October 8th to 10th Lake Oahe and Lake Sharpe, Pierre SD Fishing Report

[Hutch]

I fished Don Fadley from Iowa and his friend Steve from KC Kansas to possession limits of walleye and smallmouth bass. They had one day of big wind (35 mph) and one real nice day and our catches reflected that struggling in the wind but catching well over 50 fish on the nice day. We fished Sharpe on the wind day and Oahe on the next day. On Sharpe we caught the walleye on crawlers staying in 5 to 10 fow and on Oahe we fished with minnows/bouncer's in around 20 fow. There is still a very good bite both places as long as the weather stays nice. I favor fishing Oahe right now especially when I have customers that like catching smallmouth bass (bite is exceptional) along with walleye. If the weather get's tough or walleye are the main goal Sharpe is the best option. GFP had a meeting to address the bait/fish ratio on Oahe last week and as a result are making a proposal to the commissioners to change both daily limits and possession limits for next year along with upping license fee's for park permits by a couple of bucks and small game hunting licenses up $10. I will post the mail I received from GFP on the limit proposal and in general support these changes however it always makes me nervous when the numbers of walleye taken out of the lake increases like this. I felt the same way the first time this was done and was surprised at how well this worked so proven methods are hard to argue with. I also believe that I am seeing some stressed fish and less bait now on Oahe along with increased numbers of the 2 to 3 year ago spawn walleye. I think the average angler will look at this as a real bonus and expect the lake to be busy next year. A lot of fishermen are going to go home with a lot of fish dinners. I also support the license fee increases. They are minimal and GFP's spends the money on the fishery's/parks/habitat so even a bigger increase from my viewpoint would be hard to argue with. Following is the proposal and as more information becomes available on all of this I will post it.

The following proposal is meant to give anglers a bonus due to the record walleye spawns Oahe has had over the last three years and the abundance of these year class fish. It also has the bonus result of reducing mouths in the lake to enhance future bait growth. It has to be approved by the commissioners.
Hello all,

Once again, I would like to thank those who attended the meeting last week to provide input on the recommended changes to Lake Oahe walleye regulations for the upcoming year. For those unable to make it to the meeting, the recommendation to the commission last week by fisheries staff was to increase the walleye limit on Lake Oahe to 8 per day of which four could be under 15 inches. The "one fish over 20" would be removed also and the possession limit would be increased to 24. The commission officially proposed the regulation change on Friday of last week.

If you (or other interested parties) wish to provide comments either supporting or opposing the Oahe walleye regulation change or any of the other proposals, you may do so by sending your comments to Game, Fish and Parks at Wildinfo@state.sd.us. You must include your name and address to have your comments entered as part of the public record.

Your comments will be shared with the GFP Commission as part of the public testimony on these issues. You may also provide comments during the public forum on November 1 at the commission meeting at 2PM in Madison.

If you have questions or comments for fisheries staff we can be reached at the following numbers.

John Lott- Chief of Aquatics- 773-4508
Geno Adams- Program Administrator- 223-7701
Mark Fincel- Senior Fisheries Biologist- 223-7704

Thanks again for your participation in this process!

Geno Adams
Fisheries Program Administrator
South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks
Ft. Pierre District Office

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