World Class Fishing in Dakotas

What a difference a day or two and about 300 miles in latitude can make.

The first three days of last week, some friends and I were fishing through holes in 30-inch thick ice at Devils Lake.

On Friday, another group and I were trolling spoons and crankbaits for salmon in Lake Oahe.


Pierre and Devils Lake, a pair of Dakota communities some 350 miles apart, both offering world-class fishing and hunting.

Neither fishing effort was anything to boast about.

Over three days at Devils Lake, I iced about 10 perch, a couple of walleyes and two large white bass. The others did about the same. The wind, a prairie constant, blew hard on each day as a procession of cold fronts passed through. Winter cold fronts shut off fish more than they do in the summer.

On Friday on Lake Oahe, the temperature rose to about 68 degrees, and even if the fish failed to cooperate, at least I didn't have to drill through any ice.

Aside from size, Pierre and Devils Lake are similar; a pair of Dakota cities that rely on fishing and hunting for a good deal of their economic activity. No wonder, for there are few communities anywhere that offer better fishing or hunting.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be hunting turkeys, fishing for pike and salmon, anticipating the arrival of morel mushrooms and, in general, enjoying the bounty of the outdoors good life.

I have often believed that one of the best strokes of luck in my life came when the broadcasting company I worked for transferred me from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Pierre in 1968. That was followed by a stint as press secretary to then Gov. Frank Farrar. By then, I had realized that I ended up in a place that was the closest thing to outdoor heaven.

I spent most of the first two years fishing nearly every stock dam on public and private land I could find, enjoying largemouth bass fishing that was as good as anywhere. Few South Dakotans had boats back in those days. Today, you will find boats parked in front of many Pierre residences, and I would guess that our per capita boat ownership is near the highest in the nation.

Of course, the reason is a fish known as the walleye, clearly the most sought after fish in South Dakota, and living on the upper reaches of Lake Sharpe gives me a frequent opportunity to target them. However, the fishing here is not limited to walleyes, for smallmouth bass and Chinook salmon have been introduced with both species prospering, and they take up a share of my time.

So do northern pike, and though Oahe's pike population is at a low ebb, those that remain are heavyweights. Fact is, there are only a couple of other places within the continental United States that offer such a good chance at catching a trophy pike.

The Missouri River has been a significant part of my life since I arrived here in 1968, and I built an outdoor communications career around that marvelous water. It's hard to imagine that when Lewis and Clark traveled up this river in 1804, only catfish and other typical river species were present. I sit on my deck overlooking the river realizing that these explorers passed by my home just upstream from where they narrowly escaped a skirmish with the Teton Sioux.

That other lake I fished last week, Devils Lake, rivals the river reservoirs for the quality of its walleye fishing, and I consider it one of the top two or three walleye fisheries in the nation.

It lies in east central North Dakota in the heart of the prairie pothole region, and the nearby countryside is dotted with wetlands and grasslands that produce as many ducks per square mile as most any other piece of real estate in all of the states and Canadian provinces that make up the prairie pothole region. However, that area lacks the upland game birds - the prairie grouse and ringneck pheasants that are so common here.

Therefore, I spend most of my time around Pierre, with frequent side trips to the Black Hills and glacial lakes region in northeastern South Dakota, but I always manage several trips annually to the Devils Lake area for fishing and the finest waterfowl hunting on Earth.

I do not take these bounties for granted, knowing that unwise land use could quickly render both areas to the status of ordinary.

Tony Dean, an outdoor broadcaster, writes a column every Wednesday for the Argus Leader.

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Great Manitoba Trout Fishing - Bob Sheedy's Page http://go.to/lakeflyfishing

Tony Dean ... Outdoors, Inc. 1013 North Grand Pierre, SD 57501 (605) 224-5104 FAX (605) 224-2977 E-mail for Tony Dean