North Dakota
North Dakota Game and Fish to stock adult yellow perch into Devils Lake next spring
The North Dakota Game and Fish Department is planning to stock adult yellow perch into Devils Lake next spring as part of a “trap-and-transport” effort to boost populations of the tasty panfish, which are a popular draw for anglers on the big lake, especially in the winter.
According to Greg Power, fisheries chief for Game and Fish in Bismarck, moving egg-laden adult perch from lakes with too many stunted fish has worked well in creating new perch fisheries in small prairie lakes, but has rarely been tried on a scale as large as Devils Lake.
Contributed / North Dakota Game and Fish Department
The window of opportunity isn’t open very long; perch are early spawners.
“The critical thing is to get the nets in (the water) right at ice out, and move them to the new lakes before they spawn,” Power said. “That really has provided tremendous dividends.”
Less successful, he says, has been stocking adult perch into lakes with already established populations.
“The results of that are a little more mixed,” Power said.
The upcoming trap-and-transport effort comes on the heels of a perch population that has lagged behind historic averages the past couple of years. Based on results from Game and Fish summer netting surveys, Devils Lake perch numbers have declined from 18.3 fish per net in 2021 to 8.8 fish per net in 2024. Much of that, Power says, is due to the cyclical nature of perch reproduction specifically and fish populations in general.
“Every prairie lake out there for every species, it’s all about ebbs and flows, peaks and valleys, and that’s certainly been the case at Devils Lake,” Power said. “Is it that bad right now? No – I mean, the last two years, it’s been below the long-term average.
“If you go back just four or five years ago, it was above it considerably.”
Game and Fish personnel, including department Director Jeb Williams, met with Devils Lake tourism interests over the summer to talk about the status of the perch fishery.
“The locals there at Devils Lake – in particular the guides and outfitters, but I think anybody that likes perch fishing – are concerned with where we’re going with the population,” Power said. “They requested us to do something more, so we’re going to re-look at moving adult perch into Devils Lake next spring.”
Brad Dokken / Grand Forks Herald file photo
Mark Bry, a Devils Lake fishing guide and owner of Bry’s Guide Service, participated in the meetings last summer and said the Game and Fish Department’s willingness to stock adult perch was appreciated.
“We’re just trying to stay proactive,” Bry said. “I’ve learned a lot about perch in the last five-six months. The numbers are probably not as strong as they have been, but I think this is fairly common. A couple of years ago, we had really good perch fishing – 12- to 13-inch perch were kind of everywhere. We still have some big perch in the system, but I think they just want to try and enhance it a little bit more.”
Perch favor flooded vegetation for spawning, and when the wet cycle that raised Devils Lake by upwards of 20 feet began in 1993, the influx of water created ideal spawning conditions, Power said.
“What we got was just tremendous back to back to back year-classes of perch, which is very atypical, but that’s what happened,” he said. As lake levels stabilized and began declining, quality perch spawning habitat also became less abundant.
“Occasionally, we get a decent – maybe not a great, but a decent – year-class,” Power said. “It helps sustain a fishery for a while, then it falls off. And the last year or two, it’s been falling off.”
Contributed / North Dakota Game and Fish Department
As part of the upcoming stocking effort, department fisheries crews also plan to tag perch next spring in Devils Lake, Power said.
“We’re going to come up with a population estimate if we can get enough fish, to know where we sit for a while, and whether or not we’re adding enough (prespawn) fish to make a difference,” Power said. “Then we’ll monitor that for a few years thereafter.
“That population estimate is going to be critical to see where we’re sitting exactly for what’s out there and how much (stocking) can help this along.”
Still to be determined, he says, is where the adult perch being moved to Devils Lake will come from and how many fish Game and Fish crews can collect. Reproduction in many perch lakes across the state has declined, Power said, along with water levels in many of the new prairie lakes.
“To be honest, it’s going to be a lot more challenging for us to move enough perch because we just don’t have as many sources as we once had,” Power said. “It was pretty easy when we had a lot of perch lakes to move perch. It’s tougher now; we just don’t have surplus perch like we did 15 years ago.
“I think we’ll find a few lakes (from which) we can move fish, see if they can bring off a year-class and probably do that for a few years.”
Also on tap is a plan to raise the white bass limit from the current limit of 20 daily and 40 in possession to 30 daily and 60 in possession.
“We’re at a point where we can increase our white bass daily limit to more than what it is,” Power said. “There’s probably some interaction with perch and white bass predation (and) competition, but that might help a little bit.”
Walleyes are by far the most abundant species in the Game and Fish test nets, routinely accounting for upwards of 50% of the total catch.
“They’re going to have to balance walleye stocking, too,” Power said. “Walleye obviously are a predator. In the end, everybody wants the same thing – more walleye, more perch, big perch, big walleye; it just doesn’t happen that way.”
With stocking on the horizon, the 2025 perch hatch on Devils Lake also looks promising, Power says. Spring conditions “weren’t anything outstanding,” he says, but Devils Lake fisheries crews tallied a “respectable” perch hatch in 2025, based on results from the department’s annual young-of-the-year fish survey.
If those young perch make it through the winter, they could provide a natural boost to the population in a few years.
“I think we’ll be good,” said Bry, of Bry’s Guide Service. “Not every year can be a home run, and I think that’s just the thing people need to understand. You may not catch as many perch this winter – and we don’t know that for sure – but I think the future looks pretty good.
“I think it’s just kind of how this goes – the ups and downs of perch cycles; you get a couple of good years and a couple of average years.”
Stocking adult perch into Devils Lake isn’t unprecedented, but it’s been 20 years since the last effort. According to Game and Fish records, adult perch – anywhere from 2,000 to 7,000 – were stocked into Devils Lake in 1970, 1974, 1975, 1978 and 1992, a year when the fisheries crews also stocked 6.7 million perch fry.
More recently, Game and Fish stocked 76,000 adult perch into Devils Lake, along with 110,000 fingerlings, in 2005. That was followed by nearly 1.4 million fingerlings in 2006 and 931,000 fingerlings in 2007.
Contributed / North Dakota Game and Fish Department
The fingerlings stocked during those three years were marked with oxytetracycline, a chemical that shows up in the ear bones when viewed under a microscope, to determine the survival and success of the stocking effort.
“Out of the three years stocked, 2007 produced a year-class that contributed to the fishery in later years,” Power said. “However, the large majority of the 2007 year-class originated from natural reproduction, as only 9% of the fish came from stocking.”
In other words, there are a lot of unknowns with the upcoming adult perch stocking, Power says – especially on a body of water the size of Devils Lake.
“If it was easy, it would have been done a long time ago,” he said. “But we’ll see what we can do.
“And to be fair, the group up there at Devils Lake, they totally understand that. They just would like us to do something, and they recognize there’s absolutely no guarantees.”
North Dakota
Challengers declare victory after ND Supreme Court rules against Legislature’s attempt to alter term limits
BISMARCK — A constitutional ballot measure to amend the state’s term limits law as proposed by the Legislature will not appear on November’s ballot, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled Thursday, siding with petitioners who argued the Legislature exceeded its authority and violated the state constitution in proposing the changes.
“The people’s voice was heard,” Grand Forks County Commissioner Terry Bjerke said in reaction to the news.
Bjerke was a member of the sponsoring committee behind the successful 2022 effort to pass a term limits initiative, which amended the state constitution by capping legislative term limits to eight years in the House and eight years in the Senate. The amendment, which became article XV of the state constitution, also included a clause barring the Legislature from making constitutional changes to term limits.
During the 2025 session, however, lawmakers narrowly approved Senate Concurrent Resolution 4008, in which the legislature proposed Constitutional Measure 1, a ballot measure to amend the term limits language to allow legislators to decide in which chamber they want to serve their 16 years, and to repeal the clause limiting the legislative assembly’s authority to propose an amendment to alter or repeal term limits.
Bjerke and former Minot legislator Oley Larsen brought the lawsuit challenging the validity of the Legislature’s action in January, and the state Supreme Court
heard oral arguments in the case
this spring.
“Those term limits may only be altered by a measure proposed by the people rather than the Legislative Assembly. And yet a few years later, the Legislative Assembly is doing what they are prohibited from doing,” attorney Zachary Wallen argued on Bjerke and Larsen’s behalf.
Tanner Ecker / The Bismarck Tribune
The Legislature’s attorneys argued the clause prohibiting legislative proposals to alter the constitutional term limits language “infringes on our republican form of government” by “limiting the people’s ability to vote on amendments proposed by their elected officials.”
Justice Jon Jensen seemed skeptical of that argument during the April 2 hearing, questioning whether a second vote was appropriate.
“The public did speak on this. The public spoke on it when it passed the original constitutional amendment and they said, ‘Legislature, you don’t even get to propose a change.’ They have already spoken on it,” Jensen said. “You want a second shot, or a second bite at the apple, not a first one, a second.”
In Thursday’s ruling, all five justices sided with Bjerke and Larsen.
“We … conclude the Legislative Assembly’s adoption of S.C.R. 4008 violated N.D. Const. art. XV … and declare S.C.R. 4008 and Constitutional Measure 1 void … We enjoin the Secretary of State from placing Constitutional Measure 1 on the November 2026 general election ballot,” the ruling said.
Bjerke thanked the legal team that worked on behalf of their lawsuit, and said he was grateful the court reached the conclusion it did.
“I’m thrilled that what the people voted on and approved has been validated,” Bjerke said.
He added that the Legislature had “multiple opportunities” to address term limits prior to 2022’s initiated measure and chose not to, and gave a nod to the country’s coming milestone and the process by which voters expressed their support for term limits.
“We’ve lasted 250 years,” Bjerke said. “I have two words for those elected leaders who think they aren’t: everyone’s replaceable.”
North Dakota
Fargo woman convicted in North Dakota fraud case now faces charges in Minnesota: A deeper dive
FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – A North Dakota woman who was sentenced to 180 days in jail in Cass County for defrauding healthcare providers and Medicaid programs is now facing additional fraud charges in Minnesota.
Christine Marie Pryor, 55, pleaded guilty in November 2024 to theft by deception involving more than $50,000. She was sentenced to first serve 180 days with a 3-year sentence suspended. She received credit for 44 days already served.
Pryor was ordered to pay $82,584.78 in restitution to Southeast Human Services in Fargo, where she worked between 2018 and 2019.
How the scheme unfolded
According to court documents, Pryor worked at multiple healthcare facilities in North Dakota and Minnesota between 2018 and 2023, using the identities and credentials of three licensed professionals without their knowledge. She submitted fraudulent Capella University diplomas and transcripts to gain employment.
Investigators say Pryor admitted she searched state licensing websites for therapists who shared her first name, then used those therapists’ last names and license numbers when applying for jobs.
At Southeast Human Services, where she worked as a Licensed Addiction Counselor, Pryor earned $55,584.82 while providing therapy services to approximately 150 patients. She also opened her own counseling center, NIAM Brain Injury Center, in Fargo between 2020 and 2021, and worked at The Lotus Center in Moorhead, Minnesota, from 2021 to 2023.
Court documents say the three licensed professionals whose identities were used told investigators they had no knowledge of Pryor’s actions and did not give her permission to use their information.
Two additional charges against Pryor in North Dakota, unauthorized use of personal identifying information, were dismissed on motion of the state.
Additional charges in Minnesota
Pryor is also facing charges in Minnesota. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced on Tuesday charges against Pryor in Clay County District Court for six theft offenses and six identity theft offenses related to defrauding Minnesota’s Medicaid program of more than $150,000.
According to the Minnesota complaint, Pryor claimed to provide psychotherapy and alcohol and drug counseling services to Medicaid recipients despite having no license or credentials to do so. Prosecutors allege she used the credentials and identities of three licensed professionals while claiming to provide Medicaid-funded services to 169 clients.
The Minnesota charges were filed as part of National Health Care Fraud Takedown Day, a joint effort involving the Department of Justice and more than 40 state Medicaid Fraud Control Units.
Copyright 2026 KVLY. All rights reserved.
North Dakota
NCAA Set to Change Unpopular Football Rule Just in Time for North Dakota State’s FBS Jump
North Dakota State playing in the FCS playoffs and College Football Playoff in back-to-back years? It’s likelier than you think.
That’s because on Wednesday, according to a report from Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports, the NCAA Division I cabinet voted to repeal a rule that effectively barred teams transitioning from FCS to FBS from playing in postseason games in their first FBS seasons. The Bison are making that move along with Sacramento State in 2026.
The reported change has been a long time coming; the rule has hampered teams from immediate bowl eligibility for decades. Its good intentions of dissuading teams from rashly making the FCS-to-FBS leap have been rendered obsolete in recent years by the fact that programs generally arrive in FBS more prepared than ever before.
Consider the number of new FBS teams that have had to work within the provision in the past decade alone
That list includes: Liberty (home for the holidays at 6–6 in 2018), James Madison (8–3 in 2022 under coach Curt Cignetti, and barely able to play in a bowl at 11–1 in ’23 due to a lack of bowl-eligible teams), Jacksonville State (8–4 in ’23 before backing in like the Dukes), Missouri State (7–5 in 2025, also backed in) and Delaware (6–6 in ’25, ditto).
James Madison in particular became a cause célèbre in ’23 because it started the season 10-0, climbing as high as No. 18 in the AP Poll in mid-November. Then-Virginia attorney general Jason Miyares bandied about suing the NCAA before the Dukes lost 26–23 to Appalachian State, an event that caused the program to back off and accept a bid to play Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl. James Madison lost that game 31–21, by which time Cignetti had left for Indiana.
There was a time when the FCS-to-FBS jump was an imposing one, and the NCAA did not want to incentivize making it lightly—not even a proud Florida A&M program could make a mid-2000s attempt at a jump stick. However, the Flames, Dukes and other teams have shown it’s not so great a climb for programs with the right resources and management.
Now the Bison and the Hornets stand to benefit.
How far can North Dakota State and Sacramento State go in the near term?
The Bison opened 12–0 last year before a shock loss to Illinois State in the FCS playoffs’ second round, so that question may answer itself. North Dakota State does not play a single Power 4 team—a potential strength-of-schedule albatross if it has designs on really surging. A potential roadblock: the fact that the Bison have to visit the Mountain West’s two favorites, UNLV (Oct. 10) and New Mexico (Oct. 24).
It’s a different story for the Hornets, a 7–5 squad a year ago whose move to the FBS is widely seen as a gamble on their growth potential. Sacramento State also does not play a major-conference team, but has a breakneck travel schedule ahead of it—the Hornets will visit Ypsilanti, Mich.; Bowling Green, Ohio; Muncie, Ind.; Mount Pleasant, Mich. and Honolulu. Combine that with a first-year coach—Oakland native and ex-MC Hammer choreographer Alonzo Carter—and it could be a long FBS debut in California’s capital.
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