On the Missouri River in South Dakota with Steve Schaefer

On 06/09/2019 Tracey Hayward and Mike Woods traveled 467 miles from Cedar Rapids Iowa to Kimball South Dakota. Tracey pulled his new 1875 Lund Impact that still needed some motor break in time. They arrived late afternoon on Sunday and we decided to put in Monday at Chamberlain and fish Lake Francis Case.We motored the 17 miles up to the Big Bend dam area . Tracey and Mike fished from his boat and I fished with my son Chris in our 1875 Lund Pro Guide. Due to the extreme high water most of the usual ramps are closed and we found that the high water ramp was open. Motoring up and back that day was perfect for Tracey to put some hours on his motor. Once up to the dam area we started fishing in 15′-25′ of water. Walleyes have to be over 15″ with one over 20″ for your daily limit of 4 each. We caught fish pulling 2oz bottom bouncers tipped with minnows, crawlers and leeches. Slow death hooks, plain red hooks and both hooks with either a bead or bead with a small prop produced. Combined we caught over 100 fish that day and had to do a lot of sorting. We finished with our 16 fish walleye limit by mid afternoon. Suppers at night were enjoyed at Club Vega in Kimball which is only a block from the home we stayed at. On Tuesday we decided to fish Lake Sharpe which runs between Fort Thompson and Pierre South Dakota. We put in at North Shore boat ramp which is about a 50min truck ride from Kimball. Once on the water we fished using the same presentations as the previous day with excellent results. We never had to travel far from the ramp and found our walleye in 18′-22′ of water working the high banks and some mid lake humps that I’ve had way-pointed for years. We caught fewer total fish but had our 16 walleye limit by early afternoon. My son Chris had to return to Sioux Falls after fishing and I fished with Mike and Tracey for the last 2 days. On Wednesday the 3 of us went back to the North Shore landing and repeated our steps from the previous day again using all three baits. On Wednesday the light winds we had been enjoying quit and the water was flat calm and the gnats were out in full force. Later morning the breeze picked up and we had our limit of 12 walleye by early afternoon. For supper that evening we took some fresh walleye to Club Vega and they breaded them up and deep fat fried them for us. Outstanding and delicious supper, thank you Russ. Thursday was our last day on the water and once again we pulled the boat to North Shore and fished Sharpe. Wind was blowing the hardest of all four days but fishing was excellent and we were off with our 12 fish limit by noon. We used the same presentations as the previous days but as water temps rose to the high 60’s it became more of a crawler and leech bite. Great week of fishing and we caught walleye, sauger, small mouth bass, catfish and sheepshead. Thank you, Steve Schaefer

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