June 18th, 19th & 20th Lakes Oahe/Sharpe, Pierre SD Fishing Report

[Hutch]

The fishing on Lake Sharpe has slowed for the nicer big fish but continues to put out numbers of smaller fish along with smallmouth from the Pierre area to the dam at Fort Thomson. Lake Oahe fishing is still going strong around the Dam all the way up river.You still have to catch and release numbers of smaller walleye to come up with a nice average size limit. Catching a lot of numbers is great fun for most anglers so I think we are having a lot of satisfied anglers as most boats coming in with limits of walleye, some northern and some smallmouth bass. I fished Gordy Sorensen and his Roberts Pump and Supply party of 12 to three days of great fishing with one day of big wind but still catching a lot of fish. We had almost all of there possession limits of walleye with around an 17 inch average and most of there over fish to 25 inches the first two days along with some real nice northern so we spent day three getting limits of smallmouth and northern along with a lot of throw back walleyes. They took there limits of 96 walleye, around a 100 smallmouth bass and around 15 northern home along with eating a bunch of walleye appetizer's every night. They will enjoy some great eating back in Cario NE. We caught most of the walleye in around 10 to 17 fow on bottom bounce/crawler rigs and caught the smallmouth pitching gulp pumpkinseed minnows into the tips of rock points/shoreline's. The bite on Oahe is good with just about any way you want to fish working. Leech's, minnows, crawlers, and pulling plugs are all catching fish. All of the fish were caught in the Cow Creek to Cheyenne river area on Lake Oahe. This was just a great bunch of guys and all three of us guides really enjoyed taking them fishing. The Salmon fishing continues to be spotty but I did hear of a few good catches by the dam. For the most part very few boats are coming in with numbers of salmon. If you are making a trip here for the first time this year I will say once again watch your depth finders as there are plenty of hazards just under the water because of the lower water levels from last year. We watched one boat go out of the Little Bend boat ramp and run full blast into a big rock island bending his shaft. Just one example of the many spots that are around and it is real easy to get in a hurry and get in trouble. I had a question about the health of the fish. Most of all the fish we are catching in my area of Oahe seem healthy enough but every once in a while we will catch one that looks stressed and skinny and I have heard of other guides catching bigger fish that are skinny so there is certainly some concern about a lack of bait along with the huge numbers of fish in the lake. I am going to a informal meeting next week with some GFP's personnel along with other guides and some fishermen and will try to pass along any info that I can after the meeting.

Hutch's Guide Service

Hutch