Fishing Van Hook with Schoneck

Staff Writer

A lifelong shore fisherman, I was lucky enough last Thursday to fish the Van Hook arm of Lake Sakakawea with professional fishing guide Greg Schoneck.

Schoneck is also the creator of ND, Live, Wet & Wild, a series of live radio reports from the lake every Thursday, and the reason we were out. Even though the day was cut short by thunderstorms we had a successful trip, walking away with two limits of walleye and only one live radio goof (my fault).

We launched at about 9 a.m. from Van Hook, with a number of boats already in the water. Schoneck had already finished two radio segments, telling what we would be doing for the day and hoping to accomplish. Our goal: obtain two limits of walleye within a half mile of the boat ramp.

Not even a hundred yards from the ramp we put out our gear, four poles with crank baits, two #4 Salmo’s, fire tiger pattern, and two ReefRunner Ripshads, 200 series.

Within two minutes we had a fish, not big, but it was a fish. For a lifetime shore fisherman like me it was unreal to catch a fish in the first two minutes.

Within the first 40 minutes we’d landed 10 fish, mostly small but a few keepers in the 18-20 inch range. After a lull in activity we left the fish, violating one of Schoneck’s rules, “never leave fish to find fish,” but he wanted to explore some water that had worked for him in past years. After an hour battling the wind and little luck in our new spot, Schoneck took us back to the area by the boat ramp and that’s when the fishing really picked up.

We were fishing an area that just three weeks ago was a mud flat, but with the rapid rise in water we were now in water seven to 10 feet deep. Schoneck said the mud was a major reason the fish were in the area and had seen an eight pound walleye pulled from there only a week earlier.

“Mud is so important for food and attracts an awful lot of walleye,” he explained.

Well, with visions of an eight pound walleye dancing through my head I wasn’t about to argue with him. After locating a small hump we caught seven fish, another couple keepers, in four passes over the area. The advent of modern technology is how Schoneck explained it. After our first pass catching two walleye, he marked it on his GPS allowing precise access to the spot later.

Fishing was off and on the rest of the afternoon but our crank baits provided more than 50 fish for the day, a superb outing for me, but only average for Schoneck. The bottom line is if you know what you’re doing, and fish the active areas, there’s no reason you can’t walk away from Lake Sakakawea with a decent limit of fish and a decent dinner for your table.

Schoneck’s live fishing reports air on KEYZ Country 660 in Williston and KFYR 550 in Bismarck.

For more information or to view archived report, photos and GPS coordinates from Schoneck visit www.ndlive.com.