Dakota Recreation Report

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Tournaments

- Sunday: Missouri River, Gun Range.

- Wednesday until Oct. 3: Missouri River, FLW Walleye Tour Championship.

Fishing

- Lake Sakakawea elevation, Wednesday: 1,841.8 feet above mean sea level.

- North Dakota Game and Fish Department District Game Wardens: Limited activity on Lake Audubon. Continued walleye activity on the east end of Lake Sakakawea along the U.S. Highway 83 embankment. Work 35 feet and deeper. Improving salmon activity along the face of the dam and slides by Riverdale. Fish also moving shallow in 25 to 35 feet in the morning, moving deeper into 80 feet in the afternoon. Fish are looking better size-wise. Tobacco Garden fair to good for walleye with improving success. Try crankbaits in varying depths. Slow to fair in the mid-section with limited activity. Missouri River remains fair to good with best success at night from the rocks casting crankbaits.

- Bismarck, Dakota Tackle, Missouri River/area lakes: Lots of activity on Missouri River with upcoming tournaments. Continued walleye success on river. Mixed reports of salmon success on Lake Sakakawea. Try longlining or downriggers but look for increasing success with longlining as fish move shallower.

- Dickinson, Andrus Outdoors, Lake Sakakawea/area lakes: Not much activity or reports from Lake Sakakawea. No reports from small area lakes.

- Dickinson, Runnings Farm & Fleet, Lake Sakakawea/area lakes: Some activity but no reports on success.

- Garrison, Indian Hills Resort, Lake Sakakawea: Continued walleye activity with most success working east of the resort. Fish are nice-sized and a case of quality more so than quantity. Try nightcrawlers with Lindy rigs.

- Glen Ullin, Fitterer’s Inc., Lake Tschida: Not much activity on Lake Tschida.

- New Town, Van Hook Bait & Tackle, Lake Sakakawea: Fair for walleye in 20 to 30 feet with jigs and minnows.

- Pick City, Scott’s Bait & Tackle, Lake Sakakawea/Missouri River: Lake Sakakawea remains fair for walleye in 30 to 50 feet using Lindy rigs and nightcrawlers with slow presentation. Try Steinke or Douglas bays and areas around Sakakawea State Park. Fewer anglers, likely due to weather. Continued salmon activity in variety of depths. Try casting Mepps spinners or crankbaits shallow along the spillway gates or trolling along the face of the dam with flashers or squids in deeper water. Trick to success is there’s no set pattern so be willing to vary presentations. Most activity around spillway gates, face of the dam or Government Bay. A few salmon in Scoria Bay, too. Missouri River continues producing walleye using live bait. Try honey hole, stumps or cable crossing as well as trolling in the chutes with crankbaits or three-way swivels. Not many trout or salmon in river. Shore anglers continue finding success at night from the rocks.

- Ray, Lund’s Landing, Lake Sakakawea, Whitetail Bay: Continued fair to good for walleye using Lindy rigs and minnows. Move around.

- Watford City, Tobacco Garden Resort & Marina, Lake Sakakawea: Continued good walleye activity.

- Williston, Scenic Sports, Lake Sakakawea: Continued walleye activity around Lund’s Landing and White Earth Bay on Lake Sakakawea. Some activity on the Missouri River.

Hunting

- NDGF District Game Wardens: Elk hunting activity slowing down a bit but increased bow hunting activity for pronghorn. Continued deer bow activity. Fair to good grouse success around the northwest with limited partridge numbers. Some cranes moving into Sheridan, Mountrail, and McLean counties. Some small Canada geese also moving into northern McLean County. Areas with water seem to be holding good duck numbers. Not much grouse activity in west-central N.D. Wetland conditions look good in the northwest.

- Northwestern: Hunters finding a few grouse but numbers appear to be down. Northwestern duck numbers look good with good wetland conditions.

- West-central: Some cranes moving into northern tier of McLean County with good numbers of local ducks for the weekend resident-only season.

- Southwestern: Archery hunters continue finding good success, though warm weather limiting some activity. Grouse numbers down in some areas though numbers are mixed.

Numbers to know

- NDGF main Bismarck office: 701-328-6300; Web site: http://gf.nd.gov.

- NDGF Dickinson office: 701-227-7431.

- Report poachers: 800-472-2121.

- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bismarck, Web site: www.fws.gov/northdakotafieldoffice.

Tags: dakota report, northland, outdoors, fishing