All waters · North Dakota · Lake Sakakawea

Lake Sakakawea, ND

Reservoir in McLean County, North Dakota. At ~178,000 acres North Dakota's largest body of water, the third-largest reservoir in the United States, formed by Garrison Dam on the Missouri River. A blue-ribbon walleye factory that also produces trophy chinook salmon, smallmouth bass, northern pike, yellow perch and channel catfish over its ~180-mile length of submerged points, flats and coulee bays.

67

Overall bite score

Scored 2 min ago · recomputed every 30 minutes

Water tempModeled100
Pressure trendNOAAsteady60
SolunarComputedmoon 62% lit63
Recent stockingState data50
Time of dayComputed50
WindNOAA50
Cloud coverNOAA70
PrecipitationNOAA50

Each instrument reads 0 to 100. The score is their weighted blend, tuned for lakes and reservoirs. No black box: every reading names its source.

What swims here

8 tracked species in Lake Sakakawea, with the months each fishes best.

Walleyeabundant
Channel Catfishcommon
Chinook Salmoncommon
Northern Pikecommon
Smallmouth Basscommon
Yellow Perchcommon
Saugerpresent
White Basspresent

Water facts

TypeReservoir
CountyMcLean
StateNorth Dakota
WaterFreshwater

No representative live USGS water-temp gauge on the reservoir pool, so the bite score uses the seasonal baseline. Main ramps: Lake Sakakawea State Park (Pick City), Fort Stevenson State Park (Garrison), Indian Hills, Van Hook and Deepwater Bay. Walleye/sauger combined 5/day (10 possession), no statewide minimum length; smallmouth + largemouth combined 5/day; chinook salmon 5/day. Verify on the gf.nd.gov regulations page.

See the full forecast for Lake Sakakawea in the app: best windows, 7-day outlook, what to bring, and offline regulations. The score and essentials are free.

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