Fishing Report 8/26/2019

This week’s fishing report recaps the South Dakota Elite Walleye Series championship on Lake Oahe. This was a two day event fishing out of Mobridge, South Dakota. Let’s get to it!

Prefish

The wind was blowing hard the whole weekend and prefish was no exception. We spent Friday prefishing the Grand. We hit probably 7-8 different spots pulling bottom bouncers and Mack’s Lure Smile Blades. We varied our depths from 15-35ft, looking for those active fish.

We found multiple spots that had fish. There were a lot of perch, catfish and drum mixed in with the walleyes as well. Mainly we were finding those fish in the deeper depths we tried. It was all about having the bait in the fish’s face when they were wanting to eat. Finding the active pods of fish and hitting them at the right time was critical. We were hopeful for the tournament, but it was going to be all about who hit the right fish at the right time.

Day One

We took off on a very rough Lake Oahe. The winds had blown Thursday, Friday and Saturday was shaping up to one of the roughest days of the three. Luckily we had Josh’s Ranger, so I was hopeful the waves wouldn’t be able to stop us from having a great day.

We came out of the bay into the main channel and were instantly greeted by rough waters. Winds were blowing about 18-20mph sustained and gusting even greater. I attempted to capture just how rough the conditions were, but video just doesn’t do it justice.

We ran up to the Grand with most the rest of the field and started fishing our top spot. Instantly I had a 16.5 incher in the boat. Great start. We were pulling bottom bouncers and Smile Blades with crawlers as they were liking just that little bit of flash and vibration.

We kept hitting our passes and varying depths, but after an hour or so we only had some big drum, catfish and some small walleyes to show for it. The fish had been hitting here in the afternoon, so we left the spot for later and went to hit spot #2.

We continued to pull blades and crawlers, instantly we hit some smaller fish. A promising start. Josh then boated a 15.5 incher. Good for fish #2. Thinking we had these fish dialed in, we continued to do passes and vary our depths. Once again, nice catfish and drum found the hook. It was tough fishing.

We continued to see nice marks, but they just weren’t going. Hoping I could make one go, I started rip jigging right in their noses. I was watching the graph and able to make a few fish take a peek, but every time I started attempting to rip it they scattered.

The winds continued to increase, so we were hopeful our fish in spot 1 would go again. We started working different depths, deep and shallow and were able to make a few more shorts go, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

We ran back to our other spot, but it was a no go. For a brief period, the winds had subsided and the sun shined. The calming weather conditions gave us hope, but it turned out to be a curse. The winds had picked up, the clouds moved back in and we were back to the drearyness.

Bob Propst of Propst Professional Anglers was guiding on Saturday in the Grand as well. He reported that he caught multiple 17-19.5 inch fish during the period the wind was down and sun was out. Once the wind picked up, the bites quit. Other boats reported a quick bite in this time as well, Saturday just wasn’t meant to be for us.

The ride home was Oahe showing off. Once again, pictures and videos don’t do it justice, but I’ll do my best here. The picture is a 19ft boat coming in to the weigh in. The video is the ramp on the other side of the park.

Day Two

After a tough Day One, we decided it was all about going out to have fun for Sunday. The winds weren’t good, but they had lighted up enough to let us fish the main lake points.

We made a run and began fishing some main lake points with live bait. Once again, pulling Smile Blades picked up a 16 incher right away. Yep, we got this. After five hours of various points, depths and areas…..we still had one. Yikes.

We were running back to fish where we had been the day before, hoping the fish would go for us like they had Bob and the other boats in the area. As we were heading through town, we decided to make a stop and try the bridge pilings.

Instantly, Josh was hooked up. As the fish got to the surface, I made eye contact with a good walleye, then watched it throw the hook and a Jigging Rap was flying right at me. Wham! The bait slammed into the rod I had put down.

While this was a tough loss, it gave us hope. We continued to work different pillars when Josh popped a nice 18.5 incher. Here we go! We decided we were going to give this some time. Multiple boats in the Top 5 had been working various pillars, we figured we should do the same.

Shortly after popping the fish, Brock and Brennan came by to check us. They asked how it had been and I said “well it’s got way better these past 15 minutes”. As they were pulling away, I hooked a 4lb smallmouth.

We continued to hit different pillars and continued to hit fish. Boom-17.5. Boom-19.5. Boom-20.5. Staying mobile kept us on the active fish. We had finally hit the right fish, at the right time.

We weren’t able to hit another big over, but wrapped up our SD Elite championship just like we had the season. It started rough, but we persevered and got the fish! We ended with a 6th place finish in the Championship and 7th place in Team of the Year points. It had started awful, but we stayed tough and redeemed ourselves.

Congratulations to Derek Juneau and Jason Roehrich on Team of the Year! They had a heck of a season no doubt. They had no fumbles and that’s what you need to do with how competitive this circuit is. The field is full of great anglers and every event they are going to challenge you.

We learned a lot this season, had a great time and hope we can translate everything to an even better finish next year! I’m excited to see what the future holds and am hopeful we can find ourselves right in the Team of the Year hunt next season!

Coming Up

What’s on the horizon for the Lip Ripper crew? We’ve got a lot to be excited about this fall!

The biggest news of the week is that Mason’s daughter, Quinn Hunter Propst, joined the family on August 21. Congratulations to Mason and Sarah!! I also want to thank Josh Bible for stepping up and filling in for Mason during the championship as Mason celebrated the new addition. I’m proud we were able to cap his week with a strong finish.

Chris Seylar is back in Brookings this week as SDSU resumes class and I’m expecting him to put some more gorgeous Glacial Lakes walleyes in the net! We’ve now got the river and Glacial Lakes area covered again!

I have now began to look ahead to what is shaping up to be some awesome fall fishing. I’m excited to see what my October Challenge with Walleye Warrior is going to produce, I’m expecting some awesome fish caught!

Stay tuned for some great tips on fall fishing as well! It’s going to be a fun one!