Lake Oahe Walleye Fishing Reports
Lake Oahe, Missouri River - Saturday, February 4, 2012
By:
Oahe Wings & Walleyes
on 2012-02-04 08:17:11The bite here on Oahe this winter seems to be one we will remember for a long time. Yesterday I had a couple D. I. Y. groups. I went with just to show them a few spots to set up. We started fishing around 10:30 and easily could of kept a good limit of walleyes by 12:00. We had four overs in that amount of time along with a good number of fish in the 17 to 19 in. range. Mix in a occassional pike, perch, catfish, white bass and some huge small mouths and I'm not sure how fishing can get much better. We have the kids tournament today here on Swan Creek so I look to see the kids have a great day. There has been good numbers of smaller eyes and a mixture of other species caught right in the bay everyday. I will even predict the some lucky youngsters should catch a big one. I will report how this turns out early next week.
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If you’ve ever driven Interstate 90 across South Dakota and thumpety-thumped over the Missouri River bridges west of Chamberlain, you’ve briefly glimpsed some of the best and most overlooked fishing water in the United States.A series of dams on the Missouri River impound a chain of huge lakes that stretches from southeast South Dakota, through North Dakota and into eastern Montana. If those lakes were in more heavily populated areas they would be reknowned for the fishing they offer, frequently cited in fishing magazines, and on the lips of anglers around the nation. But they aren’t. They’re smack in the middle of some of the least-populated areas of the United States, hundreds of miles from large cities, and thousands of miles from major population centers. There are no theme parks to attract families. No majestic mountains or scenic forests. Just millions of acres of some of the best walleye, bass, and catfishing many anglers have never heard about.
Solitude and lots of fish
Last summer I fished South Dakota’s Lake Oahe (pronounced Oh-AH-hee) with fishing guide Chad Schilling, based in Akaska, South Dakota. Akaska, population 35 on a busy day, is near mid-point on Lake Oahe in central South Dakota. The huge lake stretches for more than 231 miles across the middle of the state, surrounded by rolling green prairie and little else. Schilling was disappointed that it took more than 10 minutes to put the first walleye, a fat 2-pounder, in the boat. “I hate to say that you should have been here yesterday,” he said, “but you should have been here yesterday. Yesterday we had fish in the boat before I could get all the lines in the water.”
After a “slow” start and some experimentation to find fish, Schilling and Lake Oahe made up for lost time and filled the live well with 2- to 4-pound walleyes, 1- to 4-pound channel catfish and occasional crappies and freshwater drum. Tackle and techniques were simple: bottom bouncers tipped with leadhead jigs, or jigs alone, tipped with nightcrawlers and back-trolled slowly over humps and along dropoffs. Once we filled our daily limit (4 walleyes per angler daily limit, 8 walleyes per angler possession limit), we used the same rigs in different locations to top off the livewell with channel catfish (no daily or possession limits) and catch and release dozens more walleyes.
At times every rod in the boat was bent, under assault from a walleye or catfish reluctant to emerge from the lakes clear, relatively cool waters. Afternoon air temperatures flirted with 95 degrees, but a swim by my son, Josh, was short-lived. “The top foot or so is warm, but when you get down a couple feet it’s cold,” he shivered as he clambered back into the boat. Fishing guide Schilling chuckled. “The (Missouri) River starts out as snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains, and these lakes are deep enough so they don’t warm up a lot, even when the air temperatures get to 90 or 100 degrees through the summer. I’ve had guys say that the walleyes they take out of Oahe taste as good, or better, than the walleyes they get from northern Minnesota or up in Canada.”
Size-wise, Schilling regularly boats walleyes above 5 pounds, isn’t surprised by 7- to 9-pounders and has seen “pigs” that twisted the scale beyond 10 pounds. Two-to four-pound channel catfish throng in the lake, and Schilling surmises that bigger cats lurk. “I’ve heard of 10- to 15-pounders but most of my clients want numbers more than size, and fishing with nightcrawlers targets smaller cats. I think if somebody used cutbait and really focused on bigger catfish, they’d be happy with the size and number of big cats in these lakes.”
So many lakes, so few anglers
While walleyes and channel catfish dominate midpoint at Lake Oahe, Chinook salmon, white bass, crappies, northern pike and smallmouth bass populations are strong at other locations in the lake. Farther south in Lake Sharpe and Lake Francis Case, walleyes, pike, crappies, smallmouth and largemouth bass, and even rainbow trout, have strong populations where water depth, temperature and clarity favor each species.
“The vast majority of anglers who fish Oahe and the other Missouri River impoundments are after walleyes, white bass and northerns,” said Dennis Unkenholz, with South Dakota’s Game, Fish and Parks Department. “Catfish aren’t normally on their agenda. When you compare the results of our biological surveys with our creel surveys, catfish in those reservoirs are vastly underutilized. There are huge, huge numbers of catfish in there.”
Above Montana’s mammoth Fort Peck Dam, anglers can find ubiquitous walleyes and channel catfish, along with smallmouth bass, rainbow trout, brown trout, Chinook salmon, lake trout and northern pike. Those species are present to some degree in all of the lakes, depending on water conditions. Immediately above the dams at each lake, where water depths can exceed 200 feet, deep-water species such as salmon and lake trout are available. Rainbow and other river-species trout are common in the cool water discharged through the tailraces. White bass make annual migratory runs, smallmouth bass frequent rocky ledges and shorelines, and northern pike up to 20, even 25 pounds are common in shallow spawning areas shortly after ice-out each spring.
The biggest challenge for truck drivers interested in taking advantage of the spectacular fishing in the “Dakota Great Lakes” is opportunity and access. Drivers who schedule fishing vacations on any of the lakes can select from a number of guide services on each lake. A Google search for “fishing guides” along with the name of a specific lake offers dozens of names and phone numbers. Truckers who hope to sneak in a little Dakota lake fishing while on a layover or after a long day’s drive … face a challenge.
There are few large cities in the Dakotas and eastern Montana, so chances of earning a load and layover near any of the lakes are slim. Because the main bodies of water are far from roads and population centers (remember: Akaska, South Dakota has a population of 35 on a good day), it’s tough for a trucker to find opportunity to fish those areas between loads.
The best place for a trucker to spend an afternoon or evening fishing during a layover or while taking a break from the road is in the tailrace areas below the dams. The easiest to reach is the area below Gavins Point Dam, just west of Yankton, South Dakota and the tailrace below Oahe Dam, just outside Pierre, South Dakota. Fort Randall Dam, off Highway 281, and Big Bend Dam, north of Chamberlain on I-90, are off the beaten path, but offer parking areas near the tailraces capable of handling big rigs. The same applies to Garrison Dam, 40 miles north of Mandan, North Dakota, and Fort Peck Dam near Fort Peck, Montana.
It’s important to note that while there are tourist and family attractions associated with the Dakota dams located close to population centers, these lakes are largely the province of serious anglers focused on fishing. Fishing the Dakota lakes is akin to fishing remote lakes in Ontario and Manitoba---fishing, along with the isolation, is the main attraction. The biggest differences between a fishing vacation on the Dakota lakes compared to a Canadian fishing trip is the lack of trees along the shoreline, warmer daytime temperatures in mid-summer, a tendency for rough waters due to frequent gusty winds, and the presence of large numbers of other gamefish other than walleyes and northern pike.
As for advantages that the Dakota lakes have over traditional northern fishing spots: it doesn’t require a passport when you cross the border into the Dakotas or Montana; you don’t have to hire a float plane to reach your fishing hotspot; and there’s no exchange rate to convert dollars to local currency when you need to buy bait, tackle and, uh, beverages appropriate to a fishing vacation.
