Fishing in North Dakota

Nobody puts North Dakota on a boating shortlist, until they see Lake Sakakawea. The Missouri River System dominates the state's water, with Sakakawea and the upper reaches of Lake Oahe stacking up thousands of miles of shoreline between them. These reservoirs cut through rolling prairie and badlands, and the effect from the water is startling: broken bluffs, open sky, and almost nobody else out there. It's cruising, fishing, and watersports on a scale that has nothing to do with crowded coastal water.

Devils Lake is the other headline, a big natural saline lake with a reputation among anglers that far outruns the state's profile. Its water levels rise and fall over the years, which keeps redrawing the map: flooded bays, submerged structure, new water to learn every season. Smaller lakes and reservoirs are scattered across the rest of the state, but Sakakawea and Devils Lake are why boaters who want empty water and long horizons keep coming back.