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.

photo by Ron Sinfelt

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.

"Typically, we are pushing April when we start to see open-water fishing," says Dave Fryda, Missouri River systems supervisor with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. "The upper end of lake opens quite a bit sooner than lower down."

When snow starts melting or early spring rains push water levels up in the tributaries, which has a tendency to hurry up the ice-out process. The warmer runoff melts the ice fairly quickly. It also attracts northerns and even walleyes that are moving upstream to get ready to spawn. Most importantly, it creates open water and anglers can fish it immediately with good success.

"Sometimes with a lot of flow coming down, it really eats up those bays," said Fryda. "It varies so tremendously from one year to the next."

On Lake Sakakawea, fishermen won't be going after medium-sized northern pike. There are few of those in the lake. Instead, the population is weighted toward very large northerns, and very small ones.

From a practical fishing aspect, anglers will be trying to catch huge northern pike that weigh in at more than 20 pounds. They are the remnants of the last great northern spawn back in the 1990s. Some of those fish remain in the lake. They have grown to tackle-busting size.

"In Sakakawea, our population has been trending down since the mid-'90s," said Fryda. "A lot of what is out there are very big fish. It is still the best chance in the state of catching a 20-pound-plus pike."

The makeup of the northern pike in both Sakakawea and Oahe is now in the process of changing dramatically. An explosive spawn last year has hurled hordes of small northern pike into both lakes. It's the kind of surge in numbers that coincides with the cycles of rain and drought that has shaped the northern Great Plains since long before it was settled, let alone since the Missouri River dams were built.