NE South Dakota Lakes

Has anyone fished the NE South Dakota lakes with much luck for walleyes/northerns? Have a work trip coming up in the area and was wondering which lakes are best.

Your help is appreciated.

There's a few nice fish coming from Lake Albert, and the bite is starting to pick up on Kampeska, but still pretty spotty. The traditional hotspots are Waubay, Thompson, Enemy Swim, Pickrel, Albert, and Poinsett. There hasn't been many boats out yet, as the water is still hovering in the low 40's and most haven't begun spawning yet.

When are you planning your trip? The bite picks up fast in april usually.

Eyez (SD)

[Ted]

I will most likely be there in late May or early June.

How does the fishing in this area compare to the Missouri river? Would I be better off driving to the Missouri? Can you recommend any resorts which rent boats?

Thanks.

Hi:

Ice just off of Roy in NE S.D. Other lakes ice has been off about 10 days. Mostly northern and walleye being caught in shallows or roadgrades. Need a little bit warmer water which should be within the next ten days. Temps. this weekend ran from 37 to 41 degrees. Guys caught walleye, one nice one at 23", others were in the 16-19".
Northerns are getting aggressive but mostly in the 4-7 pd. range. Don't let that fool you as we have many larger ones. Under the ice big ones ranging up to 21 lbs. were being caught the lst few weeks. Had some nice 5 lb. bass being caught also. The bass and large walleye were put back.

I have a lodge and cabins on Roy Lake. Sunday-thrusday are $39.00 per night. Don't let the price fool you my resort is very nice. On Friday and Saturday room rates are $50.00 and $69.00 during the summer. Cabins range from $50.00 to $79.00 per night. Have all ammenities. WWW.roylakeresort.com

We are a very wild non-commercialized part of the country. Worth exploring.

Hi, I do rent boats with motors. Motors range in age from 3 to 1 year. Roy has a lot of structure of different types with a nice population of walleye, northern, large mouth, small mouth crappie and blue gill. Our Perch are coming back aafter being over-fished.

Thanks,

[Jeremy]

I can agree with eyez on Waubay and Thompson, have caught northern on both, and both are good walleye lakes, havent fished the others, but I will add one lake that I have caught just northern at, Spirit Lake its 4 miles south of clark county line and 2 miles west, about 15 miles north and 6 west of Thompson's west side boat landing, got a 7 lb out of there and had one snap 20lb fireline and we were using leaders

May and June are usually quite good here, especially if the weather is stable. I won't say that it's better than the missouri river is every year, but it hasn't been worth it for me to drive out there as much as in the past. The fish average a little smaller around here than at the river, but that's only because there aren't as many real large fish, plenty of 2-5 pound fish are caught though during that time of year. One other lake you might want to check out is Big Stone, the season will be open on it by then, and there's good lodging on it. I've stayed at schmidt's landing there several times, nice place. Roy lake as Jan mentioned has been having a great comeback since the low water days and it also worth checking out. The odds are good that at least one of the lakes around here will be hot at that time of year, and the species available are better than at the missouri river. If you don't care about staying at a resort, you could just get a hotel room in Watertown or one of the small towns around it, and have just as good access to all the surrounding lakes.

I don't know which resorts rent boats, sorry.

Hope this helps,

Eyez (SD)