SD Game Fish and Parks Meeting / and Fishing Report

[Hutch]

Game Fish and Parks Meeting

I attended a GFP informal meeting at the request of John Lott the current head and along with John Cooper former head, state wildlife biologist's, Guides from Mobrodge area the 212 bridge area and the Pierre area and some local area fisherman. It was a round table discussion of Lake's Oahe/ Sharpe and the current condition of the fishery's. The following were some high point's that I took away from the meeting. Number one is the fact that due to the previous high water we have had record spawns and the lake is just full of 2 to 3 year class fish. This coupled with record releases last year depleting the smelt/ bait numbers has caused concerns among all present at this meeting. Most of us guides and fishermen have never seen the amount of fish in the lake and also the amount of people catching limits every day. Due to this fact and GFP records that indicate there have been more fish harvested this year than there were when GFP increased to a 14 fish limit in 2001. This lead to the conclusion by many at the meeting that it is not yet time to increase limits. Also GFP have not conducted all of there annual bait surveys and are going to do most of this in the next two month's Number two I along with every guide agree that there are many walleye and other fish showing signs of. stress however there are just as many that appear to be healthy so I think more of a wait and see altitude developed and depending on the next bait surveys recommendations as to limits increases if any will be decided on later this summer or fall .Personally I thought that higher limits to reduce number's would be good but then I hadn't taken into account the record harvest by fishermen this year so for now remain hopeful that things will work out. Everyone is hoping for a big smelt run next spring along with a mild winter to enhance shad survival. I will comment more on the situation in the next reports as there were many other things mentioned. One thing I took away from this meeting was the fact that GF&P's personal are well aware of what is going on and I think they are as concerned as any of us and are working hard to stop any problems with the fishery. The scary part for me is how much Mother Nature plays in all of this but it is good to know we have GFP personnel committed to keeping the balance of fish/bait as healthy as possible.

June 27th to 29th Lakes Oahe/Sharpe, Pierre SD Fishing Report

I along with a lot of other guides helped the Outpost Lodge fish the BPI group to a great time with all boats catching limits of fish for this company. The bite is really great for numbers of fish but you have to throw back many to get up to a nice avg. size limit. Most of the fish were caught in around 20 fow but going out to 30 fow or even going shallow sometimes works as there seem to be fish all over. Every thing from pulling plugs to live bait fishing is working with crawlers, minnows, leeches, and artificial baits such as Gulp the main choices. My boat had walleye limits every day with some over's one around 28 inches caught by Kenny from Iowa .I am starting to think Gulp worms, minnows or leeches or spinner or jig fishing might be the best presentation's right now just to avoid cutting so many hooks due to swallowed baits. There are record harvest's of walleye going on all up and down Oahe and just about everyone with any experience catching limits. The fish are starting to show up on all of the big flats but you can still get some nice ones half way back in creeks to. I would like to thank the BPI company for coming every year as they make me, The Outpost Lodge and a whole bunch of other guides along with all there employee's very happy.

Hutch's Guide Service

Hutch