Lake sakakawea water levels

Achucker

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I just read they are expecting the water levels in the lake to rise 2.5 feet. What will that so for the fishing. Good or bad? Harder to find fish?
 


raider

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big water yet to come from the north and south in mt... should run strong for a long time...

sure is nice to see balls of smelt on the graph on the west side again - and the football eyes i've cleaned this year are full of them... i'll gladly work a little harder for healthy fish...
 


Achucker

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Will make the fish be 2.5 ft deeper

So the fish don't move up to shallows. I've only fished sakakawea once as a kid. Do the walleye stay shallow in spring /early summer and deeper later on.
 

Fishmission

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2.5 is nothing to worry about. High water has made that lake great again. Amen
 

Bfishn

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It’s predicted to go up 4 more feet to 1849, I’m predicting 1850 unless they really up the flows out. They did up them today and I think they are going to about 40,000cfs by end of month. The MT runoff is just starting to hit, a lot of water to come yet, if they start getting a bunch of rain lookout!
 


ndfinfan

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Will the corp push more water over in to Audubon? Sure they have a ceiling but shouldn't they raise Audubon to it's max?
 

ORCUS DEMENS

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I was at Audubon last weekend and they were pumping water over there. Maybe someone that goes to Totten Trails can report if they are still pumping. Have a safe weekend all.
 


Wild and Free

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Where does one find the river outflow CFM projections? Pretty high now and heard its suppose to go up more here shortly.
 

wstnodak

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I saw fish splashing in the shallows from the highway this morning. I think it is safe to say the big lake is one healthy girl right now. I love seeing the lake go up any amount this time of the year. I assume the smelt spawn in sometimes less than a couple inches of water so as long as they stay covered to hatch things will be good. When we ran into problems is when the corp decided to drop lake levels during spawn.
 

Brian Renville

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Peck openened up a little more yesterday and that's probably only the start. Peck is managed for natural reproduction so the levels are on a schedule. There is so much water up there even a high water year for Peck isn't going to slow things up downstream. Higher levels are better for the fish and that's always more important than what's easiest for the angler.
 

Allen

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Where does one find the river outflow CFM projections? Pretty high now and heard its suppose to go up more here shortly.

http://www.nwd-mr.usace.army.mil/rcc/reports/twregfcast.pdf

- - - Updated - - -

On a side note, these high water years are the perfect time to go chase walleye up shallow on Sak. Look for flooded green vegetation and give them a slender presentation. I used to use willow blade spinners with a leech back in the 80s when there was flooded sweet clover.
 


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