Chamberlain, SD

[Uncle Walleye]

I'm headed for the Missouri River on Thursday and was wondering how much snow they just got, hopefully the runoff won't muddy the water too bad. Is the bite still on?

[Ed]

The Chamberlain area is getting fished out. Reports say that the slot fish will be gone in only a couple months. If you want to catch and release okay, but if you want to take a limit of fish maybe you'll want to fish somewhere else. I was at a cleaning station and saw more dead females full of eggs than I would care to talk about. Sorry for the gloomy report but it is so hard to watch uncaring people enter the area with no commom sense. Why kill any female walleye at this time of year? And be proud of it. There is a reason why you can't fish in your state at this time. It won't be long and the season will be closed here too.

[SDEYEGUNNER]

You will be fine in the Chamberlain area. Most of the snow was east of there. I know they are forcasting more rain by mid-week. I agree with the previous post, it's really a sad deal that all the female eyes are being kept...

[CrankinEyes]

It's funny you say that. It seems that people practice catch and release in there home state then come and butcher big females in South Dakota. I've seen people cleaning nothing but females... Then when the fishing gets tough like on Oahe, people wonder why???? Why ask why???

[SD res]

Those dirty rotten out of staters! There have been many, many times I have been at the fish cleaning table and watched an out of stater cleaning big female walleyes. Then to add insult to ingery, when they leave, they get into a SD truck and drive away. The only explination I can think of, is that they are car thieves as well as game hogs.

[Rick]

Not ALL out of staters DO that!

[RAKO-AL]

HOW DO YOU KNOW THEY WERE OUT OF STATERS? IF THEY GOT IN A SD TRUCK THEY WERE FROM SD. BLAME EVERYTHING ON EVERYBODY ELSE BUT YOUR OWN.YOUR RES. ARE FISHING IT DAY AFTER DAY,GET SOME DIFF. REGS. AND HAVE CATCH AND RELEASE FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR. PS I AGREE TO LET THE FEMALES GO. BUT YOU DONT THINK THAT YOUR RES. SD PEOPLE ARE DOING THE SAME. ........ CATCH AND RELEASE.........

[SD res]

That was a joke, you doofus.

[CrankinEyes]

I watched them butcher females. With my own eyes and then they knock the fish I kept. Like I didnt have good luck. If they only knew those were the fish I CHOSE to keep.. The Smaller males. Let the females do there job and reproduce....... That way we will all have fish to catch for years to come. This goes for those who say "If I let it go some one else will keep it any way" Thats a game hog and a slobe.

[Ed]

Maybe the right responce to this post would have been, yes, maybe be we should respect the South Dakota walleye population. You guys that are trying to make a joke of all of this must be the ones butchering fish. I'll be honest with you, most of the local people I know don't keep any fish this time of year. We can't even get into the water because of all of the out of town boat traffic. Everyone is welcome to fish here, you aren't breaking any laws, just please fish responably. We enjoy meeting you, we enjoy you spending your money here. just be smart and leave some fish so we can continue to enjoy you coming to our area.

[aurora]

i just got back from a trip to chamberlain. last night (4/8) i watched a guy lift a 10 and 11 lb walleye out of his boat. he had been fishing the dredge hole in about 50 foot of water. he also said that he took and 8 last week and when he brought it up it "puked her lungs out" to use his words. he was also concerned that the two he had last night were going "puke their eggs" before he could get and official weight on them (he was weighing them on a digital scale at the landing). iwas pretty sick about the whole deal, it was a pretty depressing sight. he was, by the way, from sioux falls.

we caught fish, quite a few just short of 15 inches but we did get our possession limit.

maybe it's time the dredge hole in chamberlain be closed until at least june 1.

[Half Dead Female Walleye]

I AGREE Better yet why not have a size limit of 15-18 ins. year round with one over 18.
Why go out and catch your limit of 10ins. ones in July and Aug.
Save them for later when they will be 15ins.

[aurora]

great idea as well. how do we get the GFP to do this?

[Tim]

I have watched the same kind of butchering over the years at Oahe. Now it appears it's having
problems. It's a shame, maybe fishermen will
pull their heads out one of these days!!!!!!
Tim

[mossboss]

I can't agree more about releasing female's this time of year. But, being a so called out of stater I have some other point's to make. The non-resident fishing license is 3 times the rate for the surrounding states. Is the lake properly managed by your states fishery department? Economicly would the town of Chamberlain be doing as well without outsiders coming in everyday and spending cold hard cash. I think that for all of us to enjoy this sport, we need to practice catch and release and not blame someone else for problems that they may not have anything to do with.

[Don..SD]

The so called hole is closed to fishing Jan, Feb, March and Dec.

[eyewinder]

SD res:
I was sitting at my computer, chuckling at your original post; then scrolled down, and realized that your humor had been missed by at least one reader. I sympathize. Humor (even as seemingly obvious as yours) can often be a moving target on message boards.

Good response!
eyewinder

[Extinct]

For starters call GFP's in Pierre.
One of the board members is Christine (Christensen)Hamilton in Kimball SD.

[CrankinEyes]

Stupid is as stupid does.. In August when the fish are deep, just like in the dredge hole. When SLOB fisher jerks hall these fish up fast you kill them. If YOU pull your head from your rectum to breath. And slow down you would not hurt the fish at all.. I KNOW because I do this a lot catch and release. Deep water fish. In the dredge hole as well as out of 65 plus foot. I don't care if you from SD or Minn. I hunt and fish out side of South Dakota but I respect the resource were ever I am.... I don't RAPE the resource just to make a statement at the cleaning station... One question does every boat in Minn come with splash gards????

[out of state fisherman]

maybe the problem starts at allens guide service 3 boat 2fisherman per boat 120 days ayear 98% success =2832 fish per year if i am lucky and get out there 4 times per year for my 62.00 fee i keep 16 fish

[Jason]

Please don't make any hasty suggestions until you fully understand the situation. The people at GF&P would be happy to visit with you and listen to what you have to say if you will also listen to them. These people are trained professionals and know what they are doing, as I'm sure you do at your workplace.

[Jason]

You make a good point, maybe the fishing guides do need to start looking at their fishing habits. However, SO DO YOU!! Don't you think the people fishing with a guide are also entitled to eat a few fish. Afterall, they bought a license just like you did. I think the message we can all get from this is that WE ALL NEED TO TAKE A CLOSE LOOK AT OUR FISH HARVESTING HABITS!!

[aurora]

i agree they are trained professionals. i also think the decisons are also impacted by polictics and money. if everything is ok then why are there problems with LFC now. it would be nice if people could be depended upon to act responsibly but they won't. i'm not a big fan of more laws and regs but it seems that's always what it comes down to. i fish in a few different places but the main two fisheries i fish are LFC and Lake Winnibigoshish and they both have/are experienced reg changes. there have been other variables (weather, poor year classes) contributing to the need for these regs but the only variables that can really be controlled are those dealing with size of fish harvested or areas that can or can't be fished, or amount of fish that can be taken. I don't think that GFP should wait around until there are serious problems. i think something more needs to be done.

[CrankinEyes]

Good point.Jason...