Cold weather hot action continues in South Dakota

With temperatures below freezing and daytimes highs in the upper 30s to 40s the walleyes in South Dakota are caught in somewhat of a rut. We still have not seen that lights out post spawn bite, but fishing is nothing to slouch at as of late. Water temps vary from almost 50 degrees at times on some of the smaller water bodies to low 40s on some of the bigger bodies of water. Fish are working on getting themselves out of that spawn “slump” and into a past paced post spawn bite.

Fish have been biting a bit better during peak hours 0630 to 0800 in the AM as well as the last hour of light. Storm wildeye swimshads in green as well as perch have been working as well as Rapala X-raps in #10. Mossback shiner is working better as the days wear on with clown turning a few more fish as the sun gets higher in the sky. Clown is also drawing a few pike, making for some extra action in a days outing.

Right now we are concentrating on Rip Rap shorelines that heat up a little better this time of year as well as creek and slough inlets into lakes. Some of the smaller sloughs that will drain into a larger bay are all mud and cattails and will have much warmer water than the main lake. We are also looking for shallow rubble spawning areas as the spawn is recently over and males are not far away from these locations.

As this cooler weather hangs around look to smaller bodies of water as well as study a few maps to find where a slough drainage or creek might dump into your favorite honey hole. I managed to tag my second SD gobbler a week back and with work have not been fishing as much as I would like. I will be heading to Wisconsin for some fishing for a few days and then will be back at it in Sodak. PM if anyone is interested in coming out to fish.