It seems to me that the walleye fishing at Fort Peck has gotten a lot poorer the last couple of years. I use to have very good luck at Fort Peck but now I can't seem to catch hardly anything. Does any one else have an opinion?
Montana Anonymous
08-28-2002, 07:57 PM
Dropping water levels have hurt much of the shallow water forage in Fort Peck. There hasn't been a successful perch spawn in perhaps six years. Spottail shiners -- another shallow water baitfish -- haven't done well either. As a result, a lot of the walleyes are heading deep, sometimes 45 feet or more, and are keying on the ciscoes. Also, there was a huge hatch of cisco last year and they all stayed deep so there was no need for the walleyes to come up.
That being said, I probably had the best big walleye summer I've ever had on the lake this year -- a 10, 9, 9, 8, 8, 7, 7, plus some 6's, 5's, 3's -- and it's not that I put in all that many days up there. I didn't catch many small walleyes, but I've heard the numbers of small walleyes were decent in the upper reaches of the lake.
What we need is for the Army Corps of Engineers to release their new Master Manual for operating Missouri River Dams and, hopefully, keep some of the water in the upriver reservoirs -- not send it all downstream for barge traffic on the lower Missouri.
Water levels are dropping again right now on Fort Peck and the latest projections are for it to drop about five more feet before the end of the winter. That would put it at 2214 feet of elevation, its lowest levels since 1993. Unless that water level comes up and beings to flood some vegetation so we get a spawn, the shallow-water forage fish will continue to do poorly and fishing overall will continue to suffer. -- M.A.
Trapper John
09-02-2002, 11:45 AM
We are having a good year on Peck. It has been a little slower than last year, but we have had great fishing. The majority of walleyes have been deeper than most people fish. I agree with what Montana Anonymous says. The northerns are really getting scarce because of the low water years also. We are getting most of our walleyes in 15-25 feet on cranks on main lake points. The longer the point with adjacent deep water the better. Yesterday, Sept.1, we caught walleyes at 11.5,7,5,5,2.5, and 1 lb. This is a pretty good spread of year classes and we caught a lot more smaller fish this summer than last. Sept. is always slower than most months. The last three years have been some of the best walleye fishing I have ever seen. Change your tactics a little and the fish are there. Whenever the water is dropping, you drop down also. Good luck. Trapper John