fishing lake Oahe

Hi, we are going to lake Oahe and lake Sharpe for the first time over memorial weekend for walleye. Any bait ,area or presentation advise would be appreciated.
Thanks everyone.

There are several people on here that are much more knowlegable than I am but I can give you the basics. On Lake Oahe most of the walleye are being caught above Mobridge this time of year. If you are staying in the Pierre area your best bet is Lake Sharpe. We did OK last Memorial day pulling plugs in the river right in town. Alot of people use a bottom bouncer and half a crawler and catch fish that way too. We are going to be out there also so maybe we’ll see each other.
Oh, by the way, welcome to the site. You should get some better information here shortly. Shoot me a PM if you have any questions I can help with.
Rich

Made the drive out this past weekend and stayed in the Pierre area. Saturday, trailered up to Whitlock(sp) and worked long and hard to catch some eyes. It wasn’t a sustained bite, but we caught enough fish to fry up that evening. For us, crawler rigs were more effective than minnows. On Sunday we rigged up for Salmon (downriggers & spoons) closer to the dam and boated a few of those, too. All in all, a nice trip. Good luck.

Lowrance team tournament just wrapped up on Oahe and it looks like the bite was excellent for numbers and size. I would fish north of the 212 bridge up towards mobridge right now. The bite should be excellent in that area this weekend.

You can either troll cranks on the points or live bait rig with a bottom bouncer. Again, I would imagine the bite is excellent right now based on the fish brought in during that tournament.

Lake Oahe:
The active fish move very fast this time of the year on Oahe. They are grouped up right now and making there way down South to dam. The active fish started moving into the Whitlock area, but my guess is by this weekend they will have moved further South and your best bet would be to launch at Whitlock and head South. Also, a friend headed back up into the Cheyenne towards Minneconjou. Fished the bays on the other side of Minne. I believe he was fishing Fish Gut or Rouseau. They caught 21 fish with the smallest being 4 pounds. Most of these fish came out of 3 to 5 foot of water.

Lake Sharpe:
If you want to catch fish, then Lake Sharpe is your answer. It take around 45 minutes to catch your limit of fish between 15 and 17″. Most of them are suager. If you work at it, you can get the 18 and 19″ walleye. Fish the cut bluffs on the West Side of the river just across and downriver from the Farm Island access. Use a jig and a minnow, lindy and a minnow, or bottom bouncer and a minnow. See a pattern?, Just throw a minnow out there. Be careful out there, there are many sandbars. For bigger and more fish, trailer your boat 30 miles South of Pierre on Highway 34 to West Bend. It is one of the best Walleye areas in the country. If you get bored catching Walleye there, pull plugs in front of the Pump House in 6 to 10 FOW. You can almost guarantee catching 50+ smallmouth over 16″, you will get eyes there too.

Now, for the most valuable information I can give you. Stop into Mike McCelland’s restaurant and bait shop. Talk to Mike and he will tell you where the Oahe fish are at on the river.

Last but not least, if you see Tony Dean out on the water, feel free to run him over

Good luck fishing

Regards,
Justin (The guy who has never missed a memorial day weekend on Oahe or Sharpe until this year )

Lonely,

I grew up in Fort Pierre and I’ll agree with what has been said above with the exception of Justin’s remark on Tony Dean who I think is a really good guy. Justin–Did Tony run over your puppy back in the day?

Let me add my $.02. If you are fishing in the immediate Pierre area, then Lake Sharpe is where to go this time of the year. My dad still lives in Pierre so I’ve got some recent details. You can catch a lot of fish by dragging bait (worms or minnows) or by pulling #5 Shad Raps or Flicker Shads in 7-15 feet of water. You’ll catch a lot of 14-18 (perfect eaters!) inch fish without burning up too much gas in your boat or tow vehicle. The past two times my dad has gone out, they’ve put at least 50 walleyes in the boat within just a few hours.

Some good places to try:
1-The sand bars on the west side of the river north of the train bridge.
2-The bluffs on the south side of the river just downstream from the mouth of the Bad River.
3-The back side of Farm Island between the island and the big weed bed and sand bar
4-Antelope Creek area
5-The Hop Scotch in Fort Pierre after midnight

Sharpe has also become a great fishery for smallies. If you stumble into a pod of them, have fun!

Like Justin said above–if you do want to venture north of town aways, then the back of the Cheyenne River is a good place to try. You have a good chance at catching a lot of bigger fish.

Buy your bait at McClelland’s or Carl’s in Fort Pierre and they’ll give you some good information on where to find the best bite.

Good luck and post how your weekend went.

Curt

Just two more things…

1) If the Bad River is cranking mud, then stay north of there. You should find plenty of fish from there to the face of the dam.

2) If the smaller ‘eyes are hitting good then you could burn through a lot of crawlers. I’ve had good success with using Gulp crawlers instead. They last longer and I’ve found that you catch some bigger fish.

CR

I fished Sharpe 2 weeks ago and nothing was going North of the bridges. The fish were all down south by the farm island entrance. Crawlers were no good. You had to use minnows. One last clarification ragrding the 14-18″ good eaters. I would avoid keeping the 14″ fish. The daily limit may include only one walleye 20 inches or longer, year-round, and a 15-inch minimum length limit is in effect during all months except July and August.

Justin

Thanks for clarifying the keeper length. I’d hate get someone in hot water with the GF&P.

CR