| Walleye fishing in South Dakota means one thing. | | | | on shore you caught walleyes, when it was loggy |
| Excitement! With many different lakes to choose | | | | and woody, you caught smaller fish. |
| from, you'll find Lake Oahe ranks high as one of the | | | | As the water levels rose we noticed a trend. We |
| best places to go for chasing Old Marble Eyes. I | | | | started to go 30 minutes without fish rather than 5 |
| remember my first trip to Oahe. It was the famed | | | | or 10 minutes. The electronics also solidified our |
| mid-June period. The trip took the cake for numbers | | | | above the water observations. We got into more |
| of 16 to 20 inch fish compared to any other place | | | | fish by shifting up into 10 or 12 feet of water. Then, |
| I've been. Having never been on the lake and simply | | | | you guessed it. Those fish started to disappear. You |
| looking over the Hot Spots Map, we were able to | | | | know with water levels rising fish will move shallow. |
| boat 73 walleyes that first day! With our big walleye | | | | We scrapped the leadcore and worked Fireline behind |
| of the day being a 25 incher. | | | | the boat. Another adjustment that helped in the clear |
| If you want to catch walleyes as fast as a tuna | | | | water was to kill the kicker and troll with the bow |
| crew working the sea in Oahe during June you need | | | | mount electric. |
| to get intimate with trolling and casting crankbaits. No | | | | You also saw a preference in color change as you |
| other methods work as well when fish get spread | | | | worked shallow water. Natural shad became THE bait |
| out, are active, and you find concentrations up | | | | of choice. As those last few days wore on we made |
| shallow on certain points. | | | | the process of catching Oahe's walleyes even more |
| For the first half of the trip we trolled leadcore along | | | | efficient. We simply revisited the hot points with GPS |
| the 15 to 18 foot breaks. Number 7 Flicker Shad in | | | | icons on them that we found trolling. The best points |
| Chrome Clown was a great producer. Our bigger fish | | | | were roiled slightly by the wind or in some cases |
| came on #9 Shad Raps in Natural Shad. As the trip | | | | cattle in the water stirred up some sediment. Looking |
| progressed lake Oahe's water levels rose about 6 | | | | for iconed points with the wind hitting them, or cattle |
| feet over the 5 days we spent there. This really got | | | | drinking around rocky points guaranteed success! |
| the bulk of the fish moving and holding up shallow all | | | | We had multiple big walleyes race up out of 3 feet |
| day long. By the last day we were only casting | | | | of water and grab our baits as we pulled them out |
| cranks to the hot points we found trolling. Big | | | | of the water to make another cast! The action on |
| walleyes ripped the rod out of our hands in 3 to 8 | | | | Lake Oahe is nothing short of fantastic. The trick to |
| feet of water on that memorable day. | | | | fishing a large reservoir is trolling to catch and graph |
| When you start off a fishing adventure by trolling | | | | fish, paying attention to what section holds the larger |
| crankbaits you'll really get a feel for the big picture | | | | fish, and being on your toes by watching the |
| and what kinds of trends are happening with the | | | | conditions - not other anglers. By the last day we |
| walleyes. On day one we trolled at 2.0 mph for 8 | | | | saw a lot of bored looking live bait riggers still |
| hours straight. Starting up above Mobridge and | | | | working that deeper water. There are many, many |
| working on downstream. Covering roughly 16 miles of | | | | more refinements and other walleye wizardry to |
| water we noticed what section the 16 inchers where | | | | apply any time you're fishing for walleyes. I hope |
| holding in and what section the 19 inch plus fish were | | | | you'll stop by my website to learn more about the |
| using. We also noticed every time you saw rocks up | | | | craft of outwitting walleyes anywhere they swim. |