Little Missouri River Fishing Guides and Conditions, North Dakota

About the Little Missouri River

The Little Missouri rises in northeastern Wyoming, crosses the corner of Montana and South Dakota, and runs north through western North Dakota to Lake Sakakawea. The USGS gauge near Watford City watches roughly eight thousand three hundred square miles and reports discharge and stage with no temperature series. This is the river that cut the North Dakota badlands, and it flows through both units of Theodore Roosevelt National Park along the way.

It is important to set expectations honestly about this water. The Little Missouri is a prairie river with a very large drainage and very little dependable flow. It is fed by snowmelt and by thunderstorms rather than by springs or by a reservoir, and in a dry late summer it can drop to a trickle across wide gravel and sand flats, or to disconnected pools. The gauge reading on a given day may be a handful of cubic feet per second. It is the only river in North Dakota designated a State Scenic River, and it is far better known for its canoe trips in high water and for its scenery than for its angling.

The fishery reflects that. Channel catfish are the most dependable species and are widely distributed. Sauger, freshwater drum and goldeye move up out of Lake Sakakawea into the lower river, and the reach nearest the reservoir is the most productive water in the drainage. Smallmouth bass are present in limited numbers. Turbidity is high after any rain, and the river carries a heavy silt load characteristic of badlands country.

Float trips are a spring proposition, keyed to snowmelt, and the window is short. The gauge is the deciding instrument for both paddling and fishing: at low flow the river is not navigable, and at high flow it is fast, cold and full of sediment.

Access

Watford City area and gauge - the flow reference for the lower river.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Unit - river frontage and scenic corridor access.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, South Unit - upstream park access near Medora.
Medora river crossing - the standard upper put-in for spring float trips.
Long X Bridge - traditional access point on Highway 85.
Elkhorn Ranch unit - remote middle-river access.
Lake Sakakawea confluence - the most productive fishing water in the drainage.

Seasons

Spring: snowmelt brings the only reliable float window; high, cold and silty.
Summer: drops fast and can become disconnected pools; catfish in the deeper holes.
Fall: low and clear with the best fishing near the Sakakawea confluence.
Winter: frozen and inaccessible through most of the season.