April 3rd Fishing Report

[Hutch]

It is earlier this year but I am going to start my fishing report for both Lake Oahe and Lake Sharpe as the weather is early spring and the fishing is excellent. Last Saturday I went down on Lake Sharpe with Jon Sailer and fishing in 75 degree no wind weather we boated around 50 walleye /sauger in the 18 inch range from around 10 in the morning to 3 o'clock. We caught most of these fish in around 15 to 20 ft holes right around Pierre on jig/minnow combination but we also pulled some flicker shads shallow and caught them that way to. There are a surprising amount of boats on the water but the weather is so good everyone is out early getting some fish for supper. Excellent fishing all up and down Lake Sharpe so if the weather holds you can have a great trip .Be care full and take your time on Sharpe as new sandbars everywhere since last years flood. I got up on one myself going where I have been going for 30 years. Lake Oahe is also putting out numbers of both walleye northern pike and catfish. The dam all the way up to and including the Cheyenne river are good to very good. Most walleye are around 30 ft and dragging a jig works best but pitching into real shallow water is also producing limits and is the best way for northerns along with walleye. Because some fish are still deep and some shallow finding them is a little tougher. Looking for warm stained water for pitching jigs tipped with minnows or Berkeley gulp (porgy's) is my favorite presentation. Looks like another great year on both Lakes. Still a little to early to say much about effect of the flood on fishery but the fish we caught were healthy and full of bait so I am hoping for minimal effect from the high releases of water last year Time will tell and I will comment more on this as the summer progresses. Oahe has dropped from last years flood pool so once again take your time at first on the big lake as there are some real danger spots and lower units are expensive.

Hutch