In this week’s special edition of the fishing report we take a look at the past two weeks fishing in preparation for the Get Up and Get Outdoors Mobridge Couples Tournament. We covered a lot of water and explored a lot of bites and have plenty to talk about, let’s get to it!
The tournament was launching out of Walth Bay, south of Mobridge near New Evarts Resort, so we identified a target area to fish between Gettysburg and north of Mobridge. We wanted to hit all of these areas to find the best possible bite and focused our prefish efforts doing this.
Akaska Area
We began by fishing out of Swan Creek Recreation Area near Akaska. We started by trolling crankbaits between 25-35 feet of water and found a good number of smaller smallmouth bass and some small walleyes but nothing overly exciting.
We made a run south and began working Rapala Jigging Raps and Phantom Lures Tillys on main lake humps and points. We found plenty of smallmouth bass, but not a strong walleye bite.
We decided to take advantage of the wind and target windblown shorelines with bottom bouncers, but with a slight twist. In hopes of targeting larger fish, I decided to try fishing Berkley GULP! Nightcrawlers and Zoom Trick Worms on my Smile Blades. We’ve discussed this strategy before and it can really make a difference in the hot summer months.
We were working windblown shorelines in 12-20 feet of water in hopes the fish would be active along these areas. Sure enough, this presentation proved to quickly be successful and within two minutes of dropping I instantly hooked up with a much better quality fish.
We continued to work this bite and found some smaller ones, but despite the fast start it was still pretty tough going overall.
Gettysburg Area
The next day we decided to continue our southern search and launched out of West Whitlock Recreation Area near Gettysburg. We were greeted by much calmer conditions and the next thing we noticed was the abundance of mayflys!
We began by working submerged points anywhere between 20-33 feet. Overall the best bite was certainly between 25-30 feet and we found quite the multispecies bite! We caught an abundance of smaller walleye, channel catfish, yellow perch, drum, smallmouth bass and had a channel catfish attacked on the way up by a very large, roughly 40 inch northern pike.
We continued to search around working main lake points with both bottom bouncers and Jigging Raps and also tried numerous main lake humps as well. Unfortunately, while we found some great smallmouth bass action the walleye fishing continued to be tough for the fish we were looking for.
Although we caught a lot of fish and had a lot of fun down in this area, we decided it was worth investigating what the Mobridge area had to offer for a bite.
Mobridge Area
Friday before the tournament I launched at Indian Memorial in Mobridge and began investigating inside the Grand River. I began by bouncing several spots with Smile Blades and Colorado blades and picked up a decent amount of smaller walleyes, with channel catfish and freshwater drum as well.
I began exploring for better fish and searching for areas with bait and strong marks. Once I found these areas I would drop down and Jigging Rap aggressively then keep moving. This proved to be quite the multispecies bite as well-resulting in walleye, smallmouth bass, numerous white bass of all sizes and drum that I thought for sure were exactly the walleyes I was look for.
At the end of three days prefishing although I had caught a lot of fish and decent fish, it was going to be a tough bite but I was hopeful I could put the right fish together and get 6 good bites.
Tournament Day-Walth Bay
Tournament day brought it’s own challenges. As we prepared for boat checks at 6:30 a.m. and takeoff at 7:30 a.m., we were greeted by overcast, warm and humid conditions as a large storm was moving into the area.
The takeoff was postponed until 8:30 a.m. This proved to be a great decision as at about 7 a.m. the storm brought in lightning, rain and winds blowing 20-30 mph and gusts even stronger. The temperature also dropped roughly 10 degrees and the humid and sticky feeling was replaced with much cooler and windier conditions.
As we got together at the launch, dark clouds continued to linger and the gusty winds remained strong from the northeast. The decision was made that changing the fishing hours to boat checks at noon and takeoff at 1 p.m. and fishing until 7 p.m. would be the best choice as the winds were supposed to subside at around noon.
The forecast held true and as boats launched, we enjoyed calm conditions and blue skies. We made about an hour run north of Mobridge and found that the drastic weather changes over just 24 hours had cleared the bait from the graph and thus the fish as well. We scrambled around attempting to locate the bait and fish, but our search efforts were unsuccessful. With only 6 hours to fish and 2 hours committed to driving, we fished areas as quickly as we could hoping to contact fish.
With about an hour to go and only small walleyes and drum to our credit, I decided to go to one of my better “numbers” locations to put a bag together. Unfortunately, it was the catfish that decided to go crazy! What we thought were the bites we had been waiting for, ultimately ended up being just really nice catfish.
Despite the tough bite, many teams were still able to put together some strong bags, taking over 18 pounds for 6 fish to bring home the trophy. Several teams put together some excellent bags of both numbers and quality of fish. We were hoping to be one of those teams, but we just couldn’t get the right fish to go and had several opportunities pop off on the way to the boat as well.
Overall, I don’t have enough good things to say about how the tournament was ran. We were treated to an excellent meal at the rules meeting Friday nice with some really cool tumblers for all of the anglers. The goal of the tournament was for all couples to have fun and the decisions made on Saturday certainly reflected that! The directors were flexible and also worked very hard helping load/unload boats for the various couples that needed help.
I would absolutely recommend fishing this tournament, as the Get Up and Get Outdoors team does an excellent job ensuring everyone is satisfied and has a great day on the water! I am looking forward to fishing this event again next year!
The moral of the story here is the bite has been a bit tougher, but there are still plenty of fish and quality fish to be caught on Lake Oahe from Pierre all the way to Mobridge and above. Working those deeper depths and paying close attention to the weather patterns have been key for staying on fish these past few weeks.
News and Notes
The 2021 Masters Walleye Circuit (MWC) schedule was released this week and you will see some lakes you recognize! MWC will be making a trip to Big Stone Lake April 30-May 1 and then returning to the area to fish Mobridge once again in 2021 on June 25-26.
The June Mobridge event last year was nothing short of incredible, taking over 40 pounds over two days to win and showcasing both the quality and quantity of fish in Lake Oahe. I have no doubt the weights should be just as incredible next year and now is a great time to start making those plans to fish it next year!
This past week, zebra mussels were confirmed in Lake Cochrane in Deuel County. You may recall the discovery of zebra mussels in Pickerel Lake a few weeks ago. This prompted an emergency GFP Commission meeting in which Pickerel Lake, Waubay Lake, North and South Rush Lakes and Minnewasta Lake were all added to the list of containment waters.
Remember that regardless what lake or river you are fishing, it is important we all clean, drain and dry our boats and equipment. Never transport lake water in minnow buckets and make sure all your boat and livewell plugs are pulled. Just because the lake you are fishing is not classified a containment water does not mean the law doesn’t apply to you!
Learn More on Zebra Mussels in Lake Cochrane
The dog days of summer are certainly in full force, but I hope you all are able to get out and enjoy some time fishing. Stay cool and good fishing!
“Like” Lip Ripper Guide Service on Facebook
