Eden

[curtisce]

Eden evokes thoughts of paradise,For me it is Eden SD where my brother and I have gone for the last 5 years around Memorial day. It strarted as a long Memorial weekend and has morphed into a 12 day   fishing marathon. Eden is in the notheast corner of SD in the galcial lakes region. I don't know much about geology but the area is fasinating. The galcial push apparently pushed up this area ,it is 600 feet higher than the surrounding ground. The rolling hills collect and hold water. Backin the late 80's heavy snows and rains flooded the area enlarging lake and creating new ones. Farm land and home were engu;lfed in the process. The rising water was a boom for the fisheries and big walleye lakes were formed. In the last 4 years rain has been lacking and the water levels are coming down. Fishing isn't as good as it was but it is still pretty good.

         Diverse as well we caught or shot 7 different spieces this year. My main attraction is the bass. 4 years ago LM were abundant. Their number have decreased but the SM remain strong. northerns come along while fishing for bass. Everyone else there fishing are pusueing walleye or panfish and since my brother is a long time SD resident we have to spend time fishing for them. We camp at a state park on Roy Lake and travel 10-30 minutes to lakes around us. We usually fish 2 lakes a day.This year we fished 12 different lakes. The weather often helps us with or choices. This year wind was the main issues,years past major cold fronts . Despite bad weather the fish are usually willing to bite. This year my best day the wind was blowing 25mph so we were limited where we could fish on a smaller lake. My best 5 weigheed 22# and I caught several SM in the 3# range. my brother found a grade where the walleye were comng up to in the evening. A grade is where a road that has been flooded is recovered by bringing in massive loads of rock creating a damlike riprap. One night he caught 15 walleys only 1 under the 20" size, inSD you are allowed only 1 walleye 20" or above. His biggest 28". We spent a few evening there before heading to Club Eden. The town club in Eden home of cheap beer, $3.75 for a 22oz IPA  and eats.  Wednesday night is wing night. They served 3600 wings on Wednesday night, pretty good for a town of less than a 100 people. The other thing that draws me to the area is the abundunt wildlife. It is spring and all the wildlife is out doing what they do. Geese this year were over the top. Everywhere and making as much noise as they could . If I could put down my fishing rod I would love to do some bird watching. Not only the waterfowl but song birds, pheasants, turtledoves, and turkeys.Lots more stroies but I'll finish with some pics.

    

Google earth from mid 1980's and 2014  Not uncommon to see flloded farm yards

 

big Smallmouth love bubblegum

2 nice LM

Big fish of the trip she maxed out my 25#scale  estimating 35#

Good sized nothern

football smallie

limit of walleyes for the 3 of us

celebrating our catch at Club Eden

found the whites shallow one day, kept 30 all males. caught 75 between 3 of us in about an hour

These smallie was into body piercing

biggest walleye of the trip taken from the grade  28"

[Quillback]

Great trip!  I watched a fishing show where they were fishing somewhere in that area and catching big yellow perch, I mean big ones.  Looks like a great place to fish with lots of diversity.  Did you hear a lot of pheasants?  Never have hunted in that part of the state, but I believe there is a lot of public land there to hunt.

[BilletHead]

         Great report Curt,

        Fun with family and fishing. Good deal all around. What you all don't know is I was getting pictures daily from Curt. A play by play fishing report. Thanks buddy!

BilletHead

[curtisce]

11 hours ago, Quillback said:

Great trip!  I watched a fishing show where they were fishing somewhere in that area and catching big yellow perch, I mean big ones.  Looks like a great place to fish with lots of diversity.  Did you hear a lot of pheasants?  Never have hunted in that part of the state, but I believe there is a lot of public land there to hunt.

My brother hunted deer in the area before the water came up. Lots of sloughs and cattails. He said he never saw so many pheasants. Don’t see or hear them up where we camp but we saw several one day we were about 30 miles south. There are 2 lodges up there that offer hunting. Lynn lake lodge andHidden Hills. 

[Johnsfolly]

Great report. I love seeing the photos. Those are some great fish. I'm glad that you could get our with your brother. That makes the time a bit more special than just going out with guys like BilletHead . He sends me his fish photos when he knows that I am not fishing or not catching the types or size fish that he is. Glad to see that he was getting your photos of some great fish. Seems like a fair turn.