From Open Water to Ice
Ron Wilson
While it’s only a guess at how North Dakota’s ice fishing season will shake out in the coming months, anglers would likely maintain that they’d be happy if it’s half as good as the open water season soon to be tucked away for winter.
Looking back, the walleye fishing — the focus of more than 80% of anglers in the state — couldn’t have been any better, said Greg Power, North Dakota Game and Fish Department fisheries chief.
“It was incredible how many calls we got … a lot of positive things were said about the walleye fishing in North Dakota in 2023,” Power said. “And it wasn't any one water, and that's what was super neat about it. It was pretty much throughout the state, particularly our new walleye prairie lakes.”
Per typical, the big three — Lake Sakakawea, Lake Oahe and Devils Lake — fielded the bulk of the fishing activity with good results.
“Lake Sakakawea had another excellent year. Devils Lake was solid throughout summer and into fall, and Oahe was a little surprising, it was probably a little better than expected,” Power said.
“The big three have been our mainstay walleye fisheries for 50 years. What makes them work is water, and we've had decent water. Oahe is a walleye factory. It's our only truly self-sustaining walleye fishery in the state. So, there's plenty of walleye all the time in Oahe. But Sakakawea has had excellent stocking results for the last 10-20 years and good natural reproduction. Same thing with Devils Lake. Just a lot of success in the stocking because we've got good water and good forage.”
North Dakota’s prairie walleye waters, most initially pike and perch fisheries back in the day, were started from scratch.
But with continued stocking of walleye fingerlings over time, these lakes have evolved.
“The history of our walleye stocking is the reason why we have these fisheries today,” Power said. “I should also note, though, what's kind of cool is that in 2023, we've never documented so much natural reproduction in these new prairie lakes, and it's substantial in some cases. So, it's possible in a few years some of these lakes are going to be self-sustaining walleye fisheries, which is pretty impressive.”
Much of the credit for the stellar walleye fishing on these prairie lakes falls on the two federal fish hatcheries in North Dakota.
Without a state fish hatchery, the working relationship between the Game and Fish Department and the hatcheries has been nothing but a boon to anglers.
“Garrison in particular has a long, long history of incredible production of pike and walleye. Because of that, we've been able to stock 8-12 million walleye fingerlings in our lakes for the last 10-plus years,” Power said. “So, thank God we have that. If we didn't have that tool, it wouldn't be anything like it is today.”
With roughly 450 waters in the state, Power said stocking and managing the fisheries is only half the battle.
“Over half of these waters have boat ramps and all the infrastructure that come into play ... parking lots, fishing docks, and in some cases, fishing piers, toilets and fish cleaning stations,” he said. “We're still doing a lot of catch up on the infrastructure part of it. While we have a lot of partners, the list is long when it comes to the development program and the needs out there. The good news is that last year we did some internal restructuring, so to speak, and we have two field crews now. So, we have four people full-time that can attend to all the needs out there at the boat ramps.”
Next up, certainly, with the coming of winter, is the state’s ice fishing season. Power said he hopes, knock on wood, that ice anglers aren’t faced with the same weather and access challenges of last winter.
“It's beyond our pay grade to know what Mother Nature has in mind for North Dakota, but hopefully we don't have a repeat of last year and that we have better access,” he said. “For the most part, our lakes are in good shape, the prairie walleye lakes in particular, which should make for some good winter fishing.”
No matter, the fishing future is bright in North Dakota.
“From a fisheries biologist’s perspective, and we've said this for a very long time, we get a lot more excited when we see 8-inch walleye than 8-pound walleye because the 8-inch fish is the future. And we're seeing a lot of that,” Power said. “As good as fishing is today, we still see a lot of younger year-classes coming up. In fact, Sakakawea, for example, had the second highest on record for young-of-the-year walleye this fall. The future … today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, probably for the next five plus years at least, our fishing in North Dakota looks really positive. As long as we have the water, I think the fish will be there.”