Fishing Report 5/27/2019

Hope your Memorial Day weekend was a good one! We have lots to cover in this week’s fishing report, so let’s get to it.

Lake Francis Case

Special Note

Before I say anything about the fishing on Lake Francis Case I cannot stress safety and knowing your surroundings here. From Big Bend dam all the way down to Kiowa Flats I was finding logs and trees floating in the water. It was particularly bad at Crow Creek. I’m not talking sticks either, I’m talking trees and big logs you don’t want to kiss with your boat.

Also, the water is high. This means that many of the stumps that on a normal year may be out of water are under the surface. This doesn’t make it safe though. There are some big trees that are not far under water that I wouldn’t want to find with my lower unit or boat. I saw so many boats cutting over these stump fields and I urge folks to stay in the main channel, even though the water is high. If you don’t know where the main channel is, stick to the side with the high bluffs.

Boat Fishing

Now we can get to the fishing. Overall, fishing is pretty good. Fish are looking for food and they’re on the flats ready to eat. The water is slowly warming up and we’re finding water temps from Kiowa to Big Bend in the mid 50s.

Fish can be found on the those shallower flats looking to eat. Depth ranges are anywhere from 10-20ft. While 20ft isn’t what you might expect for this time of year on a “shallow” feeding flat, with how the water is these are still the areas we’re looking for.

There is no magic location. We caught fish in every spot we fished. There were fish in-front of the work ramp to the east of the campground in deep water, on the flats by the trees in shallower water, and up in the bay as well. That’s all within a few hundred yards of the launch alone!

There’s plenty of fish (and boats) on the Crow Creek flat (mainly above Crow is where you want to fish as the water is cleaner), fish on Kiowa Flats and there is fish along the bluffs from the dam down. The moral of the story you can pretty much catch fish in any of those traditional feeding locations.

Bottom bouncing those flats is the best way to contact these fish. Fish are favoring plain hooks with minnows, small .8″ Mack’s Lure Smile Blades and size 0 blades. Now that being said Wade was catching fish on “Double Whamis” (I believe they are officially called “Perch Spreaders”) and size 4 Ghost Blades. They’re hungry and they’re not discriminating too much! You can tell Erie was still on his mind!

Moral of the story is the upper end of Case is very good and the fish are ready to bite. You can catch more fish by finding the cleaner water as with the heavy rains and winds have really murked it up. Our best fishing came in water with about 12-15 inches of visibility. The fish are in pods and carrying those big long trolling passes you will hit several pods of active fish.

Shore Fishing

That’s right we have shore fishing added this week. The reason for this is the fishing is quite good in the Big Bend tailrace towards evening. The hour surrounding sunset is certainly the money time. There are lots of fish to be caught and they range from shorts, eaters to also a few overs in there as well.

Jigs and plastics, shallow Shad Raps, Husky Jerks, Scatter Rap Minnows, take your pick they can all catch some fish. The moral of the story is the best bite is right at sunset. The powerhouse is getting turned off right at 10pm and that is when the bite is getting turned off as well. Though if you’re deadset on catching fish you can probably scratch a few out.

Water Levels

Now onto the not so fun news of the fishing report. High water is a major issue and it’s getting worse. Chamberlain got over 3 inches of rain yesterday (Sunday) evening and this is on top of already plenty of moisture over the past week. Along with these factors, releases are also going to be increased and the water is going to continue to rise. I captured some of the images from the Right Tailrace ramp. Have you seen the fishing pier there? Me neither.

The White River is also very angry. Given the previous flooding and more rainfall this is going to be producing some headaches once you get downstream of town.

The South Dakota Elite Walleye series event in Platte to be held at the end of June will need to be either moved to Chamberlain or rescheduled. The boat ramps at Buryanek and West Bridge are closed as of Sunday, May 26. The Snake Creek high water ramp is open though. (It’s in the campground).

Further downstream, North Point campground will be underwater for the next couple weeks. St. Francis Bay and Prairie Dog Bay are going to be the best ramps to use to access the water down there. If you had planned to camp and fish though keep in mind North Point and Randall Creek campgrounds are both closed at least for the foreseeable future.

Lake Sharpe

Well let’s shift the flooding news to mud news. Driving back from Case on Sunday when I got a look at Sharpe at De Grey I went “oh ****”. It’s dirty. Real dirty. It’s real dirty all the way to Pierre too. The Bad River is pumping and when coupled with the other watersheds and rainfall and wind the whole river looks like chocolate milk.

Fishing down at West Bend has been up and down. The main news lately has been down. Some fish can be caught and a limit can be caught some days as well, but they aren’t exactly leaping into the boat to put it nicely.

Though Big Bend tailrace has been producing good fishing, Oahe dam is not. Fishing has been pretty poor. I would anticipate as the water warms up and summer goes on the fishing here is going to get better and better, but it’s not good yet.

Fish can also be caught in the Hipple Lake area. The water continues to be very dirty, though it’s not as terrible as the main lake. I would recommend slipbobbers and live bait for your panfish action and pitching jigs and plastics or crankbaits for white bass and of course the elusive gizzard shad.

Eastern South Dakota

The lakes continue to be getting higher and higher. The 81 Ponds have adopted highway 81 so if you’re looking to fish there plan to get a little wet. Other lakes in the area such as Brush, Albert and all the lakes in the Albert/Poinsett chain are producing good fishing.

Andrew Becker has the latest report from the Watertown/Webster area. He’s been having the most success slow pulling bottom bouncers and spinners in 8-12ft during the day. In the evening hours casting jigs tipped with minnows casted in the shallower water has been producing some good fishing as well.

For those shore anglers pitching jigs and minnows shallow in the evenings is producing some fish. The larger fish are also getting more and more active and they’re enjoying shallow diving jointed baits and also Mimic Minnows that are throwing over sunken road beds. Firetiger has been the top producing color. Thank you Andrew for the report!

Northwest Iowa

Chris Seylar has our northwest Iowa report. The walleyes are going good on Spirit, West and East Okoboji. Trolling cranks shallow in the early morning and evening into dark has been a strong tactic, but slipbobbers off docks, casting plastics, live baits and cranks wader fishing can all produce fish as well. Silver Lake, Clear Lake and Tuttle also have a decent bite going.

The bluegills have been going good on East and West as well. The water temp is warming and starting to get around that 60 degree mark so the fish can be found shallow or on the weed lines.

The yellow bass have also fired up on East. Along with the yellow bass, crappies are going well on East and West. Both species can also be caught at Clear Lake. The largemouth and smallmouth fishing is also going good on East and West Okoboji. For anglers looking to get some bullhead, well they’re snapping on Spirit as well as it’s inlets and outlets.

The rivers are also producing a few northern and eyes for anglers looking to give that a go.

Product Spotlight

This week’s product spotlight is the Abu Garcia Ambassadeur reel. I favor this reel for all of my bottom bouncing applications. The price doesn’t break the bank, but gives you everything you need and more when it comes to bottom bouncing. Just please don’t turn the clicker on in my boat. Like ever.

Related Notes

Looking to learn more about presentation for the Missouri River this time of year? Everything you need to know to catch fish can be found in my latest article, Keeping it Simple for Missouri River Reservoir Walleye.

Have you never bottom bounced and are looking to learn? Well give the page a like and stay tuned, because I’ll be unveiling a three part series to give you everything you need to know about bottom bouncing over the next 3 weeks. Stay tuned!