WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) - Anglers are heading down to the muddy riverbanks in northwest North Dakota as this year’s paddlefish season officially opened on Thursday.
In theory, the season runs through the end of May. But with a harvest cap of just 1,000 fish, the season is often much shorter. Last year the season lasted less than 10 days, said North Dakota Game and Fish Department fisheries division chief Greg Power. He added that the season has lasted for all of May just two of the last 12 seasons.
Power noted that this year’s season may last longer as the water level in the rivers is higher, meaning more places for the ancient paddlefish to swim and making them harder to catch.
Anglers are allowed to catch and keep one fish per season.
Paddlefish are large, peculiar looking fish with a long flat snout protruding from their heads. They are found in 22 states and can live more than 60 years. North Dakota’s Game and Fish Department says fossils of now-extinct paddlefish species dating back 60 million years have been found in the area.
On Thursday, more than a dozen anglers gathered at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers, around 30 miles southwest of Williston. There were few fish getting snagged on Thursday morning, but the anglers - many of whom came down from Canada - said they were having a good time as they drank cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon and Bud Light.
Paddlefish swim with their mouths open, scooping up zooplankton as they make their way down rivers. Anglers cast out lines with four pronged hooks into the water, hoping to snag a paddlefish as they swim by.
“Luck is all it is,” said 30-year-old angler Levi Sands from Estevan in Canada’s Saskatchewan province.
In recent years, the population in northwest North Dakota has increased dramatically due to the booming oil industry in the area. Tens of thousands of new arrivals now live in Williston and other towns, but anglers and the state’s game and fish department said that did not have much of an impact on the quality of the fishing.
Most of the people who move to the area are likely too busy working to fish, said Power, the fisheries division chief.
Kelly Swift, a 36-year-old electrician wearing a sweatshirt with a picture of a paddlefish on it, said he has been coming to North Dakota’s paddlefish season from Canada’s Saskatchewan province for five years now and has always had success. But, he said, weekends become crowded with hundreds of anglers gathering on the riverbanks of the most popular spots.
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