Fishing remains popular in North Dakota, despite low water levels in many lakes and rivers and ongoing drought worries, state wildlife officials say.

Residents and nonresidents bought more than 170,000 North Dakota fishing licenses last year, according to the state Game and Fish Department. Including children who do not need a license, about 200,000 people fished state waters. More than one in four residents age 16 and older bought a fishing license.

"Fishing continues to be popular for many North Dakotans, and the number of anglers coming to fish from out-of-state remains strong," said Greg Power, chief of the Game and Fish fisheries division.

Power said the state's current water situation reminds him of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when drought depleted several of the state's lakes and fishing numbers dropped.

"If you were to go back into the period of the early '90s, we were only in the 110,000-120,000 (licenses) range," Power said. "We bottomed out in 1993 at 112,000."

But after that there was a steady increase in licenses purchased. Since 1998 the number has been in the range of 156,000 to 176,000.

Power attributes the rise to the development of new fisheries as a result of increased precipitation in the '90s.

"What happened in '93 is it started to rain," he said. "We got tons of new water, new lakes … We're actually in better shape now then we were back in the late '80s, early '90s because of all the water we had in the late '90s."

Recent years of dry weather are taking a toll, however.

"With the exception of the extreme southeastern portion of the state, most lakes and reservoirs throughout North Dakota could use more water, and in some cases a lot of water," Power said. "This is especially evident in the western third and south central portions of the state."

In the past few years at least 30 bodies of water have lost their fisheries because of extremely low levels.

"Fisheries aren't usually an overnight thing, but you start losing a couple feet of water each year and it adds up," Power said. "The first ones to go are our marginal water bodies."

Larger lakes, including Sakakawea, Oahe and Darling, also are feeling the effects, though Power said it is not time to panic.

"Sakakawea's fishery is always going to be there," he said. "Even though the lake is way down, we've still got over 100,000 acres of water there."

"Over the long haul it is a big deal," Power said. "You need water. If you don't have water, you don't have fish. If you don't have fish you're not going to have fishermen."