September 18th to 23rd Sharpe/Oahe Report

[Hutch]

As the fishing season winds down for the year I will be doing these reports more on a weekly basis unless something changes or merits an update. The fishing on Lake Sharpe is still excellent in the Pierre area. The only change is the ratio of little fish to bigger fish and throwing back a lot of 14 inch fish is common. If you are selective you can still come up with a nice 16 to 17 inch average stinger and there are plenty of over 20 inch fish being caught I (along with other guides ) fished repeat customer Lonnie Wann and his second group of guys from down around Laurel NE. to possession limits(64) of nice walleye on the river with around a 17 inch avg size. They also had some nice over's with the biggest a 23 incher. Another great group of guys that a company( Dow Agro Grow/Lonnie Wann) rewards for work well done. We caught these fish on spinner/crawler rigs, pulling plugs (flicker shads) and drifting with jigs in around 10 fow. Night crawlers still are bait of choice but minnows are going and soon will be the number one presentation as water temps cool. Lake Oahe is still offering a very good fall bite also and really makes selecting were to fish a harder choice. Weather probably makes my decision as high winds(40mph with gusts to 60mph on 20th) makes Sharpe easier fishing. Fishing around other boat traffic also enters in as fishing pressure on Oahe now is way down .Lots of 15 inchers being caught along with some real quality stringers coming in on the big lake. Most of these fish in around 20 fow but they can be shallow. Crawlers still work but trolling and casting crank baits is also effective and, like Sharpe, as water cools minnows/chubs will be start to be bait of choice. I have been talking to several different people that are in the know in the Pierre area about the discharge/ bait loss on Oahe and the general consensus is we loss bait all summer but from the Cheyenne river North the lake hasn't been affected nearly as much and there seems to be more than enough bait to avert any slow growth problems. I will continue to be in contact with people that are researching this and as soon as there is more information out I will post it. For now most informed people seem to be optimistic.

Hutch