Sakakawea/Oahe Fishing Report-Sept. 13th, 2020

Written by Mike Peluso

September 13, 2020

I’m amazed at how many people stop me at gas stations, fish cleaning stations, boat ramps you name it to thank me for doing the ND Fishing Reports. It makes doing them on a regular basis totally worth it! So thank you to all of you who have personally thanked me!
Anyway, time to get this report out to you. I’m combining two reports in one here since I have covered the globe once again here the last two weeks.
We will start with Lake Sakakawea. I’m sure many of you have paid attention to Sakakawea here with the recent NWT event. I feel pretty good about my last report on Sakakawea. It was spot on to what the guys fishing the tournament found. I guess when you spend as much time as I did this season on a body of water you somewhat get into the flow. The walleyes are feeding heavy on smelt. This time of year the smelt tend to be pretty deep. This doesn’t mean you can’t find them shallow. Of course they are shallow also. You have to totally trust your electronics this time of year. Cruise until you see the marks your looking for.
The fish were caught using mainly two techniques. Jig raps or live bait rigs took the bulk of the load. I also said in my report the fish are spread throughout the system and this remains true today. Pick your area of the lake, trust your electronics, and drop your baits on their heads.
Another area I spent some time on here with a Casino Cup event is Lake Oahe down south of Bismarck to the state line. I wasn’t sure what to expect down there since I hadn’t fished it much this season. I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of fish around. Granted not all big, but plenty of action. We stayed shallow pitching jigs mostly. We caught a lot of quality size fish pre fishing, and ended up pretty solid considering we dumped about a 24 incher out of the net that would have really put us up there. I do have to tip my hat to the winners. They brought in one of the biggest bags of fish I have ever seen come in on Lake Oahe! 39 pounds to be exact, and that is extremely impressive on any body of water! My guess is they were pulling a channel edge deep somewhere, but that is only a guess. I would anticipate fishing to continue to get better and better here in the coming weeks. I’m taking a few more open water bookings for the Missouri River/Lake Oahe here in October. I’m also starting to book trip for both angling on Devils Lake and Dark House spearing on Sakakawea. Don’t delay, pick your dates and get ahold of me! We have lodging and fishing on Devils Lake available. Email me at mikepelusooutdoors@gmail.com

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