The 2023 South Dakota Governor’s Cup was held July 15-16 on Lake Oahe launching out of Spring Creek Recreation Area in Pierre. Mason Propst and Nick Harrington were both very excited for the event after enjoying an excellent pre-fish. Unfortunately, the hot bite they had been on fizzled out at the wrong time. The boys weighed in five fish for 9.10 pounds on Day One, they then brought one fish for 1.14 pounds, bringing their two-day total to 10.24 pounds.
Strong Pre-Fish Brings High Expectations
The boys began their focused pre-fishing for the South Dakota Governor’s Cup Saturday, July 8. While Mason focused on bottom bouncing deeper water with Mack’s Lure Smile Blades, Nick put the lead out to troll crankbaits along the same points and breaklines. Mason was able to put together a good pattern of quality slot fish, while Nick was able to do the same trolling crankbaits.
Nick focused on trolling crankbaits because it gave him the opportunity to really cover water, read his graph, mark where he was seeing the most fish, and see the type of fish he was marking as well. Nick covered a great number of points in this process and was able to put several quality slots in the boat, while also catching a 25 incher that bit at the absolute perfect time for his fishing report!
The second day of pre-fish, Nick focused on pulling bottom bouncers with spinners aggressively off the same type of points he fished previously. He started by fishing in areas he marked fish trolling, before exploring points with the same type of characteristics. He also spent more time focusing on main lake flats, pulling these spinners quickly across them to cover water and find active fish.
The third day of pre-fishing was more of the same, this time back to trolling crankbaits to complete the exploration of similar points. These resulted in more quality slot fish entering the boat, which allowed Nick to explore areas he expected to encounter larger overs.
Feeling good about the first three days of pre-fishing and experiencing adverse weather on day four and five, Nick and Mason focused on rigging the boat and ensuring everything was prepared for the last two days of pre-fishing and ultimately tournament day. The approach they took to pre-fishing this year allowed them to focus on a specific section of Lake Oahe and hone in on the best bites.
Day six of pre-fishing started by exploring one last area the boys felt could have potential for a “mega bag” and following several passes, the boys were able to identify this would not be an area they spend time on tournament day. Following this confirmation, they began specifically focusing on their top areas. This quickly resulted in two more overs and more slot fish.
Feeling confident in their areas, day seven the boys focused on checking the final areas they did not fish the day before. Once again, this resulted in a quick over. The boys were then able to rule out a few lesser-productive areas and identify the top areas for them to focus on tournament day.
49th Annual South Dakota Governor’s Cup
The 49th Annual South Dakota Governor’s Cup hosted by The Fishing Crew took off in four flights, beginning at 7 a.m., launching out of Spring Creek Recreation Area north of Pierre. Teams were given eight lock-and-seal tags, with the top six walleyes being weighed. State regulations allow only one walleye over 20 inches per angler, meaning teams could bring up to two “overs” to the scale as part of their six-fish tournament limit.
The overall good bite made strategy critical for all teams, who were looking to put together their best “slot” fish, which are walleyes 15-19 ¾ inches. To contend, teams would also need to bring two overs each day. Anglers do not have the ability to cull walleyes, which means once the decision to keep the fish was made it could not be released.
Day One Features Wind, Haziness, and Changing Patterns
Day One as the majority of the boats headed north, the blue Lund 1875 Pro Guide took a left and headed south towards the face of the Oahe Dam. After a relatively short boat ride, the boys set out leadcore and looked to continue the pattern they had been working on the last seven days. The Lowrance graph told a different story.
Throughout pre-fish, an abundance of bait was appearing in less than 30 feet of water. Come tournament day, no bait could be found shallower than 30 feet and the vast majority was actually being found out between 30-55 feet, as deep as 60-70 feet. The fish that had been following the bait, and being kept relatively shallow because of that, were nowhere to be found.
Two hours into tournament hours, there were no fish in the Lund livewell. After some minor adjustments, the boys were able to put a 16 ½, 15 ½, and 17 ½ in the livewell fairly quickly. Hoping this pattern would continue, they released another 15 incher, before the bite went from slow, to a standstill. After thoroughly working over the area, it was time to come up with a new plan.
After another hour graphing points and bottom bouncing spinners, there was nothing more to show for their efforts. Pivoting to a new strategy, they brought the crankbaits back out to focus on a large, main-lake flat. This produced a stout 18 ½ incher, but no other fish were to be had.
As the wind continued to build, the boys ran to one last area close to the launch to maximize their remaining fishing time. Trolling in literal circles, they were able to put a 19 ⅞ in the boat to catapult themselves into a significantly better bag, bringing a total of 9.10 pounds with one fish short of a tournament limit.
After Day One, Chris Haines and Ben Brown lead the pack with 23.08 pounds. In pursuit of them in second was Josh Brown and Blaine Linke with 21.40 pounds. Three 20-pound bags rounded out the Top 5, with Trinity and Deegan Houska at 20.81 pounds, Tanner Thompson-Moad and Derek Meshke at 20.69 pounds, and Wayne Wilcox and Gage Gordon at 20.09 pounds.
Day Two Features More Changing Conditions, Slowing Bites
Day Two featured more of the same as Day One, with the bite continuing to fizzle in many areas of the lake. Feeling confident they had found something at the end of Day One, the blue Lund tiller began Day Two where they finished the day before. When the boys arrived, they found a much different scene than the one they had left on the Lowrance screens and after several passes, decided they needed to run back to their primary locations, focusing on the deep water bite.
After finding barren screens up and down the primary areas, it was time to enter scramble mode to salvage the day. Heading north, the boys checked a variety of areas trolling crankbaits and bottom bouncing, but were only able to coax one 15 ½ incher into biting.
While this was both a disappointing and unexpected outcome, the boys were confident in their tournament strategy. Throughout pre-fishing, the bait had been entirely in depths less than 30 feet, holding walleyes primarily between 14-23 feet deep. In some instances, fish were even shallower than this. Fish were primarily scattered across both depth and location, which made trolling crankbaits the ideal strategy for targeting this bite.
The boys focused on a specific area because they felt the combination of both the quality slots and overs would result in a very strong bag. In pre-fish, many of the slot fish were 18-18 ½ inches and there was an abundance of 16-17 inch fish as well. There were also a good number of 20-23 inch “overs”, with overs 25 inches and greater present as well. Overall, the walleyes were in excellent condition and the boys were confident they could bring a 14-16 pound bag both days, with the potential for larger bags too.
When the bait dove into deeper depths, not only did this impact the location of walleyes, but also the effective presentation for them as well. A bite that had previously been well set up for trolling crankbaits became more conducive to vertical presentations on live imaging. These changing bites are part of the game in competitive walleye fishing and unfortunately, the bite changed against the boys’ plan for this tournament.
The 2023 Governor’s Cup tournament was won by Chris Haines and Ben Brown, with a two-day weight of 40.22 pounds. Second place went to Jason Stahl and Jeremy Roe, bringing 39.77 pounds. Third place was Josh Brown and Blaine Linke, with 36.61 pounds.
A total of 182 teams participated in the event with teams coming from across the country to participate. Next year will be the 50th Annual South Dakota Governor’s Cup. The Governor’s Cup is hosted by The Fishing Crew.
