Crawlers trolled slowly on a variety of rigs will pay off with good walleye fishing on Lake Sakakawea. DEO Photo by Mike Peluso

By Mike Peluso

The walleye fishing is on fire up here on Sakakawea. On certain days, it’s truly remarkable.

A mix of slow death, PK prop rigs, and a plain old live bait rig with crawlers is hard to beat. The fish are still really shallow on days depending on conditions, but average depth to catch them in seems to be 10 to 18 feet of water. Watch your electronics closely and the current the lake has right now with all the runoff coming in.

Night crawlers on a slow death hook and or plain hook pulled behind bottom bouncers are pretty difficult to beat. Water clarity and wind is key. A little stained water is good, a lot stained not so much. Wind is a big factor also and this is moving the fish hard right now. Stay on top of them and pull your crawlers slow and steady and you’ll have a livewell full in no time.

I anticipate things remaining very hot up here for a long time! I did have 3 consecutive dates just open up here in July. The 14-16th are now available out of Indian Hills Resort if you are interested!

Mike Peluso is a Dakota Edge Outdoors contributing writer and licensed ND fishing guide specializing in walleyes on the state’s premier waters.