# Fish habitat declining at Lake Sakakawea



## Bob Kellam (Apr 8, 2004)

*Fish habitat declining at Lake Sakakawea*

By KIM FUNDINGSLAND, Staff Writer [email protected]

RIVERDALE - The fleet of large boats that normally appears at this time of year on Lake Sakakawea in an annual search for salmon has yet to make an appearance. The lack of the downrigger-laden flotilla is another indicator of the declining health of the state's largest body of water.

While a few salmon seekers may yet attempt to catch their favored quarry, statistics emerging from beneath the water are not at all encouraging. Lake Sakakawea, the largest reservoir on the Missouri River system and dubbed the "walleye capital of the world," is in serious decline.

The number of northern pike and walleye entered into the North Dakota Game and Fish Department Whopper Club and Catch-and-Release programs has dwindled to single-digit numbers during the prime fishing months. In previous years the lists were often too long to publish. The 12-pound salmon that so excited fishermen a few years ago now struggles to weigh three pounds.

The Game and Fish Department has been warning for years that continued low water levels in Lake Sakakawea would eventually do serious damage to the once proud fishery. From all indicators, that day that fisheries biologists feared the most has arrived like a sudden storm on the water.

"It's no surprise. It doesn't happen overnight," stated Greg Power, fisheries division chief. "It's been coming on for years. This is exactly why we took the Corps of Engineers to task on the master manual in court. At that time Lake Sakakawea was still at or above 1,825 but we could see that our smelt numbers were starting to take a hit."

Smelt and chinook salmon were introduced to Lake Sakakawea in the early 1970s. Smelt are prolific spawners when the conditions are right and provided the forage base for the cold water dwelling salmon. It didn't take long for opportunistic walleye and northern pike to pattern the smelt, feasting on large schools of the six-inch fish. The growth rate of salmon, walleye and northern pike resulted in tremendous fishing opportunities throughout the reservoir. Now the eight- to 12-pound trophy walleye has been replaced by five-pound fish, and there are very few of them.

Stopping short of calling the declining fishery at its most critical stage in history, Game and Fish Director Terry Steinwand said the situation is comparable to a decline experienced in the early 1990s. Steinwand, the former fisheries division chief, has a working knowledge of the reservoir.

"We had some bizzare-looking fish at that time. All head and no body," recalled Steinwand. "But smelt wasn't the issue then. If we can just get the water level above 1,825, gee whiz, those fish will surprise you. We can get back in decent shape but the water needs to come up relatively soon."

Lake Sakakawea is expected to end the month of July near the 1,817 mark and drop to 1,813 by the end of 2007. At its current level, Sakakawea is little more than a big bowl of mud. Northern pike and perch that need vegetation on which to hang their eggs have no choice but to wallow in the muck of a receding shoreline. Years of siltation flowing into the reservoir and wave action along exposed banks has buried nearly all the gravel and sand spawning areas essential to smelt and walleyes.

According to department surveys, the 2001 smelt population in Lake Sakakawea was close to 80 million. By fall 2006 that number had dropped to 8.8 million and most of those smelt were thought to be nearing the end of their life cycle.

On the heels of the high smelt population in 2001 came the best smelt spawning season in years on the reservoir. Larval testing in 2002 showed .229 young-of-the-year smelt per cubic meter. That number dropped to .003 in 2006 and, according to Dave Fryda, fisheries biologist stationed at Riverdale, it will shrink again after this year's data is analyzed.

"I've said a number of times in Corps meetings that we've been able to sustain that fishery by hard work and the grace of God," said Steinwand. "The numbers are down and the size is down. The lack of forage really hurts us and that is directly a result of low water. Sakakawea is really an important resource biologically and economically to the state. It really grinds on you when you know this didn't have to happen."

Carey Geiser, owner of Six-Mile Bait Shop near Garrison, hears stories from fishermen every day about the lack of size of their catch. Like many other business interests along the lake, Geiser is worried about the future of the fishery.

"The fish are smaller. Definitely," said Geiser. "I've weighed in several that should have been eight or nine pounds and they barely made six. Even the small fish are skinny."

At the recent Governor's Cup Walleye Derby, the average size of the walleyes caught was 1.5 pounds, down from 2.58 pounds in 2002. Perhaps even more revealing, of the 500 or so top fishermen who spent two solid days in search of walleye, only a dozen managed to hook into walleye weighing more than five pounds.

"There's not as many big fish out there as we are used to. Some of the big fish are in poor shape. Some are okay, but overall they are not faring very well," said Dave Fryda, fisheries biologist stationed at Riverdale. Fryda's crews recently completed surveys of 70 different net settings throughout the reservoir.

"That's the reality of seven years of drought," he added. "Fishing has kind of tanked. Some good things are poised to happen but, essentially, nothing positive will happen until we get water."

The Great Planers Trout and Salmon Club will host its annual salmon derby in late August at Lake Sakakawea State Park. Not much success is predicted. The club's 2006 salmon derby resulted in a catch of just 89 salmon as compared to the five-year average of 155. The average weight of the chinooks was less than four pounds. At the 2000 derby the average salmon tipped the scales at 9.8 pounds.

"I quit fishing. I sold my boat," remarked Lee Klapprodt, Bismarck.

Klapprodt had been fishing salmon on Lake Sakakawea for 25 years and was a leader in promoting the sport throughout the region.

"It's supposed to be fun. It just got tiresome to fight the situation," explained Klapprodt. "This constant yo-yo with the water levels makes it tough to maintain smelt and salmon."

Steinwand understands Klapprodt's frustration and readily acknowledges that salmon fishing on Lake Sakakawea has taken a severe hit.

"If you talk about a major, singular impact," said Steinwand, "absolutely that species has been impacted the most. I won't say don't go out and try it, but it's not in good shape. And we tend to take it personal because we're passionate about what we do. When we can't provide recreational opportunities we can get crabby. It's really frustrating."

Both Power and Steinwand agree that constant pressure applied to the Corps of Engineers, the agency that has control over the water levels in the Missouri River system, is beginning to provide some benefits. They say the Corps has become more receptive to state concerns and may be more understanding of the impact of future water levels on Lake Sakakawea.

When will the fishery rebound? Steinwand said it can make a relatively quick comeback if the conditions are right. First and foremost, the reservoir needs to reach the 1,825 to 1,835 mark to give fish and biologists a fighting chance.

"There is no easy fix. You have to have a whole bunch of dominos lined up in the right direction," said Steinwand. "I'm talking about temperatures, low wind and high water during the spawn."

"We learned a lot about stocking walleye in Lake Sakakawea in the past 20 years," added Power. "We know we can stock Sakakawea with walleye and make it work."

According to creel surveys conducted at Lake Sakakawea last summer, fishermen were averaging a walleye for every hour on the water. That's a very high catch rate that contrasts sharply with the actual number of walleye in the reservoir. More fish are being caught because they are hungry, but there are actually fewer fish in the lake. For biologists, it's a disturbing trend that may continue.

"It'll reach an equilibrium point," predicted Steinwand. "The population will be at what Mother Nature mandates, much less than what we're seeing right now."

Not wanting to add more predators to a system obviously hurting for forage, Game and Fish has not stocked walleyes into Lake Sakakawea for the past two seasons. A decision on whether or not to plunk walleye fingerlings into Sakakawea in 2008 won't be made until early next year.

"It's not a matter of if, it's when," promised Power. "I don't know now and we won't make a final decision until we get a good handle on the winter snowpack. If the water would come up, we would stock very strong. I think we can turn the walleye situation around pretty quick."

The "eater" walleye of the past is the new trophy fish on Lake Sakakawea. On the positive side, the reservoir contains a couple of year classes of walleye that should help with natural reproduction if water levels reach 1,825 feet or above. And there's growth all along the shorelines that used to be underneath the water. Once those areas flood, it'll provide food and cover in which baitfish will thrive. Healthy gamefish will be the end result. However, it is more water that remains the key to unlocking Lake Sakakawea's ability to regain its status as a premier fishery.


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