Despite the fact that I didn’t land a single fish over three pounds today, I sure had a great time on the water! With temps in the 70s, my son Brendan and I decided to jig for sauger below Gavin Point Dam on the Nebraska/South Dakota border. The sauger bite was pretty steady but every fish we put in the boat was a little guy. However, it is snagging season on the Missouri River, and Brendan and I were entertained all day by the fifty other boats that joined us. Here’s one of our new buddies, Seth from South Dakota with his 40-inch Paddlefish! Way to go Seth! 
Brendan and I hung close as we watched Seth battle this fish for about 10 minutes or so. After the fight, Seth happily released this incredible fish back into the river. There is a 35-45 inch protected slot on Paddlefish here. Here’s another shot of Seth with his monster fish.
The Paddlefish season runs all of October this year. An angler has to purchase a tag (similiar to deer hunting) to have the pleasure of battling these historic fish. I bet we saw no less than a hundred of these amazing creatures landed today, both from shore and in boats. Brendan and I decided we will definately join the party next year! 
Here’s another lucky angler we met on the water today. This is Tim from Nebraska, who we met at the boat ramp. Nice job Tim!
I guess I should mention how Brendan and I did in our sauger/sun bathing outing. Like I noted earlier, the action was pretty steady, but we could not find anything of decent size. All the sauger we got were between 11 and 14 inches. shaped just like a cigar. But we didn’t care. We had a blast. We also found a few smallies, white bass, and drum to tug on our line today. With weather like today, how can we complain? Here’s a picture of my son Brendan and one of the many little sauger that provided some action for us today. My thanks to the big river, to my son, and to the friends I made on the water today.
One more of Seth during the battle!
Wade,
Regardless of the results, looks like it would be one hard day to NOT be on the water somehwere. Is GavinsPt the one in Yankton???? have driven over that bridge quite a few times a long time ago on way to Deer hunting in NE.
Do any bigger Saugers show up during the winter or spring??
Good Report.
Jack..
Ditto Jack! Great job Wade!
Do people eat those Paddlers? And if so, how? Do people smoke them?
FISH ON!
Ben Garver was telling me about the paddlefish season. That looks like a blast!
Tee shirts, snaugers, paddle fish and family! Making memorys…one fishing trip at a time!
Jack, Yes, it’s near Yankton. They do get some decent sauger here, above and below the dam
Tuck, they do eat paddlefish. They are great eatin’. They have no bones. A lot of people slice ’em up into steaks, like salmon.
BK, you might like the snagging. These fish can weigh over 70 pounds! Right up your alley.
Glad to see you out on the water with Brendan,looks like it was a good day to be out there.We were on West on Friday and had good luck.
Ryan Hale
Good deal Ryan. I don’t know if you’ll see this post again, but is the deep walleye bite going on West Okoboji now?
Glad to see you were out
How low is the water – ramps ok?
I shot a few orange parrots and worked on the duck boat, too warm this weekend for parrot hunting.
Some fish are moving now up above, decent reports now and then from the lake.
Great report Wade!!
Them paddlefish are a blast to snag. Last year my cousin Pete, a friend of his, and I decided to get paddlefish tags and give it a shot. We were only out for a couple of hours and all three of us had our fish. We could have snagged and released all day to try to get bigger ones but we were content with three smaller fish. (We just wanted to head over to Verdel to chase waleyes.) Paddle fish are the best eating fish I’ve ever had. The meat is a white meat and there are no bones.
I believe South Dakota and Nebraska are each allowed 700 tags each. Last year when we got ours they had over 1400 people apply in Nebraska alone. If you have never done it before you are almost guarenteed to get one. Otherwise you would be lucky to get one every other year. I didn’t try for one this year but I will definately try for it next year.
Todd, The river is really low, but the ramps were good enough for most boats to get in and out. I put in at the SD side. I would suggest a 4-wheel drive vehicle though, or a guy may not get the boat back out.
I also heard that anglers were doing well about the dam, fishing some deeper holes. If you ever want to hit L&C let me know.
Thanks Ben. I think I’m going to get a tag for my dad, father-in-law, and my son next year and give it a shot. I haven’t done it since I was a young child and would fish for sauger while dad snagged. I think 30 years is a long enough wait!
The only issue I have with the paddlefishing is I saw some people really mistreating the fish after the catch. This was mainly some of the people on shore who were launching the fish back into the water after letting them bang around on the rocks for a few minutes. I would like to see a game official present on these busy weekends. I don’t think people realize how hard it is on a fish to be out of water, then to be launched back into the water with such force is bound to do some damage.
We were up there on opening weekend last year and those poeple that mistreat those fish would have gotten a talking to. I think almost every game warden in Nebraska was up there. Once we got to the parking lot we were checked 3 times before we left. They were checking everything and they were keeping a close eye on everyone. I’ll mention this to Daryl Bauer and see what he thinks about sending a “paddlefish handling” pamplet out with everyones tags next year.
When you are at it Ben mention to Daryl that people are applying under
Ben Garver
Ben E Garver
B E Garver
Etc to get around those pesky limits on permits. I’ve mentioned it before to them.
Of course, I don’t think they should let people print unlimited turkey permits and the like either!
Wade – fish are moving to the dam end. Mainly 20-25′ on jigs right now, it will really pick up in a few weeks.
Todd
Great report Wade. It looks like it would be a blast to get into a paddle fish that size.
I’m sure it was a great father son outting
Ben, I only saw this on the SD side yesterday. There may have been NE game and parks staff on the NE side. I’m not sure. I couldn’t see over there that well. An educational pamphlet would help those who aren’t aware of proper treatment of these fish. It won’t help those who just don’t care, but it’s worth a try.
Todd, I am going to try to keep the boat out for the next month or so if you want to hit L&C as the bite gets better. I’ll be visiting Mickey Mouse with my family over the next two weekends but I have some time after that. Just holler if you want to make the trip sometime.
Wade, that doesn’t sound like much fun for T1…since she lives with Micky…
I’ve talked with a number of folks that were holding sturgeon by the gill plates over this last year. Once it was brought to their attention it was a
to them.
I know I’ll run into someone sooner or later that doesn’t care…but my point here is that I haven’t yet…they just never thought about it.
You guys are talking boat ramps and low water and we are starting to think about boat ramps and ice.
One other thing I meant to mention… If you put in on the SD side, motor straight across to the NE side and then head up toward the dam on that side of the river. There’s a nasty sandbar on the SD side.
Wade
Let’s shoot for a trip around Tgiving sometime.
I never winterize either of my boats so no sweat. If it gets cold, we’ll have to use the Lund though, not the Tundra. 21′ boats and ice ramps don’t mix!!!
Have fun in Mickey Land.
Todd