September 24th to 30th Fishing Report

[Hutch]

Fishing on both Oahe and Sharpe is still going strong with excellent fishing on both reservoirs. Walleye on Oahe are staying shallow for the most part (20 fow or less) and crawlers still the bait of choice but minnows/chubs coming into play along with plug fishing and jig fishing. I along with Dave Spaid and Scott Van Lyre fished a real nice group for the Outpost Lodge for two days getting these fellows from around the Norfolk NE area possession limits of nice walleye(56) with several overs to 24 inches. Also had a bunch more for appetizers so these guys all caught a lot of fish( 25 or more each) and had a nice time. I then fished Tom Main and his 98 year old Dad (that's right, 98 years old and still catching the fish) from Rapid City to nice limits of walleye with a 5 pound fish being the biggest .Stayed on Oahe for both these groups seeing only one or two other boats and probably caught over 50 fish a day or more. Sharpe is still going at a rate of probably 25 fish per boat or more a day with a lot more boat traffic and you have to catch that many as the ratio of 14 inch fish to keeper fish of 15 inches or more now much higher. The bigger fish on Sharpe in the Pierre area are mostly in 10 fow or less and Crawler/bouncer rigs still favorite presentation but once again minnows starting to go as water temps drop. Pulling shallow plugs works to. This September has been, along with the rest of 2011, exceptional fishing. I see October as more of the same as long as the weather holds and the next 7 days looks like real good weather. I am seeing a lot of real deep bait down around 60 to 70 fow around the dam area to Cheyenne river area so hope that the discharges all summer will not affect the over all bait situation to much. I will report any up-dates or GF&P releases when they are available.

Hutch