Lakes Oahe/Sharpe Pierre area fishing report for July 30th to Aug 6th 2013

[Hutch]

I would describe the current bite on both Oahe and Sharpe as Spotty to tough however if you get on fish either place limits can be caught. I guided one of my favorite repeat customer Alan and Ellen Buckley from down Omaha way to a couple days of real tough fishing. We had as good a time as you can have when the bite is off and you are not coming in with limits. They are just a great couple and I felt real bad not getting their limits but we worked hard, fished from 5 fow to 60 fow and caught some fish but not enough. I then guided Les Johnson and his nephew from Russia to 2 days of limits on Sharpe catching their fish in around 4 fow to 10 fow with crawler/bouncer rigs and also flicker shad plugs in around 10 fow. I then took the Shields family of both Rapid City and a home on Sharpe for one day of fishing on Sharpe and we put 20 fish in the boat pulling flicker shad plugs in around 10 fow. All the fish we caught on Sharpe were nice with around an 17 inch avg. size. Just about as nice a family as I run across and I hope to take them fishing again. I went right back to the same area on Sharpe the next day with another nice couple the Cox's from Ne. and got a real surprise. We had a tough day not getting limits in a lot of wind, muddy water etc from storms moving through the area. Remember that current is a real factor on Sharpe also and when the Corps is not running any or if they are running too much it can be challenging. The next day we tried Oahe in wind and again had some walleye along with a couple of big northern but real hard fishing. We tried from 10 fow to 75 fow and got a few in all these depth's throwing back some small walleye but we did not come in with limits. That is why I am describing the bite as Spotty. We have had a lot of rain/lightning/storms coming through so that along with rising water on Oahe and dropping water on Sharpe might be some of the reason for a decline in the fishing on some day's. If you do pull plugs down on Sharpe try putting a splint shot above your plugs to catch some of the floating grass that some area's have. There are many area's down river like the west bend area that have a lot less of this. Sometimes it is just better to stay with gulp or live bait in some places as grass fowl's the plugs too much.

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Hutch