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Fished Goodners on Tuesday and Wednesday night last week.. Both very nice nights to be out. Caught tons of fish – nothing of great size or anything but was way better than sitting in the hotel all night. Lots of 9-10″ Crappies and some medium-sized sunfish. Seemed like if you were in that 8-12′ depth range you would mark fish no matter what hole you were in.
I know you said winter, but I would strongly consider ice-out (in a typical year, the ice does start to come off Oahe in March).
Ice-out can be absolutely fantastic out there if you hit it at the right time and you can fish right from shore and be successful. It’s hard to plan a trip there ahead of time, it’s more like if you hear the ice is off – then you should head there. Most of the guys fish the bays above the dam in Pierre such as: Spring Creek, Okobojo and Cow Creek. Most of the time they just throw out a large smelt with a quick strike rig or something similar and just let it sit on the bottom. You want to hit the shallower areas of the bays with flats that will have warmer water. I’d say anything under that 15′ depth is best, because they’re looking to spawn, obviously. Hope that helps you out! I have no experience getting them through the ice but if I had to pick a time to get big Pike, it would definitely be right after the ice goes out.
As far as places to stay, there’s plenty of hotels in Pierre. If you want to be close to water there’s Spring Creek Resort & Marina and The Outpost Lodge.
Don’t forget to release the biggens!
We didn’t get out as much as I would’ve like due to the rain but we tried to do some vertical jigging with Raps on Saturday.. Small fish, nothing worth mentioning.
Any reports lately on Miltona? Staying on a cabin out there over the weekend. Any tips welcomed.
My new addiction. Been a good year for picking it, lots of rain and some heat mixed in helps a lot.
You can’t tell by looking at them. Assume everything over 20″ is a female and throw it back.
Skunk off. Works like a charm in my experience.
RyanK07 wrote:
What size blugeill do you need for a mold at this point? 11″? 11.25″? 11.5″?Check the first post of this thread.. He updates it when the sizes change. 12″ is what you need for a free Bluegill.
Thanks for leaving a report! Sounds like you had fun.
That’s their way of not making a decision and postponing it even further. This has been a fight for a while now. Yes, it is all currently a “gray” area. However, gray area or not – shutting down the public landings to these lakes means you aren’t getting out there to fish. In my mind, that’s a problem when a lot of the lakes are mostly public already. (As shown above)
I will explain this the best I can, but I am no means an expert if this area.
To answer your questions.. Yes and no. It is a very complex issue and often varies on a case-to-case basis. Yes, many of the lakes did grow in early 90’s and are on private land. But many of the lakes are already on GFP public lands and very little of the water comes in contact with private land. (See images below – any color indicates publicly owned land yet these lakes have been closed to fishing).
A big issue is that the landowners are upset with being taxed on the land that people are publicly fishing – at what rate, I do not know. From a fisherman’s perspective, many of these lakes have a had public stocking, landings, docks, etc. that were installed by the GFP as well as public land underneath the lakes. Obviously, all funded by the people that buy a license. Non-resident and resident alike.
There is a petition going around to urge the Governor to call for a special session to resolve this issue. Here is following link if anyone would like to sign (you do not need to a resident of SD to sign): https://www.change.org/p/governor-dennis-daugaard-south-dakota-legislature-special-session
This article may also help answer some questions you may have: http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/outdoors/4247468-gfp-anglers-need-make-own-decision-regarding-restricted-lakes
Very hot/cold this time of year.. You have to remember, it is very early for Crappie spawn. They are very sensitive to temperature and pressure changes. A couple cold nights will push them out deeper. That’s my 2 cents.
You mean I can’t buy Prevacid on here?
I don’t spend a lot on spinning reels, to be honest. I have a couple 13 Fishing reels that I really like and they work fine – no complaints.
I’d rather spend the money on some nice rods, I also really got into inline reels this winter. I have them on all my panfish rods now.
