I promised a Lake Sakakawea Fishing Report after this past weekends guide trips. If there is one thing I can say for sure after the last 3 days on the lake, is bait, more bait, and more bait. Oh, and fairly deep and hard to catch walleyes.
The lake is in a funk right now. I can actually say I saw a few firsts this past weekend on Sak. I saw no trailers at some of the most popular boat ramps on the lake, and dry fish cleaning stations. Certainly not what we are used to seeing.
So what is going on right now? I have so many theories I’m not sure where to begin? First is the amount of food these fish have to eat. Not only do you see bait all over your electronics, you can actually see it swimming around your boat and and along the shorelines. Of course there are tons of smelt, but we are also seeing huge numbers of perch, white bass, and only god knows what all the other minnows are. So to me right now it feel like the fish have T-Bone steaks to eat and we are offering them hotdogs.
Another major challenge is the water these baitfish are swimming in. It’s high and not all that warm for this time of year, and still extremely high. This weekend though, it felt as if I could actually see the water dropping and looking at the water levels online, it is for sure dropping! Mix in all theses variables, plus changing weather and winds, and it makes for tough fishing.
We did however scrap together a decent number of fish for the clients. It was a grind at times and super frustrating to see fish on the electronics that would not eat. The fish we did catch were not huge, but plenty of action and really good eating size fish if you kept at it. We once again concentrated our efforts deeper. We scoped the shallows hard after receiving a tip of some nice walleyes being caught shallow trolling. I was unable to lock that pattern down and went back to the depths to probe the deep fish with bouncers and slow death. We did put the lead core to work, and there is definitely a bite going there also.
I have a few trips up at Sakakawea here this week and I also have a couple trips way down south on Lake Oahe this week. So yes, I will give you a report from down that way afterwards. I feel Sakakawea will turn back on here in the coming weeks and we will be chasing trophy walleyes very soon. If your looking to get out snd catch some fish please get ahold of me to book a trip! Lodging also available! mikepelusooutdoors.com