Fishing report for lakes oahe/sharpe pierre area for may 1st to may 18th 2021

[fishinghutch]

I got behind on these reports and will try to keep up to date at least weekly. It has been a colder spring making water temps low for the early spring bite. That being said the bite on the river has been over all good around the Pierre area on Sharpe. Mostly jig and minnows or plastics until recently. I did some trips getting fish but in most cases working hard for the fish in the lower than average water temps. Just recently we are having warmer nights/days so the warming water is getting a nice bite going. I fished with a real nice father/son trip Jeff and son Ryan to full possession limits of walleye some catfish and bass to take back home to the Chicago area then did a repeat customer trip with the Lynn Derby group of Golden Girls to nice limits of walleye and 2 northern pike and a bunch of nice catfish to take home. We caught the walleye in around 7 fow on night crawler/spinner rigs and the catfish/pike on smelt. Over all with the warmer days/night I expect the bite for all species to be at a full spring peak. One thing I will mention is pull the plugs on your boat even if you had it stored when coming in. I had a customer get a 150$ ticket for his plug in and he had just taken it out of storage in Iowa. Also we have lower water levels on Oahe this year so there are danger areas that were not there in the higher water. Also boat ramps with some real hazards. Bush’s landing is closed until the end of May and lots of rocks at little bend until they get the low water ramp open. It looks like another great year on both lakes with nice numbers of fish and lots of bait. Be prepared to see plenty of boats/fishermen at boat ramps and on the lake as plenty of people have discovered these great fishery's. I think the outdoors is a great way to escape the declining (I hope) covid problem. A few flies starting to come out so bug spray and sun screen are good items to bring along.

Hutch