Well if you are a fan of changing wind conditions this weekend was the one for you! If you aren’t a fan of changing wind conditions, as I’m sure all of us are, it felt like one heck of a game chasing the fish! Luckily, there were still some excellent fish caught this week, let’s talk about how it was done!
Lake Oahe
The fishing on the lower end of Oahe was on center stage this weekend during the South Dakota Governor’s Cup! Unfortunately, extremely strong winds made the bite and travel this weekend very difficult for Day 1 on Saturday. Day 2 featured the opposite conditions, as calm weather was present throughout the day with only a slight south wind kicking up as the afternoon progressed.
Despite the conditions, Duane Hjelm and Tyson Keller were still able to put up an impressive 36.55 pound bag at the end of the two day tournament. Lorin and Justin Skipper were also able to crack the 30 pound mark, bringing in a 31.73 pound bag for second place. While overall the bags were lower than many anticipated, numerous fish over 7 pounds were brought to the scale and it still took over 35 pounds in tough fishing conditions to take home the trophy!
While a full field of tournament boats scrambled across the reservoir, alongside them were plenty of anglers looking for fun on the water and fun they found! The bottom bouncing bite continues to produce a great number of fish. Wind had the most impact on location, but overall fish could be found at a variety of depths.
When the wind was blowing, a strong bite continued to take place between 10-14 feet. Finding windblown shorelines (except when they became hurricane blown shorelines *cough* Saturday *cough*) often produced a strong shallow bite.
In calm conditions, sliding out slightly deeper was the ticket to success. Looking in depths of 15-20 feet was often the best area to target. Regardless the condition, giving at least one pass in each depth range was critical to thoroughly work a piece of structure.
Anglers are also reporting finding fish sliding out deeper to as much as 20-30 feet deep. If you are struggling to find fish shallow, don’t be afraid to slide out deeper!
For presentation, bottom bouncing continues to be a top option. Once again, Smile Blades were the top option for me. Color continues to be less critical, but confidence colors like pink, silver, purple and blue have been best. Gold and chartreuse have also produced success as well. Tipping these baits with nightcrawlers has been the best bait.
Multispecies continues to be another trend that goes along with this bite. In addition to walleye expect smallmouth bass, channel catfish, freshwater drum and even northern pike mixed in your catch.
It is very likely your crawlers have been picked off by yellow perch as well!
News and Notes
We talked about it above, but it’s worth hitting it again. While many of us were expecting weights similar to what was brought in at the Masters Walleye Circuit event, the future of Oahe is very bright! Teams faced as tough conditions as possible as Friday featured very calm conditions for prefish, while Saturday was a drastic change, followed by the opposite again on Sunday. Despite this, it still took two strong days of fishing to take home 1st place.
Trophy caliber fish are present, again citing numerous fish between 7-9 pounds hitting the scales.
Quality fish are present in excellent numbers, particularly a great deal between 17-19 inchers..
The number of fish in the 12-14 inch range show excellent promise for many great years of fishing, while readily biting keeping anglers reeling fish in all day long.
Overall, it is safe to say we can expect many great years of fishing to come for all of Lake Oahe!
The heat looks to continue, so stay cool and good luck when you hit the water! Good fishing!
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