Buck The Trend. The author has had a ridiculous run on North Dakota’s tiger and pure-strain muskies in recent days, with bucktails turning fish in low-light hours and larger plastic baits working best during the day. DEO Photo by Kellen Latendresse.

By Kellen Latendresse

The way fishing in the Dakotas usually works is that we have a killer April through early July and then the dog days of summer creep up and fish move deep and the bite gets tough and we’re swatting gnats and trying to scratch out limits from 25 to 40 feet of water.

Walleyes Still Strong on Sak
This year, you can throw that plan out the window and open up the June playbook. If you’re not fishing the Van Hook area of Lake Sakakawea for walleyes right now, you need to be! It’s funny I was at the bait shop Saturday and listened to the girl at counter respond to the three groups in front of me as to fish location with: “everywhere.” I think each group was taken aback by her comment and thought she was being rude, but she’s 110 percent correct.

Following a trip with a client, I met my dad, uncle and cousin at the landing. We never started the big engine and began trolling at the dock and they had their 15 keepers in the box in less than an hour. Fish can be found from 10 feet deep all the way out to 40 feet, and you can fish them with any tactic you want.

As far as rest of Sak, the reports are similar from midlake all the way to White Earth. The river is absolutely nuts, and Clayton Folden, the oldest guide on the lake, said to me the other day: “I’ve never seen a late summer bite like this at New Town.” I’m not sure how long this amazing bite will last, but the cleaning stations are packed full and lines are long.

For walleyes elsewhere, the north-central pothole lakes are still producing, but the water is warm and quality of the taste of fish from 80 degree water can be less than desirable. I would say to everyone, if they’re chasing walleyes, just run to the big lake.

Bass Bust, Muskies Boom
The bass have been head scratchers this summer. Since they have left the beds in mid-June it has been one of the tougher years I’ve seen on Lake Audubon. With that being said, the muskies in the system are feeding in full force. This past week I had three four-hour guide trips, and we boated eight tigers and four pure strain muskies in 12 hours of fishing, for an incredible one-muskie-per-hour average.

The muskies are starting to put the feed bag on as each week they seem to be getting thicker. As far as lures, Jeni Bou bucktails have been best for me with fluted blades during low light periods and during the day we have been throwing rubber baits deep on main lake points targeting the outside weed edges.

Overall, we have had the best late-July fishing I’ve seen in my lifetime for walleyes and muskies in North Dakota. Someone just forgot to invite the bass to the party.