Bitter Lake is the poster child of expanding fisheries in eastern South Dakota. Bitter used to be a small duck slough, but years of high precipitation has made it one of the largest bodies of water in the state. Expansion into other sloughs has created a fishery with a diverse amount of habitat, deep water, shallow water and everything in-between. Bitter offers excellent walleye fishing, but yellow perch are also a popular catch in the lake. Northern pike can reach trophy sizes as well.
Angling Information
Ice
Location
Bitter Lake is a structure angler’s dream, but also their nightmare. Bitter features main lake humps, deep road beds, shallow road beds, rock piles, weed beds, shallow timber, deep timber and numerous points and islands. My Mike’s Map features 144 waypoints of different pieces of structure. Yikes!
The amount of structure in Bitter means that structure fish may be on one day, may be abandoned the next. Many times, fish will move to the next piece of structure a few hundred yards away. The expansive basin areas and mud flats also means perch and walleye living in the deep water have plenty of real estate to move to. This can make finding fish difficult, but it’s not an impossible task.
Overall, there is no substitute for time spent on the water. Building your own collection of waypoints to begin your search will ultimately be what results in consistent success on Bitter Of course, this means plenty of time spent on the water practicing trial-and-error as well.
The best approach to fishing Bitter is have a game plan, almost a script of the day you’re going to have. Start by selecting a piece of structure you expect to have fish on it early in the morning. This is generally going to be those shallower weed patches, shallow road beds or the top of main lake humps. It is worth noting that while these shallow timber patches, weed patches or road beds can hold fish all day, though they may be more passive in the day.
Once the sun comes up, the shallow water bite can turn off. However, if there is heavy snow cover on the ice and a cloudy day the bite can go all day long in these areas. These areas can also produce best during the early and late ice season.
These shallow areas can produce walleye, perch and northern pike, but the perch bite can be good all season long out in the main basin. Perch will roam the basin and also dig around in the mud bottom feeding on aquatic bugs. These basin areas can also produce walleye during the day as well.
The size and structure of Bitter means you have to pick a certain area to fish in a day. Pin point a handful of shallow areas and some more deeper, basin areas close to them. Focus your day on that area. Attempting to run across the lake is just a good way to lose valuable fishing time.
Presentation
The clear waters of Bitter allow you to draw fish in from a distance. Aggressively working flutter spoons high off the bottom can both draw fish in and result in strikes from aggressive fish. Work these baits between 3-5ft off bottom, but also dropping them into the bottom and stirring up the substrate is effective as well. Gold, silver and other metallic colors that generate plenty of flash are great options.
As the sun comes up, dropping to a more subtle presentation is key. These could be rattle spoons or other compromise spoons that don’t rattle. Baits like Northland Forage Minnows, Buckshots, Lindy Rattln Flyers or Lindy Frostees are all good options. Green, orange, red and blue are all great options.
If you’re seeing fish, but can’t get them to bite it’s time to drop down even further. A silver, red, gold or pink tungsten jig with plastics or spikes can turn those marks into bites. These are also popular options for the perch anglers that run across the basin all day long.
When you’re setting up on structure elements, especially on the darker days where the bite can go all day, you can cover more water and find the school by setting up tip downs and tip ups across the area. When you see a flag, run over with both your flasher and jigging rod. Whether you catch the fish that triggers the flag or not, the school is often nearby so be ready to drop down and pick up as many as possible.
Top options for these presentations are plain hooks or colorful tear drop style jigs. Rainbow, green, blue or orange are all great options. A struggling minnow is tough for these fish to resist.
Spring
Spring on Bitter is all about the culverts. Culverts draw both walleye and anglers, but the fishing can be phenomenal. When it comes to finding spring walleyes on Bitter look for culverts, timber and other shallow areas adjacent to deep water.
When it comes to presentation, it really comes down to the angler’s preference. Mimic Minnows or other paddletail baits on jigs can produce very well. The culvert anglers do very well tossing jerkbaits like Husky Jerks into the current and very slowly reeling them back in letting the water give them action. Even slipbobbers and other live bait jigs with minnows can produce fish as well.
Summer
Mason Propst finds great success pulling bottom bouncers and Mack’s Lure Smile Blades along shallow road beds close to weed patches. Excellent colors are purple, pink and gold. Baiting these with night crawlers on both plain and slow death hooks is a top choice.
Work along both the top of the road beds and ditches as well. Once you find where the active fish are, work that pass over and continue to pull active fish. Playing the wind and working a drift with an electric motor can keep your speeds between .4-.7 and just get the blades to turn.
Similar patterns over deep, main lake submerged roads can also produce fish as well. Overall, while the shallow bite may not be a numbers bite, it is often quality fish. The deeper bite often features a more numbers bite, with big fish still a possibility just fewer and farther between.
Fall
Fall is the best of both worlds. The shallow spots that were productive in spring can fire up again as fish move shallow to feed heavily. The same baits you used in spring can work still, but regardless what you’re looking to use larger is better.
The shallow bottom bouncing bite can produce fish as well. Often this bite can get better and better and it can become both a numbers and size bite. The same presentations from summer can still shine, but have both minnows and crawlers to find the fish’s preference.
Surrounding Area Information
Nearby Towns: Waubay, Webster
Nearby Lakes: Waubay Lake, Lake Opitz, Antelope Lake, Horseshoe Lake, Blue Dog Lake, Enemy Swim Lake
Area Bait Shops: Sportsman’s Cove (Webster), Grenville Sports Mart (Grenville), Fisherman’s Village (Waubay), HR One Stop (Waubay), Lake County Sports (Waubay)
Area Lodging: Circle Pines Hotel (Waubay), Stonefire Motel/Lodge (Webster), The Galley Hotel (Webster), Boomers Outback Motel (Webster), Day County Inn (Webster), Blue Wing Lodge (Webster), Pickerel Lake Lodge (Pickerel Lake), Bitter Lake Lodge Campground (Bitter Lake)
Area Restaurants: Pereboom Café (Webster), Diner on Main (Webster), Subway (Webster), The Galley Bar and Grille (Webster), A&W All American Food (Webster), New Frontier Steakhouse (Webster), Pizza Hut (Webster)
Related Readings
Understanding the prey of the species your are pursing is critical to ice fishing success. Nick Harrington breaks down the various situations anglers will encounter when targeting walleye, perch and northern pike across South Dakota and the Midwest in Making the Forage Connection for Ice Success.
Understanding the dynamics of the predator and prey relationships taking place within a waterbody is critical to having success. Learn about the food chain, predator/prey relationships and how it impacts your fishing in How Predator/Prey Relationships Impact Ice Fishing.
