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“Salmon are very good fighters. Sometimes they go deep and sometimes they want to come right to the surface. Sometimes they will take out 100-150 feet of line in 10 seconds,” explained Aaron Hayden owner and guide for Big Lake Guide Service which is going on their 10th year guiding.
Zach Kjos said, “Chinook salmon were first stocked into Lake Sakakawea in 1976. The salmon are stocked in the lake to take advantage of the cold-water habitat and the forage not utilized exclusively by other species. He added currently chinook are the only species of salmon stocked in Sakakawea and the simple reason is because they have done better than any other trout/salmon that have been stocked in the past.” Kjos is the Missouri River System Fisheries Biologist, this is his second year at this position and he has been with the department for 12 years.
Skylar and Levi Johnson with a nice one.
Salmon are stocked as smolts, roughly 3-5 inches long. They can also grow quickly, almost 3 pounds in the first year. Kjos explained, “Smelt are the main forage fish for salmon in Sakakawea. They will also eat young cisco when available. Lake Sakakawea only produces sporadic strong year classes of cisco. When a strong year class is recruited, salmon grow a bit larger. Salmon this year were a bit larger due to a good year class of cisco in 2023.”
Salmon do compete with other species that feed on rainbow smelt such as walleye and sauger.
Adam Johnson with a keeper.
“Water levels are important to salmon and their forage. The most important thing is having enough cold-water habitat available for salmon, rainbow smelt and cisco. During droughts emotive cold-water habitat is diminished and populations of cold-water fish will follow,” answered Kjos.
When fishing for chinook salmon the general range for temperature they like to be at is from 52-58 degrees. Kjos who gets a chance to fish for salmon on Sakakawea explained in the spring they can be caught by anglers in 10-20 feet. As the water warms, they will be found deeper to stay in their preferred cold-water habitat. In August and September, they can be found in 60-100 feet. In October when they come into spawn they can again be found up shallow and along the shorelines.
Stephanie Hayden with a 12 pound salmon from the 25 season.
This means depending on the time of year you can catch fish from shore if you don’t have a boat or you’re up to the challenge.
“August and September would be my suggestion for the best time to target salmon. Downrigging in August and early September and then switching to long-lining crankbaits in September,” explained Kjos.
Hayden who has been fishing Sakakawea for salmon since the late 90s agrees. He says, “Mid-August through mid-September is when I guide for salmon on Sakakawea in deep water, downrigging. I still chase them when they are shallow but not a lot. When they come up shallow they are slowly dying, getting ready to spawn and by that time I am salmoned out. That’s when they are going off the feed, not eating as much. The salmon actually turn darker when coming up shallow. They usually like 52-55°. When they are slowly dying, they can handle warmer water and this is when they go shallow to spawn.” He added some guys use downriggers for them late June and July as well.
Hayden who also fishes Fort Peck and Lake Michigan every year plus fishes for salmon in South Dakota every other year says that he catches a good percentage of his salmon on Sakakawea from 9 AM until 4 PM. He went on to say you can catch them early morning and late evenings but he and his fellow guides on the lake agree on that midday time for catching.
“Salmon are the least consistent fish that he has ever fished. You may get 10 one-day and none the next,” explained Hayden. He considers catching 10 salmon a day to be a good day. Hayden added, “The last three or four years have been really good. We don’t get that 10 every day but that’s what they hope for. Before this last three or four years, five fish a day was considered a good day. Last year we actually hooked 26 and landed 17 in one day and I have never done that before.” The biggest salmon he has ever seen caught on Sakakawea was caught by his wife Stephanie, who reeled in an 18 lbs 5 oz slab.
With potentially big fish, Hayden runs 8 ½ to 10-foot medium rods with 40-pound braided line and leaders being 30–50-pound mono depending if they’re running flashers or spoons. Most of the time they like to use a flasher with a fly or a flasher with a squid. The squid is just an artificial lure. They also use herring with spoons. They run downriggers and dipsy divers plus certain times of year he uses copper and lead core. Hayden added salmon are a structure fish even though they spend a lot of time trolling for them in deep water but they do like structure also.
Dad Adam Johnson and son Levi with a double.
If you do find yourself with some salmon in your boat or freezer, Hayden likes salmon when they are smoked or grilled. But they also find canned salmon a treat also.
Salmon are the number two species targeted on Lake Sakakawea, according to the NDGF creel survey period which is from May through September. That means at certain times a year a lot of anglers do target salmon on the big lake.
Hayden added, “Yeah there is a lot of pressure on Sakakawea from fishermen targeting salmon because it is such a confined area compared to fishing salmon in South Dakota or Fort Peck. Those places you can fish 40–50-mile stretches. All the salmon fishing on Sakakawea is from the dam up to a place called Dead Man, the lower end where all the deep cold water is at. This is where the fish congregate before they go shallow. And this is where you find the mass of fishermen also. He says you can fish them all up the lake but the chances of getting a bite are not good compared to the lower end.”
The NDGF started tagging salmon in 1991. Kjos added the last year we tagged any salmon was 2022. This year, 2025, was the last year of any tagged salmon returning to anglers or to spawn. From now on the fisheries department will now be able to age the salmon using otoliths. They will give the game and fish similar information that the tagging did.
When Kjos was asked if there is a good year class of salmon in the lake right now, he answered, “We just finished with spawning operations and we had good numbers of one-year-old males show up, which we call, jacks. This is an early indicator that we should have good returning numbers of fish into 2026.” When asked if he predicts a good year for fishing salmon, he laughed and said, “Things look good for the next year but I won’t make a prediction on how the fishing might be.”
Records:
Chinook Salmon - 31 lbs 2 oz. - 41" - Garrison Dam Tailrace - 6/10/86 - Thomas Schwartz.
Chinook Salmon - 31 lbs 8 oz - Lake Oahe - 7/29/2016 - Darrick Koch.
Chinook Salmon - 32.62 lbs. - 38” - Fort Peck Reservoir - 08/08/24 - Jim Fauth.
Thanks for reading, Clint.
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