The meeting involves department fisheries biologists and staff who are on hand to talk about activities on Lake Sakakawea, the Missouri River/Lake Oahe and Devils Lake.
Department Missouri River supervisor Dave Fryda said the gathering tonight is just to get information out to anglers.
“Here is what we do over the course of the year. Here is the data we collect. Here’s where fisheries has been, here’s what the outlook is,” Fryda said. “There is a misunderstanding of what we do and what we base it on.”
Fisheries management leader Scott Gangl said in a press release that such items as stocking rates, harvest rates, length limits and the overall health of the fisheries is to be discussed. “We spend a tremendous amount of time monitoring each fishery and collecting data, trying to gain a good understanding of fish populations in those waters. This will be a good opportunity to share our information with those who are interested,” Gangl was quoted as saying in the press release.
Tonight’s meeting is to include a presentation by the biologists and then leave enough time for questions and discussion.
“Our intent is to keep the meetings relatively informal with the sole purpose of sharing our information,” Gangl stated in the press release. “We want anglers to walk away with a better understanding of our fish populations and the rationale for our management activities on those big waters.”
Fryda said regarding Lake Sakakawea, the department has some optimism for the beginning of a recovery after spending the majority of the past decade dealing with serious drought issues.
“We had those unexpected gains last summer on Sakakawea,” he said regarding late rainfall. “Unfortunately, they came pretty late.”
That water, however, has pushed the lake’s level back above 1823 mean sea level, which means it is getting back near where positive spring spawning can again occur not only for game fish, but also for the primary forage in the lake ” rainbow smelt.
“I think people need to keep in mind, even at these low lake levels, we don’t miss year classes,” he said of the condition of the overall fishery. “There are a few of all available age classes. We have an abundance of 10- to 15-inch walleyes out there.”
The number of walleye of that length in Lake Sakakawea is the third highest the department has ever seen, Fryda said. A slowing of growth, however, due to the major decline in smelt, has stockpiled a couple of year classes, he said.
“They just aren’t growing as fast,” Fryda said. “What we are missing are the bigger walleyes out there and we all know that. A lot of the bigger fish dropped out of the system when the smelt went away.”
He said the lake starts to see the fishery get stressed at around 1825 msl.
“It’s not a precise line in the sand either. If we’re rising when we come into the spring, we’re a lot better than we were in the last five to six year,” he said.
Fryda also is expecting to see a good pike reproduction this spring, as he said most of the adult abundance is down considerably from years past.
The return of water last fall and a better snowpack, however, is indeed producing optimism for Lake Sakakawea this year.
“We’re looking, at least from a substrate standpoint, we got some optimism for a turn round starting this spring. There will be some good spawning substrate for pike and perch,” Fryda said.
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