Posted by Angela Montana on September 19, 2025BRETT FRENCH | bfrench@billingsgazette.comThis summer in the Missouri River below Fort Peck Dam fisheries biologists confirmed two pallid sturgeon females spawned. “It’s later than what we normally see on the Yellowstone River and in other areas where the pallids are spawning,” Braaten said of the second female. Growing quickly is essential since at the end of this stretch of the Missouri River is Lake Sakakawea, a large North Dakota reservoir. In 1998, the first stocking of pallid sturgeon placed 295 1-year-old fish in the Missouri River below Fort Peck Dam. Big, wild adults may produce up to 200,000 eggs, compared to 30,000 for younger, smaller hatchery pallids, Braaten estimated.