Get a Limit & Go Home

The weather was anything but stable and it was starting to take a turn for the worse.  The forecast was for westerly flow in the morning turning northwesterly by 2 PM and then big T storms to move in after that. When South Dakota calls for big thunderstorms, boys, pay attention.  Things can get dicey.   I am going to hit it early, fish two lakes and head for the barn by 1 PM.   Fishing is better if you have some chop on the water, especially for walleyes and with the light wind, I had it this morning.   A test of Swan would be a good idea for a couple of hours and then  head over to Lynn and finish out the morning.  Where else can you go that you can move from lake to lake and have excellent fishing most of the time?  

The master fisherman of the lake.  Pelicans were thick and they came within feet of the boat.

I have never seen Swan this calm when I got to the lake.  A light breeze was starting, but still I wanted to get some quick fishing in before going to Lynn.  Using spinners tipped with a crawler, I dropped the lure to the bottom, about 15 feet.  Then I lifted it off about a foot and moved slowly parallel to the bank just beyond a weed line.  It did not take long and I picked up a 15 inch walleye.  A little light chop started to form and after about 30 minutes, I picked up another smaller fish that had to be thrown back.  The guys at Sportsman Cove said I might have to do some sorting, but I did not want to go through that process again.  Working back and forth along the bank, I picked up smaller fish, and then finally a keeper walleye.  I took it.  Fifteen inches is legal meat, and it is meat I  wanted.  I had been on the lake 90 minutes and then was out of there heading over to Lynn Lake.

This is not good.  What we want are waves.

Off the lake and heading back to Webster, it was time for some personal fuel.  After a stop at the local Casey's for coffee and a breakfast sandwich, I headed up to Lynn.  The lake at the dock area sits down in a bowl and if the wind comes up, you are somewhat sheltered.  You have to pay $5.00 to launch and park your rig there as this is not a state area.  This is almost a two person job, but I was able to handle it as there were no other people wanting to use the ramp.

The water in this lake is clear and you can see a long way down.  Since the spinner produced at Swan, staying with that lure was the thing to do.  The boat was moved into 10 to 15 feet of water and the spinner was put to work.  Bang!  Something really hit it hard and started peeling out the line.  There is only one fish that will do that in these lakes, and that is the Northern Pike.  Getting the butt of the rod under my forearm for extra leverage, I started to crank him in.  He came nicely.  When he got close to the boat, he took off down and out.  Generally, the northern seem to go for the motor or under the boat, and you literally have to walk around in the boat to position the rod and yourself to haul him in.  After several runs, he began to tire, and so did my right arm.  Bending down and grabbing a gaff as he was pulled close to the boat, I switched hands with the rod and with the right hand gaffed him.  That made him really mad, but he was in the boat, and I was able to take this picture with a camera mounted on a tripod.

Decent size northern.  Once the Y bones are removed, it will provide excellent dining.

I continued to work the shoreline and moved deeper.  I had an outfitter in Canada one time tell me, "When you catch a northern, move off to one side or go deeper, and there the walleye will be."  With that in mind, in a little deeper water a couple of walleye were picked up to make a limit for the day.  In addition, a couple of northern was boated, and it was time to get out of South Dakota before the weather changed and the big storms rolled across the plains. 

Life can't get any better than this.

.

I had a great morning and picked up some keeper northern pike.  Once the Y bones were removed they provided friends and family some excellent dining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS_cHdKS-_A

The video above gives an excellent demonstration of taking out the Y bones in a northern pike.

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Good hunting, good fishing, and good luck.  Hank

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It is Called Fishing, Not Catching

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Behold the fisherman.
He riseth up early in the morning
And disturbeth the whole household.
Mighty are his preparations.
He goes forth full of hope,
And when the day is far spent
He returns.
Smelling of strong drink and the
Truth is not with him.

Day three of our three day fishing extravaganza started out with  absolutely beautiful weather.  Not a cloud in the sky, and the wind was finally out of the west to northwest at about 5 to 10 mph.  We were determined now to have a possession limit of fish and be off the lake by noon.

We stayed at the Ramkota Hotel.  Parking and plug in for the boat.  As an added plus, they will cook your catch, and fishermen get a discount for staying at the hotel.

A quick drive around the town of Pierre, SD was interesting.  We both commented about how lucky the people that lived here must feel with the waters of the Missouri River so close by and the beauty of the natural grasslands rolling out across the prairies.

Pierre is the capital of the state of South Dakota.

Again, we were the only boat to arrive at the lake and began a quick tour around certain areas just to see what our graph told us.  An old friend once said to me," Let your fish finder be your eyes."  I have caught fish in areas that  did not show any fish, but if the graph was showing fish, the odds went way up you would catch something.

Entrance to the Ramkota.

For the last two days we had primarily used the Berkley Flickr Shad and a chartreuse spinner tipped in red.  We started out with the spinners and a minnow coated with Gulp Alive.  No action took place.  We moved to the south end of the lake to the weed beds, then north till we were just off the front edge of the weeds.  At this location, we back trolled the boat with the kicker at a very slow rate just enough to get the spinner to turn.  Nothing happened.  We also noticed the water appeared more turbid than it was on our first two days, and that bothered us somewhat.

Berkley Gulp Alive Freshwater Spray Attractant

We use this product with good luck.  Click on the pic or link to buy from Bass Pro.

Finally at 11 AM with not a hit or any sign of fish activity, we called it a day and went back to the room to get our fish from the motel, check out, and head for home. 

This was a good trip even though we did not get possession limit.  We still have a nice mess of fish to invite friends over to enjoy.

Berkley Flicker Shad Crankbaits

This is the lure of the decade.  I have caught more fish on it in the last two years than anything in the box.  Multiple colors and sizes, click on the pic or the link and buy from Bass Pro.

Good hunting, good fishing, and good luck.  Hank

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We Earned Success This Day



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Back at it on the second day of a three day trip, we were ready for action.  After dining at excellent restaurants in Pierre, a good motel, and a night's rest, we were ready to fish.  The weather had greatly improved and settled down with light and variable winds out of the southwest.  They were just where we wanted them.

On the lake by 7:30 AM, we took a slow moving tour over half the lake on each side to see if we would graph fish.  It looked promising.  Where we did not graph fish the day before, we were starting to show some suspended fish in around 6 to 8 feet of water with most of them lying in about two to three feet from the bottom.  Suspended fish are feeding fish and this was what we wanted.

Berkley Flicker Shad Crankbaits

This is the lure to own.  Click on the link or pic to buy from Bass Pro.  Multiple colors and sizes provides a lot of options for different conditions.

After hooking up the Berkley Flickr Shad, we began working some of the spots we had missed before.  Sure enough, we started seeing some action.  Most of the fish were below fifteen inches and were promptly thrown back, but periodically we would pick up a keeper.

Around 11 AM we hit a time period for about an hour when it was 10 minutes for each of us between each fish we hauled in.  We were the only boat on the lake, and this was a good thing for us as we had it all to ourselves.  Just a note about this lake.  We never met any people other than locals that were fishing it.  They were always most helpful and knowledgeable about the area.  I need to point out that the weather was anything but stable.  Right before we had our bonanza, the temperature became much warmer and very very humid.  We both commented about how the weather kept changing during the day on this trip.  This was not stability we were experiencing.

Pam nailed a really nice white bass.

It just turned off around 12:30 PM and we continued to fish for about 30 minutes more.  We had a daily limit for both of us with a few white bass thrown in and one really nice northern pike.  We will take all the northern  pike we can get.  All you need to do is take out the Y bones and you have a great fillet.  Watch the video below and it will show you how to get out the bones.

Not bad for a mornings work.

After cleaning up the mess of fish, we went to town to get some lunch and put the fish in the freezer.  If they turned on again, we wanted to be there to catch and release.  We were limited out for the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS_cHdKS-_A

(Click on the link above to see the video on taking out the Y bones on a northern)



Back on the lake by 3 PM, the wind had turned to the northwest, and the temperature had dropped a lot.  It must have been a 10 degree drop because Pam put on a light weight jacket.  We were catching nothing.  To the north of Pierre it became very black very quickly and then the blackness spread out.  The wind moved to the northeast and really began to blow.  We could see streaks of white coming down out of the clouds.  We both were concerned that the weather pattern was moving south, but it stayed on a southeasterly course and missed us.  We got the boat to the ramp, tied up and just sat there waiting for the wind to go down and the system to pass.


Bass Pro Shops Stainless Steel Hook Remover

This tool is a must for my boat.  With all the little treble hooks with plug you need something to peel out the hooks and not out of your fingers.  Click on the pic or link to buy from Bass Pro.



After about an hour, we went back out on the lake even though it was still quite choppy.  We fished for another hour with nothing happening.  On the news that evening, we found out there was hail to the north of Pierre and two tornadoes had touched down.  Still with all the changes in the weather yesterday and today, we had a limit of fish.

Good hunting, good fishing, and good luck.  Hank.

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