Fort Peck

[MLynch]

Just curious if anyone has fished Peck lately? My brother and I are flying in to Williston on Thursday and planned to fish Sakakawea with my dad over the weekend. He's pulled the plug there, since wind is horrible, but we are trying Peck since the wind forecast is better. Neither myself or dad have fished it in well over 20 years. We'll be staying in Peck, so will most likely put in at Duck Creek or Rock Creek, fish the dam, or the drudges, depending on the wind. Any tips for walleyes would be much appreciated! We are tentatively planning to fish mostly the same way. My dad likes to drift deeper water with Lindys and Jigging raps. May pull cranks too for lakers along the **** or for walleyes as well.

[brentfrank]

Can’t help with fishing but have you checked the weather for that area for this Thursday through the week end?

[MLynch]

Originally Posted by brentfrank

Can’t help with fishing but have you checked the weather for that area for this Thursday through the week end?

Yes, as previously mentioned, the wind forecast is better. It's not particularly ideal, but it's fishable wind wise, even though it will still be cold. Cold isn't the issue.

Thanks!

[brentfrank]

I am not concerned with the cold it’s the blizzard hit the area on Wednesday into Thursday and you said flying into Williston. Once on ground if you make it I would assume travel will be difficult with the possibility of a foot of snow and 20 to 50 mph winds.

[eyecatchin123]

Lakers should be moving shallower. Pull cranks along the face of the dam. For walleye I would check some of the underwater humps close to duck also Haxby can be good this time of the year. They are also snagging and catching some Salmon in Duck and Marina bays so bring some tackle for that if lake is to bad to fish.

[MLynch]

Originally Posted by brentfrank

I am not concerned with the cold it’s the blizzard hit the area on Wednesday into Thursday and you said flying into Williston. Once on ground if you make it I would assume travel will be difficult with the possibility of a foot of snow and 20 to 50 mph winds.

I appreciate your concern, but we head over mid day Thursday and weather report I'm seeing it shouldn't be too bad. Once we get there, we may fish for a couple hours or not. Primary focus is to fish Friday and Saturday. Weather not too bad there. When we head over Thursday, we'll take it easy. I've spent alot of time in ND/MT driving through horrible conditions to ice fish. If we were leaving this afternoon or like 4am tomorrow, I would be concerned, but unless the weather changes, I'm not worried about it. Wind for Friday and Saturday only around a steady 12-15mph wind for now. I'm actually thrilled about it to be honest. Sakakawea is worse. We looked at Devils lake and that looks like a bomb cyclone, blizzard every day with with winds up to like 40.

[MLynch]

Originally Posted by eyecatchin123

Lakers should be moving shallower. Pull cranks along the face of the dam. For walleye I would check some of the underwater humps close to duck also Haxby can be good this time of the year. They are also snagging and catching some Salmon in Duck and Marina bays so bring some tackle for that if lake is to bad to fish.

Thanks for this. When you mention underwater humps close to duck, would you think 10-20' or more like 20-50'? When I fished this lake many years ago, it was an incredible sauger fishery and in my experience, at least on sakakawea, typically they are deeper than walleye. Any idea what kind of depth they typically hang in this type of year? I remember haxby as being a popular laker spot, did you mention that for lakers, walleye, or both? If I remember right it can be a bit of a challenge getting there, that may be off the table for us.

[eyecatchin123]

Haxby for both Lakers and Walleye and probably 4 miles from Marina so not bad to get to. Not sure on depths haven't been out for awhile but fish were deeper last time I was out. In that 20-40 ft range. Not much for sauger's anymore you'll want to target walleye.

[MLynch]

Just wanted to give a trip report. Flight delays and issues on Thursday, so we drove up from Williston on Friday morning.

Day 1:
We decided to fish for walleye Friday and fished out of Duck Creek and put in around 11:30ish. It was relatively close to the bait shop/motel and we had heard we may be able to get into some walleye and get out of the wind. Unfortunately, we didn't catch any walleye. We did find a few humps of the points that people were talking about out in 25-40' of water that had some fish holding tight to the bottom, but struggled to get them to bite. My brother did get his biggest smallie on a lindy that we estimated at about 3 1/2-4 pounds. Was nice to get the skunk out of the way too...Then my dad caught about a 9-10 pound laker on a crank out in about 20. Lastly, my brother got about a 4 pound pike in about 20' and I ultimately got the skunk. I should mention that my dad didn't bring the bow mount, so boat control was difficult. We were moving a little too fast throughout much of the time lindy/jig fishing, even with 2 mid-size boat breaks out. We did a little backtrolling too and that was the only time we kept it slow enough imo. When lindying I tried a few shiver minnow's and plastics and thought I had 1 hit on a plastic. Ultimately, we spent most of the time trolling out of the wind in the coves and that's where we got the laker. Considering it was a high of upper 30's and 15-20mph wind, it wasn't really all that cold imo. Granted, I had my ice armor on and everyone was geared up for ice fishing.

Day 2:
We put in near the dam and spent most of the day trolling the dam. We had heard good things and were thinking we should get at least a few lakers, especially since we got 1 by mistake the day before, but we were mistaken. We caught a grand total of zero lakers fishing from 10am-5pm. My dad and I both caught about a 14-15 pound salmon though and both were hooked in the mouth. We heard they weren't biting and lots were up snagging, so I'm assuming they were just reaction bites. My dad got his on a flicker minnow out in 20 and I got mine casting a crocodile spoon in towards shore as we were trolling. My dad got his in in about 15 minutes. Excellent fight considering he has 30-40 pound braid. It did the typical tap dance, jumping out of the water and zig zagging all over the place. We chased it down some with the boat to make things easier. With mine, I had a brand new rod/reel rigged for jigging raps with 10 pound nanofil and an 8 pound flouro leader. I've spent several years in Alaska and caught all species of salmon on heavy and light line, including landing nearly a 20 pound king on 4 pound test out of a river. This was the hardest fighting salmon I've ever seen. We figure I hooked it in about 8 feet of water and we landed it in 70 feet 45 minutes later! Between my dad constantly repositioning the boat, my brother with the net, and myself fighting the fish, we were all exhausted by the time we finally got it in the net. Unlike my dads, mine wanted to stay deep at all times. My brother had a shot at it about 15 minutes in and after he barely missed it, we didn't see it again till about 10 minutes or so later. I maxed out the drag about as much I could, where I would still feel comfy with it on my new 6'9" fenwick and shimano stradic reel. Same thing as last time with the net job. My brother didn't necessarily do anything wrong, but back down to the bottom again and the further away from the dam we got, the wavier it got. Now another 15 minutes later and I maxed out the drag as much as I felt I possibly could and we finally got it in. I'm still amazed at how hard that fish fought. A couple quick pics and I made sure to revive it for a good 5-10 minutes or so. Same as yesterday, except today was even nicer. I had my balaclava and hood off for about half the day. Trolling the dam was about as easy as it gets, except for the lack of action. It sounds like it was a tough day for all.

So all in all only 5 fish in 2 days, but we figured in between 45-47 pounds of fish in total weight, we all had fun, and the weather really wasn't that bad.

Thanks for the tips to the couple that chimed in!