NORTH DAKOTA OUTDOORS MAGAZINE

Outliers Do Exist

By Paul Bailey, Russ Kinzler and Aaron Slominski

Obtaining an estimate of exploitation (the percentage of fish anglers harvest annually from a population) is most often the primary reason the North Dakota Game and Fish Department undertakes a fish tagging study. Assessing exploitation allows us to determine if current harvest regulations are compatible with the long-term sustainability of that fish population, an important piece of information for maintaining the best fishing possible for anglers to enjoy.

However, lots of other information is revealed through tagging studies including the timing of angler harvest, how anglers treat fish of various sizes (harvest or release), spawning periodicity (how often does an individual spawn), spawning site fidelity (does an individual fish return to the same spawning site year after year or venture somewhere else), and fish movement.

Fisheries biologists care about fish movements because it is crucial for understanding survival and reproduction. Biologists and anglers alike love learning about where a fish may have traveled throughout its life.

Fish tend to move to give themselves the best chance of survival (like finding food, escaping predators, and locating preferred temperatures and habitats) and reproduction. As such, movements generally follow a stereotypical pattern for that species of fish.

For example, paddlefish are great long-distance swimmers due to their torpedo body shape, powerful and deeply forked tail, and highly vascularized flesh rich in lipids and myoglobin. Lake Sakakawea’s paddlefish tend to wander throughout the reservoir in search of zooplankton forage. Then, every 1-2 years mature male paddlefish, and every 2-3 years female paddlefish, undertake a spawning migration, sometimes several hundred miles long, from Lake Sakakawea and into the Yellowstone River to spawn.

Tagged walleye

Walleye, on the other hand, tend to lead much more sedentary lives. They lack the extremely hydrodynamic body shape of great long-distance swimmers and have poorly vascularized flesh low in lipids and myoglobin designed for short bursts of movement rather than sustained swimming. This leads to walleye having wonderful, white, flakey flesh prized as table fare.

This combination of body shape, muscle physiology and palatability is also contrasted in the avian world among great long-distance flyers (snow geese) and their more sedentary counterparts (pheasants).

While most animals adhere to their species’ norms regarding movements, outliers do exist. For example, it is fair to say that most people and walleyes are couch potatoes but, there are marathon runners in both groups. What follows are some of those interesting outliers regarding fish movements and capture histories from past Department tagging studies.

Paddlefish #NDGR 8695

Thousands of paddlefish passed through Garrison Dam, either over the spillway or through the emergency release tunnels, during the 2011 Missouri River flood. Many fish did not survive this passage and those that did typically sustained severe injuries. One such fish was first encountered and tagged by the Department in 2018. The Department was collecting and tagging paddlefish in the Garrison Dam spillway channel and transporting them above Garrison Dam to Lake Sakakawea’s Government Bay to investigate if these fish would resume their periodic spawning movements up the Yellowstone River.

On June 5, 2018, a 38-pound paddlefish was caught and tag #NDGR 8695 was affixed to its jaw. This fish had torn gill covers and dermal abrasions indicating that it passed over the Garrison Dam spillway in 2011. It was then transported over the dam and released in Lake Sakakawea.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released surplus water over the spillway during summer 2018 to pass excess water. When spillway flows ceased in late summer, corps personnel inspected the spillway apron and found three stranded, dead paddlefish. One of these fish had a tag attached, NDGR 8695, indicating it had passed over Garrison Dam twice, once in 2011 and again in 2018.

Northern Pike #NDPIKE 259

Like walleye, northern pike tend to be more sedentary, however, exceptions do occur. For example, pike #NDPIKE 259. This 18.4-pound female pike was tagged on April 10, 2020, at Lake Oahe’s Beaver Bay. A South Dakota angler reported catching and harvesting this fish March 28, 2021, at Oahe’s Whitlock Bay. This 102-mile movement is the longest documented for a pike tagged in North Dakota.

Paddlefish #ND 8841

This paddlefish was netted by the Game and Fish Department fisheries personnel near the Montana border on the Yellowstone River in spring 2007 and transported to Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery. At the fish hatchery it was used as a brood fish and its eggs were collected to raise fingerling paddlefish for stocking. After spawning, the fish was tagged and released at Government Bay in early June. The fish was 48 inches long from the eye to the fork in the tail and weighed 87 pounds when it was tagged. Eighteen years later, an angler snagged and harvested this fish on May 2, 2025, during the paddlefish snagging season upstream of Williston. It had an eye to fork length of 51 inches and weighed 98 pounds when it was harvested.

Sakakawea Homebodies

Several walleye tagging studies have been conducted on Lake Sakakawea since the mid-1990s. These studies divide the lake into three regions: upper (that portion of the lake above the New Town bridge); middle (the area from the New Town bridge to just below the Little Missouri Arm, including Van Hook Arm); and lower (the area just below the Little Missouri Arm to Garrison Dam).

All the tagging studies have shown the same trend that fish in all three regions are generally homebodies and are recaught in the same region they were tagged. However, the upper region fish tend to move the most and when they do move it is generally downstream. The middle region fish tend to move less, but when they do move, it is also generally down the reservoir. The lower region fish are truly homebodies as the most recent tagging study showed 96% of the walleyes tagged were recaptured in the lower region.

Here are a few interesting tag returns from Lake Sakakawea.

Walleye #5438

This walleye was a 16.9-inch male tagged April 26, 1995 at White Earth Bay during Department spawning operations. It was recaught during spawning operations at White Earth Bay on April 26, 1998, May 1, 1999, April 24, 2003, April 25, 2005, and April 24, 2006. Those years correspond to the years we tagged and spawned at White earth Bay and show the spawning site fidelity of walleye in Lake Sakakawea. It’s only a guess as to how many times fisheries personnel would have seen this fish if Department spawning operations were at White Earth Bay every spring.

On June 22, 2007, this walleye was harvested by an angler near Parshall Bay showing that downstream movement of upper region fish.

Walleye #8351

Another example of both spawning site fidelity as well as some movement, was this 20.1-inch female walleye tagged during the spawn at Snake Creek on May 18, 1996. It was recaptured during spawning operations on May 19, 1997, May 15, 2002, and May 10, 2005. It was also caught and released by an angler on June 19, 2005, near Douglas Bay and then caught and harvested by an angler on Aug. 6, 2005, near Mckenzie Bay some 40-plus miles upstream of where it spawned that spring. It was 26 inches long when caught.

Walleye #68206

Anglers on Lake Sakakawea are harvest orientated but there are lots of examples of fish being released. This walleye was a 14.1-inch male tagged at White Earth Bay on April 21,.2021. It moved downstream and was caught and released by an angler near Saddle Butte Bay on July 25, 2021. On July 17, 2022, it moved farther downstream and was caught and released by another angler near Nishu Bay, 75 river miles downstream from where it was tagged. On June 5, 2025, it moved back upstream and was caught and released by an angler in the Van Hook arm and was 18.2 inches long at that time.

Walleye #68351

Another example of a fish being caught and released multiple times with a unique ending is this 20.8-inch female walleye tagged April 21, 2021, at White Earth Bay. It was caught and released by an angler on Oct. 19, 2023, near Hunts Along Bay and three days later was caught and released by another angler near Hunts Along Bay. On Jan. 29, 2024, it was caught and released at Bear Den Bay by the same angler who caught it three months earlier Near Hunts Along Bay.

Walleye #10710

Most walleye tag returns happen within a few years of when they were tagged. This walleye was a 20.5-inch female tagged May 8, 1997, at Parshall Bay and was caught and harvested by an angler Oct. 5, 2025, in the Van Hook Arm. This fish apparently avoided anglers and Game and Fish Department spawning nets for 28 years after it was tagged. This is an extreme example of fish recaptures from tagging studies.

Northern Pike #NDPIKE 1217

Northen pike on Lake Sakakawea tend to be caught near where they were tagged but this pike moved both upstream and downstream. This 15.3-pound female was tagged April 14 2017, at Deepwater Bay. It was caught and released on April 27, 2019, during the walleye spawn at Parshall Bay, approximately 21 miles from where it was tagged. On May 18, 2020, it was caught and released by an angler at Douglas Bay some 59 miles from where it was last caught.

Walleye #67833

While most walleye don’t move far from where they were tagged, a few move extreme distances, and some leave the lake all together. An example of a fish moving upstream out of Lake Sakakawea is walleye #67833, a 22.8-inch female tagged April 18, 2021, at White Earth Bay. This fish moved 277 river miles upstream and was caught and released by an angler below Fort Peck Dam on Aug. 21,2023.

NDGF fisheries supervisors Paul Bailey, Bismarck, Russ Kinzler, Riverdale, and Aaron Slominski, Williston, authored this piece.

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