The “summer time blues” can hit even the most dedicated angler, but luckily fishing across South Dakota can still be very good in the heat of summer.
On the Missouri River, anglers begin to transition up from Lake Francis Case to reservoirs like Lake Sharpe and Lake Oahe. The deep-water bite on the lower end of the reservoirs often produces some of the best fishing as well.
The Glacial Lakes region can produce excellent fishing as well. Deep submerged weed beds can hold walleyes all summer and the main basin bite on lakes can produce for anglers as well. Larger lakes like Waubay, Bitter, Poinsett and Thompson can often produce the best fishing this time of year.
Summer Walleye Fishing
Mixing It Up for Mid-Summer Weedline Walleyes
Hot weather, high sun, summer thunderstorms, and deep water walleyes. For anglers across the Midwest, these four elements all seem to go hand in hand. Fortunately, that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case! When it comes to targeting walleye on natural lakes in the mid-summer, one of the highest percentage areas is going to be shallow, weedy bays.
Trolling Crankbaits for Mid-Summer Weedline Walleyes
As the calendar flips to August, temperatures continue to rise, and the thoughts of the upcoming school, football, and hunting seasons all come to mind it’s easy to forget about walleye fishing. For many anglers, the mid-summer blues can hit hard, and the belief is that walleyes have slid out into the deep water, only to return when temperatures finally begin to cool in fall. However, there continues to be a great bite shallow often all summer long!
Trolling Crankbaits for Deep Water Walleyes on Eagle Lake
When the calendar flips to August, and mid-summer grips the region, there’s one sure bet to find big walleyes and that’s in deep water. There can be good fish found shallow in the weeds, or holding in a river mouth, but wherever walleye swim in the middle of summer there can be fish found in the deeper, cooler water. As I learned on my trip to Eagle Lake, this is as true for this fishery as every other one I have encountered!
Following the Forage on Eagle Lake
When it comes to fishing, regardless of species or location, one of the most important aspects of finding fish is understanding the forage they are targeting and how that will impact your location and presentation. Many times, particularly in the mid-summer, there are a variety of forage patterns that are currently present and understanding each of them is key to staying on top of active fish.
Summer Walleye Fishing in South Dakota
Locating and Patterning Lake Oahe Summer Walleye
Lake Oahe is a large and expansive reservoir that features numerous structural elements including points, humps, islands, flats, and hundreds of creeks and other tributaries. Reaching depths of greater than 100 feet all along the reservoir, there is no shortage of water to try to find walleye.
Lake Erie Meets Lake Sharpe: Mixing It Up for Mid-Summer Walleye
Mid-summer as a walleye angler is a time to slow down, try new things, and think outside the box. Particularly, for me, this is the end of the 2025 tournament season and a time to try new things and work on improving as an angler. One of the ways to do this is to try new techniques, and sometimes that means breaking out some secrets from the Great Lakes!
Fumbling into Summer Walleyes on Lake Sharpe
Sometimes you go out right away and the morning bite is fantastic! Sometimes you go out and your fish are right where they belong and cooperate exactly as they should! Sometimes none of that happens, and you’re left trying to scratch out any sort of bite! That happens more than many of us would like to admit, but when you dedicate some time, cover water, and fish aggressively more often than not you can fumble into another bite!
Blue vs Purple, Does Color Matter When Trolling Crankbaits?
As anglers it’s very easy to get wrapped up in the color of our crankbaits as we constantly search for the “hot color” or “secret bait.” The question is, does color actually matter when it comes to trolling crankbaits for walleye? In this mini study, we put blue and purple against each other on a mid-summer day on Lake Sharpe near Pierre.
Spring fishing is a special time of year in South Dakota. Anglers come from across the country to take advantage of the year-round walleye season, put their boats in the Missouri River, and fill stringers of walleye. As the weather warms, the grass turns green, and other fisheries open up across the region the same fisheries that attracted anglers in the spring have much more parking available at the boat ramps. Indeed, many summer bites in South Dakota are some of the best kept secrets!
Mid-summer on the Missouri River reservoirs mean it’s time to focus on deep water. Anglers who are able to identify deep water structure and present their baits effectively can still enjoy excellent fishing throughout the summer months. The weather may be hot, but that doesn’t mean the bite can’t be too!
Historically one of the top walleye fishing destinations in the country, Lake Oahe can produce spectacular fishing, but can also be very daunting for anglers as well. The reservoir features hundreds of creeks and tributaries, thousands of points, submerged islands, large flats, and an abundance of deep-water structure that can leave anglers overwhelmed looking at the map. Fortunately, there is likely no easier time to fish Lake Oahe than in the early summer months.
While the summertime blues can hit many walleye anglers across the region, one of the best summer walleye fisheries in the region is Lake Oahe. The summer patterns on Lake Oahe can set up to provide some of the best opportunities to catch a trophy walleye all season for many anglers. Fishing can change drastically from the bite in the early summer, but generally speaking there is still great fishing to be had!
Many anglers associate spring and fall as some of the best fishing of the year, but as the calendar flips to June the fishing on Lake Oahe is only beginning to fire up. An expansive reservoir, Lake Oahe connects two capitals. Beginning at Garrison Dam in Bismarck North Dakota, the reservoir stretches down to the Oahe Dam in Pierre, South Dakota. While Oahe can produce excellent salmon and smallmouth fishing opportunities, it is the walleye that keep anglers coming back year after year.
Nick Harrington discusses the challenges summer walleye fishing presents and how he counters these challenges on both reservoir and lake walleye in Mid-Summer Walleye Tactics.
Nick Harrington discusses early summer walleye tactics for the Missouri River reservoirs in Serving Up Missouri River Walleye.
Nick Harrington discusses how he finds the most success when he keeps his approach as simple as possible when targeting fish on the Missouri River reservoirs in Keeping it Simple for Missouri River Reservoir Walleye.
Walleye fishing on the Missouri River reservoirs can get tough in summer, but fish can still be caught. Find out what Nick Harrington does to put fish in the boat in Cool Presentations for Hot Summer Walleye!
Bottom Bouncing for Walleye
In the first installment on bottom bouncers, Nick Harrington discusses everything you’ll need to go know when it comes to bottom bouncing. From rods and reels to weights and blades Nick covers a little bit of everything in Bottom Bouncing Basics.
In this second edition, Nick Harrington discusses how critical speed and boat control is when it comes to separating a fair day and a great day on the water in Bottom Bouncing II: Speed and Boat Control.
In the third edition, Nick Harrington discusses ways to make your rig even more attractive to fish. This becomes increasingly important in the middle of summer, when forage becomes much more abundant in the system. Find out everything you need to know in Bottom Bouncing III: Being Attractive.
As the season progresses, the best blade options will progress as well. Nick Harrington breaks down how his blade selection can vary across the seasons, weather and water conditions in Bottom Bouncing Blade Selection.
The Mack’s Lure Smile Blade is one of the hottest blades on the bottom bouncing scene right now and for good reason. The Smile Blade produces the perfect amount of flash, vibration and color to draw walleyes to your baits. The Smile Blade is a critical part of both Mason Propst’s and Nick Harrington’s tackle box, learn everything you need to know about it in Fishing the Mack’s Lure Smile Blade.
One of the most important aspects of being a successful bottom bouncer is having the right snell at the end of your line. Nick Harrington breaks down everything you need to know about tying your own snells in Snell Tying Basics.
While many basic bottom bouncing rigs can catch fish, some days more advanced presentations are the most successful. This is especially true during the hot summer months. Nick Harrington details the aspects of some of his more advanced snells in Advanced Snell Tying.
Trolling Crankbaits for Walleye
Whether you are walking through the local tackle store, ordering baits online, or even scrolling your social media feed you’ll encounter hundreds, if not thousands, of baits you can utilize for trolling crankbaits for walleyes. So many baits yet you can only tie on one to each rod at a time, how do you decide? The most efficient anglers select baits based on three criteria: profile, size and color. Take a deep dive into how these components factor into your bait selection and you’ll spend less time tying new baits and more time catching fish!
While many anglers may get wrapped up in hot colors, secret spots, magic baits, and the time of the moon rise the best anglers are going to be focused on a much less glamorous, but more important aspect of their presentation-boat control. Whether you are bottom bouncing, dragging jigs, casting crankbaits, or trolling crankbaits mastering boat control is critical to success.
Trolling crankbaits is a popular way to target walleye throughout all of the open water months. Regardless what time of year you’re trolling crankbaits, an important component of your trolling program is a planar board. Planar boards serve a variety of purposes and when deployed properly, will help you crank more fish into the boat.
Trolling crankbaits is an extremely popular technique for targeting walleye across all waterbodies and fisheries. This is for good reason, trolling crankbaits allows anglers to cover the most water, contact active fish, and is an extremely simple presentation as a whole. Despite it’s popularity, many anglers still do not take advantage of one of the greatest aspects that makes trolling crankbaits effective.
