July 23-27 Lakes Oahe/Sharpe, Pierre SD Fishing Report

[fishinghutch]

The bigger fish on Oahe are getting harder to come by but getting a walleye to mount is still a realistic possibility as several of my recent customers have found out. I fished the Dan Pletcher group from KS. to one fish they are getting mounted 28 incher along with another 26 incher and a couple of other overs. The rest of the catch (possession limits) were a smaller avg. size then I have been getting with fewer 18 to 19 inch fish bringing there over all avg down.Then helped Dave Spaid guide a group of MN seed company fellows to there limits and I am now guiding repeat customer Gary Loske and his friend. Fishing on Oahe remains very good and with Loske we only kept 17 inch or better walleye getting a nice big one in there stringer to go along with limits of 18 inch avg. size fish. I have been fishing mostly with spinner/crawler rigs or spinner gulp worm rigs on bttm bouncers. Caught most of the fish around 28 feet of water on the flats for the first 3 days but went shallow to 20 fow or less today and did better on 17 to 18 inchers. All ways are working however to catch the fish from pulling plugs/ casting jigs /jigging spoons etc. There have been a lot of tournaments on the week ends creating big time boat traffic and very busy boat ramps so be prepared to see other boats. Maybe as August starts this traffic will diminish but the bite is good so you will fish with other anglers if you are going to fish the big flats or the more popular spots. Sharpe has less traffic and a 17 inch avg. stringer for those who know the river is common in the Pierre area .Salmon bite has been poor all year and remains so with very few nice catches turning up. I have been seeing huge hatch's of bait recently in the back of creeks and although I am not sure what most of it is it sure looks encouraging.The weather has been hot but breezes on the lake make fishing bearable but getting out early in the morning and coming in a little earlier in the afternoon is not a bad plan on some day's.

Hutch