Fort Peck, Jun 20-25

[Mike7759]

Just got back from Hellcreek at Ft Peck.

Water is high but not effecting fishing. Water temps may be however. Fish are in transition and many fisherman are having trouble dialing them in.

Fish normally move into the weeds in bays by now but most large fish and large schools were being caught on main lake points, until Saturday when those fishing the points said the bite dropped off.

Water temps were 59-60 degrees when we arrived on Sunday but had risen to 67 degrees by the following Saturday.

A few big fish were being caught but mostly the fisherman complained about the size. Many small fish.

Northerns were everywhere and lots of 40 inch plus fish were being caught.

Okay, my experiance. Sunday, June 19 We started bouncing areas that produced this time last year and it was a bust. We moved to main lake points and caught fish consistently at 20 feet. Many fish, few of any size. We kept a limit of 18 to 20 inchers for supper.

Following day the temps had risen a couple degrees and fishing the same point produced the same results. largest fish being 4 pounds. Lots of other fish, northerns, SMB, perch, drum, gold eyes, etc. One sauger.

The third day the temps had risen more and fish turned off on the points we were fishing. No one claimed much success. Being impatient and bored we decided to pull cranks. Ran shad raps, thundersticks and flicker shads at 15 feet with planers on each side. Nailed em. Many nice northerns, many eaters, not real size again.

The next day we were told the big fish were at 50 ft and jigs worked the best. We had little success, went back to cranking, caught a bunch more fish.

last day water was 67 degrees. It is my opinion that we got there a week too early and this weekend the bite will be hot. Fish are moving shallower. Cleaning the fish we found most of their bellies empty. The should really be on the bite.

My advice for those not familiar with the lake would be to cover water. Bottom bounce weedlines, pull cranks on flats, and jig edges of main lake points. We caught well over 50 walleye, dozen SMB, 50 northerns, 2 drum, hundred perch, a sauger and a bunch of goldeye. You will catch lots of fish. Hopefully the wall hangers will emerge.

Bait didn't seem to matter, catching fish on minnows, large and small, leeches and crawlers. But we did have more success with crawlers. Crank colors that worked for us was fire tiger and perch.

We didn't find the areas with lots of boats any more productive than the lonely spots. Many people were fishing too shallow and not having much luck.

Mike

[kelwood]

Nice report Mike. Catching fish is fun sometimes even when they're not walleyes.

[Crusher23]

Thanks for the report. I'm heading up there this weekend and will spend the whole week. I'll report when we get back.

The Crusher

[chysteve]

I'm heading up tomorrow as well and will be there all of next week. In the dam area however, so will report after that.

[Crusher23]

My son and I got to He** Creek on Saturday, July 2nd about 3:00 PM. The campground was full as were all other areas to camp. We were expecting that so we were ready to stay out on the lake. We had everything loaded in the boat already and made a quick run out to Crooked Creek to the east. We found a great place to tie up the boat and pitch the tent.
We fished a little that night but only caught a mixed bag of a couple dozen fish. One walleye about 4 lbs was the biggest.
We started the next morning bottom bouncing main lake points and other areas that I had fished before with very poor results. We worked from 6 to 30 feet deep and couldn't seem to locate any numbers of fish. An occasional dink here and there. We switched to long line trolling and varied the depth and size of baits for a couple hours and only caught pike or smallmouth. Switched to casting jigs and cranks and found the pike and smally's very aggressive.
That pattern held for the next 5 days. We never did get into the walleye the way we have in the past but we had a riot catching pike and smallmouth whenever we switched to pitching cranks. A couple of 12+ pound pike and several smallmouth over 3 pounds. I lost a giant smally at the side of the boat and my son had a tank of a pike follow his super shad rap right to the surface just to turn his nose up and swim away.
It was a great trip and staying out at Crooked Creek away from the crowds only made it better. We were out there for 4 days and only saw three other boats in Crooked Creek. An occasional boat would go by on the main lake but it seemed like we had the place all to ourselves.


The Crusher

[chysteve]

I got back Friday from a week at the dam area. Fishing was very good. Fair number of big fish being caught. I personally had an 8 and 2- 6 pounders. One of my friends had 2 over 30 inches. Lots of small fish so had to pick and choose to get a good bunch of eaters. Seemed bottom bouncers with spinners worked best, although all the big fish came on a bouncer with a leech on a bare hook. Pulling cranks didn't produce much. Most of the fish were deeper, i.e. 17 to 27 feet. Fished as far west as Gilbert Creek which isn't too far from Crooked Creek.