Lake Sakakawea Fishing Report-August 2nd, 2026

Written by Mike Peluso

August 2, 2026

Not much has changed up here on Lake Sakakawea. If you are looking for unreal fishing, this is the place to be right now! 

Fish are remaining fairly shallow for this time of year.  Most of the fish are staying in that 14 to 20 fow range.  Remember moving forward, if you start catching fish 25 fow or deeper, keep those fish and move back up shallow if you want to continue fishing. 

I hear people say all the time they release them, and they swim away.  If they have come out of that deep of water, they have a very small chance of survival.  No need to feed these fish to the catfish and pelicans.  I’ve talked to divers up here in the past when the walleyes are being caught deep and they say they see an awful lot of white bellies on the bottom. 

Anyway, slow death with a half crawler is almost silly right now.  Most days of late are not falling into the fishing category.  It’s leaning more towards the catching category.  With the water levels falling it is pushing all the other species out with the walleyes as well.  So plan on going through a ton of crawlers! 

We are seeing some bigger fish mixed in now also.  Lots of 22 to 25 inchers showing themselves with a couple bigger.  

I don’t have many dates left up here in August, but I have a couple, so please get ahold of me if you still want to get in on this action.  If I miss you on Sakakawea this summer, don’t forget I will be guiding the river near Bismarck starting October 1st.  So we still have time to share a boat together!

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