August 5th to 8th Lakes Oahe/Sharpe, Pierre SD Fishing Report

[Hutch]

The walleye fishing around the Pierre area is still good with some nice northern pike and smallmouth bass serving as bonus fish in most angler's catch's. Limit's are still the norm especially for those anglers that know the Lake. I guided Bob Patrick from the Atlanta GA. area and his daughter Rachel along with her friend from the Rapid City area to some nice fishing, catching limits of walleye, some northern and a few bass. I then took out the Chris Weigal group from Omaha and we caught their possession limit of 24 walleye a few northern and bass to take back to Omaha. I stayed fishing with bottom bouncer spinner rigs or bouncer plain hook/crawlers and fished mostly in around 30 fow but we did catch some of the bigger fish as deep as 45 fow. The best blade's for me when guiding this summer have been Chartreuse and yellow daredevil blades with a silver back in both size 3 and 4 Colorado's (perch colors) or hammered Gold. In most case's if I am fishing in 20 fow or less I favor around a 1 1/2 oz. bouncer but go to a 3 oz one when in 25 fow or more as I like to troll at least 1 mph and it take's the bigger weight to allow that and stay close to the bottom in the deeper water especially in wind. A 2 oz bouncer would be a good all around choice for most spinner fishing. Normally I spend more time fishing with plain hook/bait rigs but this summer because of the amount of fish we have been catching and releasing spinner fishing seems to have fewer small fish swallowing the hook. The same advantage would apply to both jig fishing and trolling plugs. The boat traffic has thinned down some and a lot fewer boat trailers at the ramps along with fewer anglers out during the week days. I did hear that GF&P's opened the low water ramp at Little Bend so access there should be better. I haven't been down on Sharpe recently but reports from some of the other guides indicate that on many days it can be harder to put numbers in the boat right now. That should change as fall approach's and more fish come up river or out of the weed's. Not much on the Salmon fishing and for the most part that has just been a hard fish all summer.

Hutch's Guide Service

Hutch