curtisce

Watch out for bigger boats

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First day in NE South Dakota after spending a windy wet weekend on the Missouri. Caught 4 smallies for the day 19#s photos to follow

Time for my 2 cents worth. Over the last few years the lower lake especially around the dam is predominately smallmouth. No one is going to win a tourney with a bag of smallmout so perhaps it gets less tourney pressure. The size of smallmouth in that area has grown IMO. This year on several outings there our catches have been over 50% keepers with 17 & 18" fish common. hope they don't get much bigger or they will be taking a boat ride soon.

Tried Alberto knot this weekend.With Double Uni knot that I have used when I get a lure snagged and had to break off it would always break at the knot. With the alberto it most often broke at the lure saving me from having to tie on a new leader. Thanks

Double uni I found works well. fairly simple and reliable.

Last week we found bait balls with bass hitting them in the same type if not the same location, back of coves behind docks. My first cast yielded a 3 1/4# LM. It's tail was worn wondered if it had spawned and then loaded up on shad.

With the weather forecast coming out last friday thought the Spring would be blown out but checking levels Sunday night showed the flow around 2000cfm so made plans to head down Monday morning. Forecast was for strong wind from the north keeping it cooler. Got down to the cc ramp around 7:30, prabably 10 rigs there. Several boats were right at the ramp area fishing. The river looked quite a bit lower but was able to launch. Wore my leaky Simms waders instead of bibs so I could get the boat launched easier and maybe do some wet wading at the gravell bar. Headed up river and hit some gravel ,so it was definitely lower. Followed ther channel up the left side and encountered another gravel bar. A fellow boater said I didn't need to go further that the fish were here. dropped the anchor and preseeded to catch whites. Not every cast but close. Had 13 after about 30 minutes, smaller males mostly. Decided to head up to the gravel bar in search of larger prey.A fellow flyfisherman was just above me pulling in fish cosistently. Mostly crappie he said so I started. He was right most running 10"-11". Caught a larger one every so often and in the cooler with those. Made a trip up higher in the river.; the wind hit me hard on the north/ south section. that and the current meade it difficult. Back to the gravel bar. The high banks and tall trees on the north bank took care of the strong breeze. Chartreuse and white clouser worked well in fact one fly would have caught all 67 of my fish if I had not lost it on my trip up river. Left around 1PM . Talked to one fisherman at the ramp and they had gone farer up river and found some larger whites. Looks like the most of the whites have spawned and are coming back down. The crappie still had eggs so there is still time for them. Endeed with 67 fish Few more crappie than whites. Brought home 13crappie and 8 whites which is my limit when it come to cleaning fish. Fellow Fly fisherman at gravelbar with his stringer River down means lots of carcasses on the bank

Great report, 2 of us fished the lower lake out of State Park Wednesday. Had liitle luck off points with Kietechs. Headed upstream towards Indian Point. Found some fish in behind the boat dock blowing up on a bait ball. My swimbait barely hit the water and it was engulfed by a 3 1/4# LM caught 3 more there. Tried some coves up in the creek with occasional luck. Got out more on the main lake and started hitting coves. Found the SM all along those banks, better towards the back. Like you said the keeper/short ratio was high. Caught probably 30 between us with most running 16-17". 4to 12 FOW with ned, occ.swimbait. Lots of empty nest , finding an occasional one occuppied.

Know you hate the wind. Spent the morning windering if you went till I got a text picture with fish.whenthe fish are biting you just gota go.

Went out of Mutton Creek around 7:00. Guess everybody but us new things were tough here as there were only 2 other trucks with trailers in the lot. Fished our way upstream and then into Pierce Branch. Then across the lake to a channel swing. Tried swimbaits, jig, crankbait,shakeyhead ,and then the Ned came out. Still only one small lm. Back up sac arm to Son Creek. Same there. Somebody recently had worse luck than us as the picture shows. Anybody have any knowledge as to what might have happened.3 big boys were around it several times in an old runabout looking like they were trying to figure out how to move this boat. We were off the water shortly after 12 as it seemed futile.

Lots of boulders apparently got washed out of the riprap one year. At low water levels they are easy to see. Alittle higheer and your lower unit will findd them. I typically run till I'm on the back side of the entry opoint and then idle back in.It is a log ways back.

I ca only guess but maybe it is their way of doing their fish report. Carcasses, it been good, nocarcasses good luck

Bedtime story at Jigfest no doubt