuring Lake Sakakawea’s two major tributaries: 

• Missouri River: Garrison Dam average daily discharge is 100,000 cubic feet per second (CFS) but releases will be reduced in coming days.
   
• Little Missouri River, Long X Bridge: The streamflow average is 1.24 CFS while river stage at the bridge is 479 feet.
   
• Yellowstone River, Sidney, Mont.: The river stage is 9.45 feet with streamflow at 24,400 CFS.

Numbers and Web sites to know: 

• Indian Hills Resort: (701) 743-4122.
• N.D. Game & Fish Department main Bismarck office: (701) 328-6300, Web site ( http://gf.nd.gov ).
• N.D. Game & Fish Department Riverdale office: (701) 654-7475.
• Report All Poachers: (800) 472-2121.
• Friends of Lake Sakakawea: www.lakesakakawea.com

Here we Go!!  Just in Time for the Weekend!!

Headed down the to lake Friday night.  Fishing has been relatively good down our way the past few weeks.  And just like the previous two Friday's, rain and storms are forecasted.  Great, just in time to shut fishing off for the weekend......We no longer pull up to the trailer and the sky opens up and proceeds to downpour.  A final tally of an inch fills the guage.  Partner Pinnochle gives up a little something to do while we have a few Whiskey Cokes!!  Conversation is whether or not fishing will be any good.....

Saturday:  Awakened by the sound of rain on the trailer.  Tired..... however playing pinnochle until 2:00 am will do that to a guy.  Finally around 11:00, the sky begins to show some signs of decent weather.  Loaded up and headed out.  Where is anyones guess.  Will they be deep or shallow.  Cranks or spinners??  Last weekend found us getting good fish in 8-10 ft.  Sounds like good place to start.  However, upon inspection at the ramp, water appears to be down and indeed upon arrival depth finder solidifies that at about 1.0-1.5 feet.  With apprehension, tried it anyway but as predicted, nothing.  So, off we go to another previous spot.  Cranks down in 8-10 ft.  After about quarter mile and nothing on graph or rod, decided to move out to 12 ft.  Wasn't long and had first fish of the day on.  However, a bad net job sent the 20" walleye free to fight another day.  Wounded, we carried on but wasn't long and had another 20" on and a solid net job this time put it in the well, followed by another 19" fatty.  Then, big fish on!!  Well, Sakakawea has became the Pike capital of the world and wouldn't you know it........Made a couple more passes and pulled a few pike and small walleyes until finally boated another nice 16" walleye and decided to keep a fat 14".   Fishing was slowing and wanted to change things up so moved out to 20 ft.  Bomber 24a's and Deep Little Rippers hit the water.  First fish, northern.....Second fish, smallmouth.....Third fish, northern....Finally, nice walleye at 18".  Continued on and was noticing a pretty "junky" bottom in 22 ft and with cranks set for 20,  seemed to be pulling right over top so dediced to give it a try.  All of a sudden, rod gets hammered and line begins to spool out.  My counterpart says snag but I say no way, that was a fish that hit that thing......No sight of it until it gets right at boat and once in the net, the fattest 22" walleye I have probably ever saw.  My lip scale puts it at almost 4.5 lbs.  Awesome!!  We played around in the 18-22 ft mark and were able to put a couple more smaller keeper walleyes in the well before calling it a day.  Water temps were down a bit in the 73-74 range.  Crankbaits were all that hit the water for us and upon arrival at camp, showed the lure of choice as many struggled to only get a couple.  T-Bone steaks and Pinnochle took up the rest of the night....and early AM!!

Sunday:  Alarm off at 5:30 AM but quick look outside said go back to bed.  Overcast and windy.   Not my favorite fishing weather as having a place at the lake has taken some of the die hard out of me.  Probably good as used to be pretty willing to fish in anything...Decided about 8:30 to give er a try as sun was peaking and wind didn't seem too bad.....Well, I was wrong....Tried to get to previous day's spots but halfway out decided to turn back as wasn't going to beat myself up or worse to try and get there.  Some of the bigger rollers I've seen for a while coming out of the bay.  Retreated back into the bay but only managed 2 small walleyes and northerns.  Called it quits after 2 hrs of torture!!  Wind was just perfect making it difficult to load boat at times.  It was the most trouble I think I have ever had!!  Water temps back in bay around 73 again.                       

Is that a fish? How about that?

What are those little marks up here? What is all the stuff at the top? The depth finder is most often the topic of conversation throughout the day. I remember the days when I fished as an amateur in some of the Pro-am tourneys asking the same questions.

Today we had limitless opportunity to take some photos of the Lowrance, so I will try to go through these photos and give a quick explanation as to what I think I’m seeing. All the images are from Sakakawea in the Van Hook Arm. Keep in mind different units, even one Lowrance to another, display images of fish differently.

Fish 1  This is a typical fish arc. I like the solid yellow with a hint of red outline. Big Fish.

Fish 2  If looking for fish, I would stop to fish an area that shows marks like this. The black marks above are likely perch or similar sized bait fish.

Fish 3  Very nice clear, clean shot of a fish. I would expect to hook this fish about the time the arc is 2/3 of the way across the screen.

Fish 4  Fish moving up from bottom, likely feeding on a perch. You see these often and sometimes it can be suspended fish, spooking from your boat, heading to the bottom.

Fish 5  Nice clean mark. I need to see the yellow no matter the size of the mark to convince me to stop and fish.

Fish 6  Walleye down pretty tight to the bottom.

Fish 7  We are stopped with no wind, so the boat is moving very slowly. This fish is directly under the transducer and moving with us at approximately the same speed.

Fish 8  Get out the leadcore. I can’t drive past stuff like this without giving it a try.

Fish 9  Far right could be junk or a cluster of fish. Moving left - walleye, maybe two. Above the red marks are normally Skip Jacks, Gold Eye, Shiners. All the same fish with several names.

Believe your depth finder. If you have marks like what we are looking at you have a fish fry in the making. Good Luck fishing.

GPS Google Earth Locations, Video and Pictures of this report please visit: www.ndlive.com

And I Thought Boat Ramps Were for Loading/Unloading Boats......

Saturday:  My wife and I headed out to the previous weekend spot in hopes of a repeat performance.  Upon arrival, a few boats were working the area but out deeper so was able to slip right in.  Spinners were on the menu since they had produced some nice fish the previous Sunday.  Wasn't long and the first 18" was put in the livewell.  Thank goodness, something to occupy my son!!!  The fruit snacks could wait and save us later!!  A couple passes later and a nice 16" joined the party followed by a real nice 20" walleye.  Wind then started to pick up making working the area difficult and was in 8-10 ft and right next to shore for the most part.  Missed a couple dandy bites and then my wife was able to latch into a good northern.  With 3 in the box and my son asking to go back to the trailer, headed in and dropped them off.  Called a buddy and asked him if he wanted to hop in and pull some cranks with me.  I wanted to crank an area I had my eye on but needed to make sure it was clear of any crank stealing debris....Depth finder made me smile as trees in 11 ft, trees in 10 ft, clear in 9, 8, 7....Sweet!!  Down went the cranks.....Wasn't long and "Double"......But, only 1 good walleye as other was a pesky northern.  Another hundred yards and another real nice walleye....Wow, the boat ramp was only hundreds of yards away!!  No one ever fishes here!!  Friend of mine was unloading his boat and we told him just put your electric down and start fishing!!  We were getting a lot of short bites and trail hooked fish so were interested to see if live bait would produce.  To make a long story short, we were able to get our limit as was he and another guy put 7 in the box.  All nice fish 15-21 inches.  Water temps were pushing 76 degrees.  With livewell full of fish and splash well full of empty cans, made the 100 yd treck to the boat ramp to load...

Sunday:  Figured we would start where we left off but as the saying goes, "Here today, gone tomorrow".  Wind was blowing pretty good so re-treated back into the bay.  Found a nice spot inside the trees and put the cranks down again in 8-9 ft.  Wasn't long and had our first walleye of the day.  Had to sort through a few pike before able to get another nice walleye.  Then, "Double"!!  A nice 22" fish and another 20" went into the well.  Worked the area and was able to put 9 dandy fish in the livewell.  Number 10 was tough as we knocked one off with the net and I lost another good one at the boat.  Called it quits as my son was ready for a nap.  He was wore out from messing in the livewell and playing with leeches!!  Our 9 fish basket weighed right around 27 lbs and our best 5 walleyes came in at just over 18 lbs.  One of the best average I have ever had.  Water temps back in the bay were the same around the 76 degree mark.