What will you throw on Sakakawea and Oahe for northerns and walleyes? And when? Experts share their experience to help you score trophy game fish. March By Dick Willis The best time to start spring fishing is just as soon as the first open water forms along the dormant brown shorelines of the Dakotas. That's when the northern pike have already begun lurking along the shallows of the Missouri River reservoirs, eager to spawn, and tempted by the baits and lures that fishermen plunk into the icy waters of the northern Great Plains.
The northerns are the first big fish to entice anglers into the open water of the Dakota spring. They are simply the most eager to congregate near the shoreline.
But walleyes are right behind. And as the season progresses, the fishing generally gets better and better for them. TROPHY PIKE One of the main reasons that anglers will be concentrating on the Missouri River this time of year is because it remains one of the best places in North America to pick up trophy-sized northern pike, especially in lakes Oahe and Sakakawea, which have very good fishing for this large predator species.
Oahe, Sakakawea The main deciding factor on when the main part of this trophy northern fishing takes places depends on the notoriously unpredictable weather in this part of the country.
The peak few weeks can unfold in March, or later in April. That's why it's difficult to plan far in advance. No one knows for sure when the best time will be, or, in fact, even when the ice will retreat from the shorelines. On Lake Sakakawea that is especially the case, since it is farther north and is even colder heading into the spring than Oahe.
