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Home › Waters › North Dakota › Short Creek Dam
Reservoir · Burke County, five and a half miles north of Columbus in the Souris River basin near the Canadian border · North Dakota

Short Creek Dam Fishing Guides

A small Burke County prairie impoundment near the Canadian line with six fishing docks and a county campground, fished open water and hard water alike.

A wooden dock on a calm tree-lined lake
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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About the Short Creek Dam

The gauge calls this water East Branch Short Creek Reservoir, but North Dakota Game and Fish and everyone who fishes it call it Short Creek Dam. It sits about five and a half miles north of Columbus in Burke County, close to the Canadian border, and belongs to the Souris River basin. It is a small prairie impoundment rather than a large reservoir, and it is managed as a district fishery with its own contour map published by the state.

Game and Fish lists walleye, northern pike, yellow perch and bluegill for the water. That combination is typical of the better small impoundments in the northwest corner of the state, where a dam on a modest creek creates enough depth and enough weed edge to hold a mixed fishery through the year. Black crappie turn up as well in most seasons.

What makes this one worth the drive is the facilities rather than the size. The Burke County-run Short Creek Dam Recreation Area has a boat ramp, six fishing docks, a fish cleaning station, a sand swimming beach and forty electric recreational vehicle sites with vault toilets, and it stays open year round. Six docks on a water this small is unusual, and it makes the place genuinely workable for families and for anglers who would rather not launch a boat.

There is one honest caveat. The state environmental agency has published a nutrient and dissolved oxygen plan for Short Creek Dam, which reflects a real water quality concern and a history of winterkill risk on this kind of shallow prairie water. Fishing can therefore vary more between years here than on a deeper reservoir, and checking the current Game and Fish report before a long trip is sensible. Statewide North Dakota limits apply, with no special tackle rules.

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The photo at the top of this page is not Short Creek Dam.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

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5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Pool right now

1,887.52ft NAVD88
  • 24 hours-0.02 ft → steady

Reading taken 2h ago at USGS 05113750, E. BRANCH SHORT CREEK RESERVOIR NEAR COLUMBUS, ND. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

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Posting to Short Creek Dam.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Lake level alert

Tell me when the pool at Short Creek Dam ft (NAVD88)

Now: 1,887.52 ft pool elevation, read 4:00 pm CDT, Sun Oct 18, 2026 (USGS 05113750, E. BRANCH SHORT CREEK RESERVOIR NEAR COLUMBUS, ND).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Short Creek Dam Recreation Area - the Burke County park with the boat ramp, docks and campground.
Six fishing docks - the reason the water fishes well without a boat, spread around the accessible shoreline.
Boat ramp - the single concrete launch serving the reservoir.
Columbus - the nearest town, five and a half miles south, with basic services.
Fish cleaning station - on site at the recreation area, alongside the beach and camping loop.
Bowbells and Kenmare - the larger nearby towns for fuel, food and lodging.
Souris River waters - the wider basin to the east, useful when this reservoir is low or winterkilled.

Seasons

Spring: the strongest open water stretch, with walleye and pike active soon after ice out and perch on the flats.
Summer: warm and weedy, with pike along the edges, bluegill off the docks and walleye best early and late.
Fall: cooling water brings walleye and pike back shallow for a reliable second window before freeze up.
Winter: a genuine ice season with perch and pike the main targets, though shallow prairie water carries winterkill risk.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Short Creek Dam?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Bluegill, Northern Pike, Walleye, Yellow Perch on the Short Creek Dam in North Dakota.

Where can you access the Short Creek Dam?

Short Creek Dam Recreation Area - the Burke County park with the boat ramp, docks and campground. Six fishing docks - the reason the water fishes well without a boat, spread around the accessible shoreline. Boat ramp - the single concrete launch serving the reservoir. Columbus - the nearest town, five and a half miles south, with basic services. Fish cleaning station - on site at the recreation area, alongside the beach and camping loop. Bowbells and Kenmare - the larger nearby towns for fuel, food and lodging. Souris River waters - the wider basin to the east, useful when this reservoir is lo...

When is the best time to fish the Short Creek Dam?

Spring: the strongest open water stretch, with walleye and pike active soon after ice out and perch on the flats. Summer: warm and weedy, with pike along the edges, bluegill off the docks and walleye best early and late. Fall: cooling water brings walleye and pike back shallow for a reliable second window before freeze up. Winter: a genuine ice season with perch and pike the main targets, though shallow prairie water carries winterkill risk.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Short Creek Dam?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the North Dakota agency site: https://gf.nd.gov/fishing