With literally hundreds of lakes /sloughs located in Day county South Dakota a fisherman has many unique bodies of water to fish. Most of these lakes provide very good forage for fish and very little fishermen pressure to grow to trophy size very quickly. These characteristics are an ice fisherman’s dream. Most of these lakes are unnamed not to protect the fishery simply because they seem to pop up each season, so it’s the old I caught the fish off township rd 1 or over by so and so farm type of lake identification, which makes finding a lake very difficult, but also very rewarding.
Just like anywhere; you have deal with what Mother Nature brings and in South Dakota it’s a bit more extreme. Flat lands mixed with snow and wind doesn’t make a good combo for travel on most lakes. Snowmobiles are a must to move anywhere as vehicle traffic is not existent right now. With a great amount of snow comes slush, so drilling out a lake is not a good idea as you soon will be fishing in ankle deep water. Thankfully these unpressured lakes makes for finding active fish easier, therefore we didn’t have to drill a lot of holes and were rewarded with a lot of nice fish.
Nothing out of the ordinary in terms of tackle for fishing these panfish as they seemed to want a glow red diamond or gill pill tipped with plastic/larve and for the walleyes it was a glow red demon jigging spoon tipped with the traditional minnow head, both lures made by Custom Jigs &Spins. One huge key element while fishing that proved to be a way to draw bigger fish out of the school was to really get the fish to chase. Getting fish to move 5-7 feet was not uncommon, it’s fun to watch on the MarCum as the fish would be screaming off the bottom to inhale those red glow lures. While walleye fishing to draw the fish into the cone we would just jig very erratically to draw them in, and then let the chase begin up the water column. Fish chasing our baits turned very aggressive and we found that once you got one fish to bite out of the school it sometimes started a feeding frenzy.
This past weekend we had a couple of perch that taped out just above the 14” mark, biggest walleye landed was 22 inches several bigger fish we lost at the bottom of the hole. Crappie fishing was a lot of fun as most of the fish were 10-12 inches with the occasional 12 plus, rumors of 15” fish were reported earlier in the week and even a few 15” perch. This area of eastern South Dakota has what it takes to put out trophy caliber fish consistently year in and year out. If you like to fish remotely, off the beaten path fishing experience then the Eastern South Dakota, specifically Day County is the area to try. Just do a Google map search to witness all the fishing potential this area has to offer.
Be safe and have fun!
A few more shots of the weekend.
Custom Jigs and Spins
Great report and Pictures Calvin
Sounds like an ice-fisherman’s dream! Rare to do that well on quality fish for a far-away bite, let alone to do it for so many species. Congrats to you guys and thanks for sharing.
Joel
Looks like a blast Calvin, thanks for sharing
Quality fish and pics guys
Great report Calvin!
Great report Cal. Glad you guys had a great time
Very Nice!
Very Cool Cal!! 14 inch perch are AWESOME!!
Looks like the snow was a bit deep. 
Z
Here’s a picture of Adam with a 13.5″ perch from over the weekend also
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. And yet we put some quality fish on the ice.
For me there is always a certain amount of excitement when getting to fishing new areas and bodies of water. Even though mother nature did try to show us who’s boss, by making travel sketchy at best, both on and off the ice
Just want to thank Cal, Jesse, and Adam for a fun weekend on the ice!
Wow those things are hogs!! Looks like a blast, and another place to put on my places to fish list!!
Nice fish and report Cal!
Very cool Cal
I love SD perch, eyes and pies!!! Great fish!
on our way through the other week we noticed the Waubay area had the most snow on the ground, you could see slush pockets from the road, and yes the un-named “slough” was kicking out a ton of nice walleye. You could spend a bunch more time up there and still not hit everything. Great report.
Sweet !!!
Sweet deal Calvin !!!
Great fish~n~pix !!!!
See you next month !!!!!!
WOW. Great report Cal. Looks like you had a blast
John
Great job Calvin and crew
That area sounds amazing
Great report Calvin.
My wife and I were out there on our Harley a couple of summers ago and all I kept thinking about was all of the different body’s of water that a person could explore. A really cool area. 
Nice report Cal! Getting into true 12″+ Perch doesn’t happen everyday, nice work
Thanks Cal, you needed to add that fishing there after ice out is spectacular too. We frequent the area and the bite is always on somewhere. Bring a trailered boat and you can fish 25 lakes within a 20 minute drive.
I’ve stopped fishing Oahe cuz these lakes fish better and are closer too.
My exact thought was running through my head, I bet it would be a great spring/fall destination as well.
Great report and pics! Ive fished the area several years in the summer, havent made an ice trip yet. The lakes we have fished have been named, more popular lakes. If I can ask, how do you determine which of these unnamed lakes and sloughs to fish, and how do you gain access? Just spend some time at the bar/restaurant the night before, or do you have people you know out there?
Asking questions and paying attention to details is key when fishing a new area.
Funny story….we went into the Decoy bar in Webster, SD to grab a bite to eat. The big fella (lets call him Ricky) proceeds to ask the female bartender who the best fisherman was in the bar…without hesitation she said ” your looking at her” we all chuckled then she said seriously I am…
Well we asked a few questions and basically went off a map we picked up on at the bait shop, he also did give us a few suggestions to try. Even while out on the lake we were always asking questions, helping locals who were stuck or stranded on the lake. They are willing to give a ton of information once you show your helping out.
Basic fishing logic, ie points, shoreline structure etc, helps out as well… We did a lot of trial and error too, be willing to move and search for the fish as well..
Cool. Thanks for the info, and again, great report.
Nice work
you make the great catch mate, i like the picture on how you enjoy fishing on glacier ice. Nice report.