2011 in Review

It was an excellent year for the mid-section of Lake Oahe. Large quantities of Walleyes were caught easily throughout most of the season. Fishermen are still getting their limits. The average size was down a little, showing signs of great spawns and lots of fish for the coming years. Follows is a recap and some of the highlights from 2011.

This is a shot of the Pike Haven ramp in April blocked with drifting shale.

We did struggle a little in the spring. Due to cool weather, the walleyes stayed in the Cheyenne River longer than usual. Some nice fish were caught, but numbers weren’t what we are used to.

Typically, as the weather warms in June, so does the walleye bite. Through the first part of June, 2011, the weather was cool, and the fishing was challenging compared to typical years. Myself, as well as, many others found the bite to be excellent, but some found it difficult to locate active fish. Northern Pike, however, were very active, and large enough to put up an exciting fight on a walleye rig.

Follows are some pictures of Pike Haven guests and their fish taken during the June time period.

During July everyone found it easy to catch walleye in this part of Lake Oahe. They would bite about anything and in depths from 2 to 35 feet (salmon fishermen also caught them in 80 feet of water). Size wise, we caught fish from 12 inches to 30 inches. I would say that the most typical walleye was between 16 and 17 inches long. A bit smaller than recent years, but nice, fat and feisty. A boat of three fishing a reasonable day could easily catch over a 100 fish. Some where during mid-July we started picking up good number of mid-twenty inch fish as well. This continued for about 3 weeks, and it is hard to imagine better walleye fishing than we experienced during that period.

The good fishing continued into the fall without a noticeable let up. Coupled with pleasant fall weather made for a wonderful fall fishing season well into November.

We anticipate another great year in 2012. Make your plans early to secure your accommodations and guide services.

July 25 Report

Walleyes seem to be all over this part of Lake Oahe. Fish in 10 to 25 feet, drag a crawler on about anything. Move along 1/2 to 1 mile per hour and catch lots of fish. The tricky part is to hook up with larger fish. Just keep working the good spots and you will get them too. Here's a picture of today's catch with George and Bill. We got most of them near the Little Bend camp ground area.

July 9 Report

Walleyes are biting throughout this part of the Lake in both shallow and water upto 30 feet. Crawlers are the bait of choice and crankbait pulling is effective also. In addition to walleye, fishermen are catching a lot of northern pike.

June 26 Report

Rain, wind, more rain and wind. Difficult fishing conditions recently. The good spots here are the mouth of the Cheyenne and near Bush's Landing. More but smaller fish can be caught further north. Depth varies from 15 to 25 feet depending on the location and wind. Crawlers and leeches seem to be the most popular, however some are catching on minnows yet. This is a photo of the Finch family catch, fishing around Bush's in 20 to 25 feet on crawlers.

Nebraska Rookies

This picture shows Bob and Neil of Lincoln with their first walleyes.

June 17 & 18 - The Polzaks

Tom and Bryan of Ogallala, NE were my guests this time out and were great fishermen. We continued to catch walleyes up and down the Cheyenne. Lots of northerns were caught also.

June 14 and 15 - Good Fishing Continues

The fish continue to bite in the Cheyenne River arm. Sansarc had lots of fish but many are smaller. Joe's Creek was good for better size. Biting on crawlers, leeches and minnows. This is Jason Grof and his friend.

June 12, 2011 Report

The Cheyenne River arm is hot. Nearly all fishing there were doing well over the weekend. All sizes of walleyes were in the creels. The Sansarc area was probably the easiest bite, but reports were good from about every bay in the arm. Shallow water was the key, from 10 feet to the shoreline.

I fished with the Larry Marchant family from Rapid City, shown in the first photo. Drew, the youngest of the group caught the most fish. Besides catching our limit of walleye, we caught many pike, catfish, white bass and a few smallies.

I am posting some other photos from the weekend also.

By the way, lake access is normal as is boating on Lake Oahe.

June 9

Quick note on improved fishing around Cheyenne River. Took the Larry Merchant family of Rapid and Huron out and caught our limit ranging from 15 to 22 inches, plus good numbers of small pike and few of everything else. Shallow water on minnows or leeches or crawlers or pitched crankbaits. More later. Getting on the lake is easy at Little Bend.

Memorial Weekend Report, May 30

I fished with Doug & Amy Lindhorst and Kris Beckler from Nebraska for two days. Day one was 20 mph winds which limited our options. We mostly fished in the back of Rousseau Bay in the Cheyenne River catching northern pike and white bass. Day two brought less wind early but overcast and some rain. We went back further in the Cheyenne but found it to contain dirtier water than I like. Ended up catching a couple of walleye, pike again and bass around Joe's creek. Amy caught this 28 inch walleye on a crankbait and a 19-20 inch white bass that she was proud of.

Chuch Keuck of North Sioux City was fishing around the mouth of the Cheyenne and pulled up a surprising catch with his walleye jig. This picture shows his 36 inch, 10 pound Burbot, just a couple of pounds off of a state record. I bet that was a scary moment when it first came into view.

Ramps are open on Lake Oahe

We heard rumors that fishermen couldn't launch boats on Lake Oahe due to high water. This is NOT the case. The ramps are constructed to accomodate high water conditions.

The high water does create some challenges for fishermen in that the water is slow to warm and generally cloudly. The Cheyenne is where we have been getting our fish still and it will be running pretty hard for a while. Still some good fishing in the lower third of the Cheyenne. Peak for this part of the Lake will again be later than usual.

Cabin Opening for 2011 Trucker's Tournament

A late cancelation has created a rare room opening for this years tournament. Give us a call if you need a place.

Early May, 2011 Report

We slipped up into the Cheyenne River yesterday. The weather was perfect. We caught three nice walleye, 25", 27" and 28", two smaller pike, lost a big pike and one white bass. We were using a jig/minnow in the Fish Gut area at about 15 feet. Here is a picture of the biggest walleye.

The water level is very high again this year. The eroding shale banks continue to mound up on the boat ramp, requiring regular removal, but we are keeping it open.