Hard for me to believe my guiding up on Sakakawea is now officially over for the season. Feels like only yesterday I hen I was traveling across ND from Devils Lake with excitement of getting back on the big lake.
The interesting part for me is I’ve heard a few people say it was a tougher than usual season up there. I can honestly say up until these last two weeks it was exceptionally good for us. Sometimes that can just be the stretch of lake a person fishes also.
I think overall the one thing I really saw this summer was a lot of really shallow fish. Even right now you can get them up in the 10 foot range. In fact, our Aim State Championship last weekend we caught all of our weigh fish under 15 foot as shallow as 5 foot of water.
Of course the one thing that scares me is we are headed into fall extremely low. The water levels have dropped like a rock and if the mountains of Montana don’t get the snowpack this winter and we piggy back that with a hot dry summer next year we will begin to lose some of our forage base.
Fingers are crossed that thing align and we get the moisture this winter out west. As for the bite right at the moment. Things are very confusing. I’ve had the privilege of fishing Sakakawea now for over 40 years, and I’ve never seen it in this type of funk. You can literally mark 100’s of fish in areas with very few takers. My picture you see shows just that.
I do believe once the water temps fall, things will fire back up! All we can do is hope I guess. Until that time, I’m waiting for another doctor appointment (Oct 6th) to determine my fate for the fall. I plan on starting up guiding down on the river south of Bismarck again. If I’m given the green light health wise, I’ll start opening up dates and booking Fall River trips.
Not sure what this fall will bring on the Mighty Mo quite yet? They (corp of engineers) have dropped the river to one of the lowest I’ve seen in a very long time here recently. You never know what this will do to the fall migration? Sometimes it doesn’t seem to matter. Other times it holds the fish up further south and they never really come up in numbers. Only time will tell I guess.
If you are wanting to go fishing with me yet this fall keep an eye on my Facebook pages. You’ll know if I’m going! If so, id love to get you on the water to catch some Missouri River gold!
