Devils Lake is the prairie sea that swallowed a forest: a closed-basin lake that tripled in size, flooding timber and roads that now hold walleye, jumbo perch and pike. Its late-winter ice fishery is a national pilgrimage.
Reports current for Friday, September 4
Live verdicts from this morning's reports.
North Dakota's flooded forest: a rising natural lake where walleye, perch and pike own drowned timber.
The Missouri River giant: 178 miles of walleye, salmon depths and shoreline you own alone.
North Dakota’s Sheyenne valley reservoir: Ashtabula holds walleye, perch and northern pike across 27 miles of prairie water.
North Dakota badlands water: Lake Tschida holds walleye, pike and perch behind Heart Butte Dam.
The quiet half of Garrison: Lake Audubon holds walleye and perch beside Sakakawea without the big-lake wind.
North Dakota’s Turtle Mountain lake: Metigoshe holds walleye, perch and pike on the Canadian line.
Below Garrison: the Missouri runs walleye, salmon and pallid sturgeon through North Dakota.
The Souris refuge lake: Lake Darling holds walleye and pike in a North Dakota wildlife corridor.
A James River impoundment: Jamestown Reservoir holds walleye, pike and perch in central North Dakota.
North Dakota’s longest river: the Sheyenne winds 590 miles of walleye, pike and catfish across the prairie.
A prairie flood-control lake near Jamestown: Pipestem holds walleye, pike and perch in North Dakota grassland.
North Dakota’s warm-water lake: Nelson Lake stays open in winter and grows largemouth bass.
Species activity across the state's covered waters. Peak of the year: April.
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.
Seasonal surface curve for this state's dominant water type (estimated).
| Water | Type | County | Live gauge | Peak month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Devils Lake | Lake | Ramsey | USGS | Apr |
| Lake Sakakawea | Reservoir | Dunn | USGS | Apr |
| Lake Ashtabula | Reservoir | Barnes | USGS | Apr |
| Lake Tschida | Reservoir | Grant | USGS | Apr |
| Lake Audubon | Reservoir | McLean | modeled | Apr |
| Lake Metigoshe | Lake | Bottineau | modeled | Apr |
| Missouri River | River | Burleigh | USGS | Apr |
| Lake Darling | Reservoir | Ward | USGS | Apr |
| Jamestown Reservoir | Reservoir | Stutsman | USGS | Apr |
| Sheyenne River | River | Cass | USGS | Apr |
| Pipestem Reservoir | Reservoir | Stutsman | USGS | Apr |
| Nelson Lake | Lake | Oliver | modeled | Mar |
North Dakota is living a fishing golden age: wet decades expanded Devils Lake into a flooded-timber walleye factory and filled hundreds of prairie sloughs that now hold pike and perch nobody has named. The Missouri River system (Sakakawea, Oahe's headwaters) adds classic tailwater walleye and salmon depths. It is honest, wind-blown, unpretentious fishing: and in late winter, the perch capital of America.
May-June: walleye on the new-flooded structure, pike in every shallow bay. Summer: bottom-bouncers over Devils Lake's roads and treelines, salmon deep in Sakakawea. Fall: the big-walleye window on crankbaits at dusk. Winter: the destination season: sleeper houses on Devils Lake, jumbo perch over the mud, and a community that treats -20 as fishing weather.
No natural outlet: wet cycles since 1993 raised it nearly 30 feet. Every flooded treeline and roadbed became fish habitat, which is why the structure fishing is endless.