June 1st to 4th Lakes Oahe/Sharpe, Pierre SD Fishing Report

[Hutch]

It is hard to believe the bite could get any better for numbers of walleye and the small mouth bass are going again. Lake Oahe is just full of a 3 year class fish that are all around 14 to 15 inch fish so catching big numbers of these fish and releasing them is common. Keeping limits of 17 to 18 inch fish with limits of over twenty inch fish not uncommon. The fish are biting just about all baits from artificial to minnows/crawlers in any where from 5 fow to 20 fow. I fished repeat customers Gary and Dale Loske of NE. to possession limits of walleye some northern pike and small mouth bass with constant action both days releasing at least 50 plus walleye a day to get a nice 17 to 18 inch average size. I then fished a the Duane Wissel group from Lincoln NE with Larry Porter to limits of walleye all over 17 inches with many over 20 inches. We caught at least 75 walleye to do this. I cut a lot of hooks releasing the little 14 inch fish and I think they live but I we switched over to using only Berkeley gulp crawlers and gulp minnows at mid day as the fish seem to not swallow the hook as much and bite these just as good as crawlers. The best ones to use are the Gulp 3 inch pumpkin seed fry's on a plain hook or the new gulp spinner crawlers on spinner rigs We caught all the over's on these and the plus is less swallowed hooks. I think this presentation or pulling spinners with crawlers/ gulp crawlers might be the best way to catch the walleye right now as spinner fishing also gets more fish hooked in the lip making for better releases. Pulling plugs also has this advantage and the way these fish are biting right now I think being very careful with releasing fish is a must or we are going to have a lot of floating fish and no one wants that. Any fish that floats when I am guiding we pick up and keep and count in our limits even if it is small. This leads to being extra careful and trying to find ways to catch them without a mortality rate. The fish that we are catching seem healthy but very hungry leading to concern on many of us guides part about less bait in the lake and a lot of fish but I am still waiting to see what GFP surveys indicate about bait hatches before coming to any conclusions about problems. I have been seeing more clouds of some bait in many areas I am fishing There is going to be a huge harvest this year for those fishing Oahe/Sharpe so if you are looking for a lot of action this is a good year to head up.

Hutch's Guide Service

Hutch