SD glacial lake area fishing

A group of 6 of us made the trip this past weekend up to the glacial lake area in northeast South Dakota for a little ice fishing. Making the trip were IDO members Chad Mayer, Chris Augustyn, and Dane Johnson (TMFLDEM), and Chad’s father-in-law Tom, and Chad’s son Cory. We’re not used to that kind of thick ice down here in Nebraska, so it was pretty interesting getting started.
We arrived Saturday afternoon, threw stuff in the cabin, and made our way over to a little-fished lake. 5 minutes into the trip, Chris had his first perch, and 5 minutes later, I had this walleye to start the trip. Chad, Tom and Cory tried elsewhere real quick, and later joined us. All in all, the first day was great with lots of perch caught, and a few walleye.

Early Sunday morning, us three (Dane, Chris & myself) headed over to Piyas lake. The fog made the trip take longer than it shoulda have, and not being on the lake before made things tough, even with the GPS. We eventually ran into a large group of people fishing a break, and we caught the end of the walleye bite. The first fish we got was this nice 12″ fatty that Dane got real quick. Then I did all right for about half an hour catching perch, then it just quit. Most fish were caught on minnows in about 10 FOW. The other three (Chad, Tom and Cory) went to Lynn lake I believe that day, said they did not do too well. Bite was fairly slow. Our group then ventured over to another small lake that was being fished for the first year, not even sure of the name. It took quite a while, but the walleyes eventually moved in. They were all pretty small, but gave Chris and Dane some good action. I had a couple hits, just couldn’t get em hooked. The other 3 were back at the first lake and got a few more walleyes until it shut down.

Monday was brutal. About 10 degrees, maybe a high of 20, but the wind was fierce. About 20, with gusts to 30, which made fishing difficult…..except for Chad. We all headed over to Piyas for the early walleye bite, and Chad was done in about 45 minutes, maybe less. I managed one, and I know Chris, Dane, Tom and Cory all caught at least a couple as well. Pretty good morning bite. I went with Chad, Tom & Cory back to the original spot where we had a nice ice shack set up for us to use, which was real nice with the wind. We finally got into some perch, and Chad got this real nice walleye up, think this might have been the 21 incher. I got a few perch, and everyone else caught good numbers of perch and more walleyes as well. Cory even caught one while in bed! Can’t argue with that at all.

Chris and Dane went up north to another lake, might have been Stink. They said they caught a couple here and there, but the action wasn’t real fast.

All in all, it was a great trip. Doug at Sportsman’s Cove in Webster (thesportsmanscorner.com) really treated us great. He had a very nice cabin to stay in, let us use his Grand Lodge on Monday, and helped us with some fishing info and tips that really helped with our catch. Make sure you stop into his shop and see him if you’re making the trip to the glacial lake area.
I really can’t wait to make another trip up there sometime, hopefully with the boat. There are really some great areas to fish that will keep you busy for days. Save that vacation time!