October at Pine Falls Manitoba. Our group managed 3 11# walleyes and 2 12# walleyes. This was much slower than most years but the temps never went above freezing our entire time there and most of the time remained in the teens with occasional blizzard conditions. Walleye Flashers were the hot jig and a big ripper took one of the nice fish trolling.

2003

In early January, my brother Jack Johnson and Todd went to Cedar Bluffs and caught a few crappie in 35' - 40' on jigs. What a lake!!! You have to see it.

Todd Consbruck and Dave Wimmer went to Gavin's on 3-14 from noon to 4 pm. The fishing was.... interesting. We caught 300+ pounds of fish, paddlefish that is. Dave and I were scratching our heads, it's the first time either of us can remember fishing an area tailrace and not catching a walleye or sauger. There were 43 boats at one time in the basin and we saw approximately 4 walleye or sauger caught all afternoon. We knew numerous other people that were there fishing and all reported zero to two fish, even those that had fished all day. Good luck if you go, it has and will improve FAST!!!

Troy Consbruck reports a good crappie bite going on right now at Cedar Bluffs, limits taken. 3-17

Personal acquaintances and area websites are reporting that the bite is picking up in the Gavins, Verdel, Pickstown area. Those fish are moving up folks! Don't rely on yesterday's fishing report, get out there and slip drift, work the backs of sandbars, channel edges, holes, and warmer water. Night fishing has to pick up too! Chris Helms reports picking up a few nice fish at Harlan, he's a top fisherman on that lake. 3-27

Fished with my brother Troy at Cedar Bluffs April 4 & 5. Boy, were the weather guys wrong!! John and I cancelled going to the WWA in SD because of the impending weather system so I went to Kansas. It was worse there than Nebraska. I tried for trout in the spillway and we fished the lake for walleyes and crappie. I'm loathe to admit it, but we didn't catch a thing. I did enjoy fishing through 40 mph winds, snow flurries, and a thunderstorm. (not really)

Bob Eaton and I fished the SRWA/NWT at Sherman on April 12 & 13 finishing in 18th place. We were 9th or so day one but dropped back on Sunday. We found fish in 3-35' water at Sherman. The Neb GP was shocking and netting the week previously and it seemed that spawn was going pretty strong. Rigging and jigging worked for us, but not well enough. One thing I'll say about Sherman, if you can't find the fish, find the boats seems to be a strong philosophy. Welcome to tournament fishing.

My brother Troy and Jack Johnson did well on Cedar Bluffs this past weekend bass fishing in the shallows. Brush and spinnerbaits did the trick, other species were caught too.

Kirk Mueller reports the trout are going ok in SE Minnesota on the Root River system. Kirk picked some nice trout up with nymphs and dry flies in the evening.

Went to Verdigre with Gary Gray from Omaha. Gary is an accomplished fly fisherman so we tried for the trout with fly rods. We (I mean mainly Gary) caught 6 trout on wooly buggers and prince nymphs drifted into the cut banks and weeds. It was tough fishing with heavy winds but Gary was a master to watch.

Bob and Todd fished the NWT Event at Sherman on May 4th. The weather changes were unbelievable and downright scary (Is it a bad sign when rods hum with electricity and your day starts with 1" of hail?). We finished a respectable 12th out of 111 teams. We weighed a limit but our large fish was just over 2# unfortunately, many large fish were caught on the positive side but less than half the teams weighed a fish. We had a lot of things going until the weather hit. We caught fish anywhere from 5-20' deep with livebait and trolling, mainly up the lake from Thunder Island. On the tournament day we buckled down and jigged and lindy rigged around Willow Point with shiners, minnows, and crawlers picking up fish. We heard from others leeches were good, but not for us. Water temps are in the mid-50's.

Bob and Todd took 2nd in the NWA at Harlan on May 11 with #21.48. The tournament was won with #22.77 and third was #17.81. That's a ton of weight for a "no cull" five-fish tourney with three of the fish having to be less than 22". Anchoring and jigging on the south shore from Patterson to Indian Hill with crawlers and leeches was the hot pattern. Unfortunately the tournament overall was a tough bite in nasty weather. 30 of the 55 teams caught fish, of those 14 weighed only one fish and only 3 of the 55 (including us) weighed 5 fish - it was tough! Harlan is extremely (my word, I grew up there) low so be careful. If you have a heavy boat, avoid the Patterson Harbor ramp. It's very steep and slick, lots of teams including us had virtually no control backing down the ramp (didn't mean to scare you Bob). I also want to throw in a word of compliment for the NWA folks - Dan Wick, Larry Klanderud, John Jones, etc. The NWA is extremely well-run and coordinated. By the way, we'll let you in on a secret. Walleye Flashers were the hot baits in orange/chart, parrot and white/green colors with shiners, leeches, and crawlers all having their moments. Another secret is that while we fished the south side of the lake, the outlet was hot on Friday, we hooked a couple of hogs there too and watched a couple from Kansas in a white Spectrum catch and release a 8.5# fish. We chose to stay closer in to start on Sunday because of the weather and never made it to the outlet, you just never know...

Bob and Todd fished Merritt on May 18 and weighed two under 18" fish for 2.75#. There is a limit of 1 15-18", 4 over 18", but only one per over 22" if that makes sense. The 18+ fish were hard to find. Bob and I caught lots and lots of fish pre-fishing but not many large fish. We found our fish up the Snake and caught them mainly with leeches. We found a pocket of water that was warmer than the mouth and the middle of the arm, it seemed to be key. The water was only 5-7'. Trolling also took fish, but not as consistently. Slip bobbers were working for others along with casting jigs. There are some emerging arrowhead weeds and the lake is FULLLLLL! We didn't stick for the final tally but it was good to see Steve Isom and Mike Polak up towards the top when we left. They are the worlds nicest guys. by the way, we stayed at the Trade Winds Lodge, what a nice place for $37/night.

Bob and Todd fished the "Big Mac Shut Up and Fish" on May 24 and 25. We found fish scattered over the middle to the western end of the lake. We found the fish willing to take cranks (Shad Raps), spinners, and even live bait drifting. We weighed a limit both days and ended up third on Sunday with about 19.5#, just under 20# won Sunday, 24 on Saturday. Backing in on the sand isn't too bad at North Shore. The water is extremely clear in the middle to eastern portions of the lake. We did observe quite a few dead 8-12# walleyes floating BEFORE and during the tournament that had obviously been dead awhile. It was sickening.

Bob and Todd fished the NWA at McConaughy on June 1 finishing in the money at 12th Place. The tournament was won with 21+ for five fish, we weighed in under 12#. Fish were going mainly in the western end of the lake, it was hard to miss the 200 boats on Sand Point. We fished east of there in 20' water pulling cranks. We released 30-50 fish a day pre-fishing and in the tourney. We found fish all over the lake, but couldn't get a kicker fish to move us up in the placings. Only four teams didn't weigh fish. To be honest, I think fish were going all over on everything.

The Governor's Cup at Harlan was tough for Bob and I. We really felt good going into the tournament with good pre-fishing spots and a lot of confidence. Enough confidence we packed 16 dozen crawlers on the boat and we don't even like to bait fish! We went through 6 dozen crawlers in 5.5 hours on Friday pre-fishing. Alas, we weighed one fish in two days. Roughly 2/3 of the teams blanked on day one and we're not sure what happened on day two - we had a long drive and docked out of Gremlin so we didn't see the final results. We found fish in 10-14' on ledges in and around Prarie Dog that were willing to bite jigs while the boat was anchored and also a decent trolling bite at times, even in 5' of water. The weather was awful on Saturday and we chased around both days. It seemed that as soon as you moved someone would move into where we were and get fish. Yesterday we caught some shorts by Sindt and moved and the team later told us they moved on the spot and "Caught a 10#er with a few more keepers". Let's just say it wasn't our weekend :)

John McAllister, my brother Troy, myself and some other folks helped out with a Wimmer's Retreat at Calamus on June 20 & 21. The wind was above 25-30 the entire time we were there, not even letting up over night. John did very well trolling ripshads and other cranks in the Dry Creek area and caught nice keeper walleye and wipers. He really toughed it out in the big wind. Troy anchored near Homestead Knolls and to the west in 15-25' of water and caught some keeper eyes and wipers on crawlers and leeches. I fished just east of Homestead Knolls and anchored up and threw out split shot rigs, I also drifted in the Buckshot Bay area catching some nice walleye and lots of wipers and drum. Fish seemed to prefer leeches early then switched over to crawlers. Pink was the hot hook color and I did best in 9-15'.

Dave and Connie Wimmer along with Kayla and Todd fished the 3rd Annual Nebraska Hospital Tourney at Sherman on June 27th. Dave and Todd both took out kids and parents as part of our teams. The fish were scattered throughout the lake. Dave and I found a good concentration of fish on Thunder Island and caught them while at anchor in 11-14'. The winning team had a 6, 4, and 3# fish they caught while trolling shad raps. Another team had four smaller fish they caught in the eastern arm of the lake on a point. Of the 17 teams, 5 teams caught a keeper walleye though everyone caught a lot of fish. Shiners and crawlers on pink or white beads were best while livebaiting. Mel Snow from Atkinson caught a 9.5# fish pre-fishing while drifting the west shore up from the dam. Catching 40-50 walleyes a day was no problem, about 25% of the fish had hooks in their gullets though from being previously caught, we caught 7 in a row at one point that had a hook in it and one had three hooks in it. The fish at Sherman are not in very good shape relative to the fish at Calamus, they appear very skinny.

John McAllister and Greg Girard paired up and so did Todd and Bob for the NWA at Chamberlain on July 13. Greg and John fished down the lake above Dock 44 both days. John and Greg are great fisherman but it just wasn't in the cards. They trolled the right spots but the fish just didn't go for them on Saturday but they had a good day on Sunday. Todd and Bob fished the first day by the railroad bridge on Saturday to try to stay in the running and see what the weights would be then made the big run south to the Buryanek area Sunday and came up from 16th to 6th in the tourney. It was a long boat ride :) plus we were worried about our lower unit, we knew we had some mechanical issues but decided to "go for it" and take the DQ risk of not getting back. The fish south seemed to be in 25-40' and could be caught on snap weights and lures like Shad Raps. North, there is apparently a resident population of fish around the bridge pilings and trees than can be jigged and lindy rigged. They seem to go in spurts though, not a consistent bite. Fish over 18" were tough to get in either spot.

Troy Consbruck reports heavy schooling activity at Cedar Bluffs. The wipers and white bass are really slashing the shad. In fact, he mentioned that they are going so hard in the evenings that his young children are afraid to tube because of all the turbulence in the water. That's a fantastic fishery! Crappie can also be taken this time of year under lights at night, just be careful if you haven't been on the lake before. It is full of timber.

I just got a report from a reader that walleye are going very well at Sherman Reservoir. They can be caught all over the main area of the lake trolling or with live bait. Sounds like finding a spot where the wind is blowing in is key in 13-20'. It is very tough to get keepers though. 7-15-03

Bob and I ran into a group of senior anglers that had great success night fishing at the Platte-Winner Bridge on Lake Francis Case on this past week. They reported triple digit white bass and their limit of walleyes, including some fish over 18". They said the fish were so thick in the middle of the night they could just watch them cruising under their lights and chasing the shad.

Rhett and Todd Fished the Snake Creek area on Francis Case Saturday morning, July 20. We had motor problems and could only troll. We did pick up a few nice fish on lead core in 25-40' of water and one on a board. It was hot hot hot!

The NWA was tough for Bob and I. We weighed one small fish for 21st place, there were a lot of blanks and only a handful of limits. We found, like a lot of teams, a promising number of fish up the river system in the Springfield/Niobrara area. We fished some eddies, shale banks, and the backs of sandbars. We caught a few fish pre-fishing and thought we were going to be able to scratch out some fish but things changed with the storm Saturday night. There were baitfish present in those spots pre-fishing but they disappeared and the walleye too on Sunday. We got our one fish and some other teams did well by the buoys going up to Springfield. Personally, I can't recommend fishing Lewis & Clark because of the boat traffic and poor etiquette of recreational jet skiers and boaters who do not understand right of way, the folly of pulling skiers in the front of congested marina/ramp/beach areas etc. If you do go, plan to fish way west or in the river.

Chuck Schulz sez the trout are biting great at Gracie Creek at Calamus.

Rhett Eckmann and Todd fished Lake Francis Case in SD on Aug 23 & 24. Daytime temps on the 23rd reached 109 degrees with a 30+ mph wind, yes it's true! Suffice it to say those aren't optimal conditions but we did manage some fish pulling leadcore and boards in 30-60' of water. Ripshads and Bomber 24's were the best baits but it was tough. We fished near Pickstown.

Jeff and Kat Ernesti joined my wife Kayla and I on a trip to Lake Francis Case on Sept 6 & 7. We stayed in the cabins at North Point and caught a few fish trolling by White Swan and a good number up by Whetstone in 15' on spinners and crawlers. The active fish were on mudline points, most of the fish were less than 15", some were regurgitating shad 5-6" long. Strangely, the fish were not fat though. Water temp was 76 deg. We marked a lot of deep fish and bait schools but the crank fish wouldn't go for us.

John McAllister went to Lake Thompson on September 6 and had a great trip. They did very well trolling and caught a bunch of fish, some of them went 20". Thompson has been good.

Our buddy Rick Dicus reports that he has caught some extremely nice walleyes recently at Storm Lake. Rick does the Xtreme Outdoors show on 620 AM out of Sioux City on Saturday mornings. Rick is a great guy and good competitor.

Bob and I fished the NWT Championship at McConaughy. Let's just say we didn't do very good and leave it at that. We fished the right way in the right spots (north side with spoons in 20-25' but were absolutely snakebit. Some of the guys did very well though big fish were tough to get. 15 limits were weighed the first day out of 86 teams.

Bob and I didn't finish very strong this year on our tournaments. I fished with Andy Moberly on Oct 4th at the NWA (Thanks for subbing Andy!) and we only weighed one fish. On sunday, Bob and I were shut out. The teams that did well used various spoons, mainly Fergie's and John Boy's or homemade variations. White and Chartreuse were the colors talked about, Sonars also caught some fish and is what I got my 3.25 on saturday with. There were some big bags - 16+ caught at Merritt for five fish. The fish were mainly chasing alewives up on the dam and the lake across from the Trading Post, some were also caught on the humps and the trees. Spooning is obviously not my forte. It was the type of tournament where a few teams consistently did well and the rest struggled, I think because spooning is such a specific technique. I would guess 90% of the fish were caught in the first 60 minutes after sunrise. Water was 57 degrees.

Fishing at the Winnipeg and Red River this year was not as good as many past years. Our group still managed numerous 25-28" fish and John McAllister caught one that was 9.6#. Trolling on both rivers seemed to work best, water was around 52 degrees at each river and really didn't drop during our stay. We'll get up a few pics. Let's face it folks, for whatever reason - fishing is way off over the late 90's. My personal opinion is that the netting is out of control up there but no one knows for sure because the nets aren't checked.  I've heard about smelt, low water, whatever. But I've been up there before under pretty similar conditions (low water, low 50's, full moon) and just hammered them so...  I hope it improves but our group did not renew rooms for 2004.  The sad thing is how many locals just take it in stride, this statement sums it up from a guy I talked to up there. "I don't think nets are the problem, my buddy just has a real small net that he's taking 500#'s out of a day, how can that hurt the fishery?" You have to understand that the nets can cover the ENTIRE access points to the Red and Winnipeg Rivers and the gill holes are big so they can get the big fish. UPDATE: Fishing has dramatically improved on the Winnipeg River/Traverse Bay this past week!!! Apparently the nets are out and the big north winds have pushed the fish in, I'm glad to hear it is better.

On October 26 I had the pleasure of taking out Lewis, Phil and Steve Reppert to Gavin's Point. I had planned to fish the lake but the forecast was a little off and the lake was already whitecapping right after sunup. We decided to go below and caught 2 paddlefish, 6 sauger/walleye, quite a few drum, a flathead, couple of channel cats and a eelpout. We also saw the world's most aggressive 4" white bass. Everything but the drum were pretty small, at 3:30 pm the rain rolled in so we headed out. It seemed like a slow day but we went through almost four scoops of minnows from Norm's! The bite was very light and the best luck was in the current edge off the shale point. It was fun watching the Reppert's hold up their Paddlefish, they'd never been up close to one before. Congratulations go to Lewis for catching a fine anchor, it will look good in their small boat. That trophy goes along with a few hundred yards of snagging line and a dozen treble hooks and 6-10 oz. weights.

Early December in Cabo was fantastic for Tuna and Marlin. Email Todd if you want specific info.

Feb 26 - Jeff Stampohar from Coleraine, MN fixed Rhett Eckmann and I up with a fantastic ice fishing trip. Fished at Lake of the Woods in the afternoon for a few hours off Zipple Bay approximately 3.5 miles. We were in 30' of water, we had zero action so we moved to Upper Red Lake an hour south. We caught a couple of small perch and no crappie. The ice on both was around 36-40". Be careful of the slush EVERYWHERE off the plowed roads.

Feb 27 - Fished 7.5 miles past the Island outside of Adrian's at Baudette. We kept 12 eyes, 2 Jumbo Perch, and released a few more including a snazzy eelpout. Rhett landed a 3.5# walleye on my rod while Jeff and I took a nap. We are still arguing over the ownership of the fish. Gold Fatboys, Red Glo Jigs and Swedish Pimples or Buckshot spoons with droppers worked best. From the reports of others we had a real good day.

Feb 28 - Fished Nestor Falls, Ontario for Crappie. We fished off an island and came home with a nice mess of fish. Steve and Therese were very helpful and got us on fish. The crappie were in 33' of water and would come up to 30 or even higher to hit 1/32 oz white jigs with 1/2" plastic tails. Minnows also worked. Crappie seemed to come off the bottom to the minnows but hit the jig more often. We would jig and quiver pretty aggressively to get them to take. Some of the fish were 12"+. Beautiful area.

March 5-6 - From Jeff Stampohar, did well on crappies at Hay... did have some small ones.... Lesterand I each had 4 to 6 hits on trout. I caught one about 3.5 lbs. Foundout later that we should have been using smaller jigs. We had a lot of fish come off the bottom but would not hit. It was fun to learn more
about the area. If we go back we have at least 2 new spots to try. I
would love to go back up this weekend.... starting to panic... not much
time till open water.... oh that's right... I have a boat....

November 20 - Did I mention sometimes the pheasants are smarter, particularly in big wind and thick wet grass. Man they were spooky today!!! Heard a good story at lunch though in a local cafe, some area guys host Ohio hunters every year and in return get to fish Lake Erie. Outdoorsman CAN make friends fast if we don't always worry about "out of staters", city people, etc. WHO makes a better friend than an outdoorsman? NO ONE!!!

December 4 - John and Jim along with Todd, Rhett and Chuck headed up to Lewis and Clark. There were 37 boats on the lake at one point that could be counted. Both boats caught smaller fish in the deep water at the outlet but one fish over 9 was taken by another boat, she was unreleasable though. It's time to get up there. Remember though, if you catch fish at 50', no matter how slow you reel them up, many will die from a pressure change like that, even if fizzed.

Dec 11- Todd and Chuck went up to Verdel to chase sauger, walleyes and enjoy the day. We worked our way down river picking up a few fish including sauger, walleyes, rock bass and one pallid sturgeon. Fish seemed to be in spots with faster water in 15-22'. The quiet deep eddy's weren't holding many active fish though they were loaded with hooks (who knows what). We ended up with three fish (released) and a ton of shorts.

Jan 6 - Fished Crow Lake by Nestor Falls, Ontario. We used 3-5" white tube jigs in 20-45' of water off island points. Fish hit aggressively but we lost all 10 or so we had on, one as it was coming out of the hole. Another group had 18 for 10 guys but were in a further north area of the lake. -30

Jan 7 - We split up, Rhett and I fished LOTW and Jeff and Lester fished Crow. We did ok on eyes and sauger with gold and gold/red being best. Rhett caught one nice sauger. Jeff and Lester caught some trout including an 8# fish. It was a pretty fun day at LOTW, we kept teasing fish off the bottom to come up and hit. I'm not much of an expert but I'm glad we got the LX-3 over the Vexilar FL-18's. They are quieter, have the movable zoom, and definitely have better target separation. We could use all of the units in the ice house (three Marcums and one Vex and the three Marcums were fine on interference). -30

Jan 8 - Fished Zippel again for a few hours before heading out but it was slow, only two keepers in the am. Lottts of shorts. Heard some better reports of a deeper bite developing. You definitely have to occasionally jig your "dead" rod on bobbers to get fish to reveal up there. -25

January 21 - Fished a local sandpit with Rhett Eckmann and his sons Thomas and John. The fishing was poor and we tried everything. Oh well. Believe it when you hear sandpits have weird ice, we found 2-14" with no rhyme or reason.     

Fished Waubay Feb 5 AM, PM and 6th AM. We fished off school bus point in 30' of water. We scratched out a meal of fish but others did betters, others did worse. Tough bite. They wanted small spoons with waxies, a few hit jigs on bobbers unattended. Good 26-28" of ice. Tried Enemy Swim for bluegills and Pickerel for crappies with no luck. We only spent an hour at each place.

Feb 25 fished Lazy River/Verdel/Niobrara area on the Mizzou with Chuck Schulz. We gave it one heckuva try but didn't get anything besides one 20" smallie. I can't say I had a bite but Chuck caught the bass and lost another fish. He was rigging and I was jigging. We hit a lot of spots and didn't mark very much anywhere. It'll start soon though. We did enjoy the many eagles, watching a mink eat a sucker on the bank, and just getting out on open water. We left in the early afternoon. Maybe the bite picked up but the other few boats we talked too had blanked also.

4-01-05 Fished Yankton, South Dakota with Jim Royer from Woodbine, Iowa.  Fishing was slow, but Jim did manage a pretty nice sauger on a Walleye Flasher from ReelBait tackle.  {Great Jig if anyone is looking for Jigs.}  Things will pick up once the water warms.  It was great to get out and hear that 200 EFI roar.  Stay tuned to www.reelwalleye.com for more fishing info.

Fished with my wife's cousin Chris Hansen from Lexington and some friends. We had a great trip on April 17 and 18. Verdel is pretty slow but downriver was better. We found some 53 degree water and the fish really went.

Lake McConaughy the 19-22 of May.  Fish seemed to be in the west end.  Fished water 5-15 feet deep pulling a variety of plugs.  Great fishing for 17-22 inch fish.

Todd and Dave Wimmer fished the west end of Lewis and Clark for cats on June 12. We picked up some really nice fish in a few hours on the water and lost more. We were fishing in about 3' of water in light current.

We fished the "castle" area on Big Mac for the NWA June 16-19. Our best luck came on #4 & 5 spinners and crawlers in 12' of water. We caught some fish over the slot pre-fishing but none during the tourney. Seemed like the fish wanted flourescent blades with some gold in them also. We also suspended spinners off of boards. We had poor luck with cranks. Fish were also caught at the Lemoyne area drifting. The trolling bite in the main basin didn't work for us, we gave it a good try :)

Fished Lake Oahe on the 27-28 of June out of the Bush's Landing area.  Fishing is great right now on that area of the lake.  Plain hook with 1/2 crawler on a bottom bouncer was the ticket for us, with the 1/2 crawler being a must.  8-18 feet of water.

Todd and Tom Cohee fished an area sandpit on July 2. Small beetle spins and mepps worked well for bass, bluegill and crappie with 1/2 and 3/4 oz. RatLTraps getting bigger bass.

Todd and Mike Bittles fished Calamus on July 10 for walleye. We only picked up one trolling and then switched to livebait and got another 10 or so on leeches and crawlers drifting or anchored in about 11-16'. Fishing was pretty slow and we were in 35 mph wind gusts. No keepers but a nice day.

Todd, Jeff Stampohar, and Rhett Eckmann fished Lake of the Woods around June 15-23. Caught Lakers in Whitefish Bay up by Sioux Narrows on Michigan Stingers and Sutton spoons using three-ways. Other fish came on Deep Thundersticks long lined and three-ways & William's spoons for Jeff's uncle Mike. We caught all the walleyes we wanted on reefs and "neck down" area's between islands but no big fish. Either jigs or bottom bouncers and leaders worked well with minnows. You can catch fish on plastics, but not as many. The trolling bite for walleyes didn't work for me.

Todd & Vince Maly fished 8-6 at Francis Case. We put in at Whetstone and fished across the lake and picked up one fish. We trolled for quite awhile then ran south and picked up the rest on spinners off muddy points with green/gold and blue/silver spinners and crawlers in 17-30' of water. Tough bite!

Todd & John fished Lewis and Clark on the weekend of the 17th in the NWA walleye tourney.  We ended up 8th place.  Live bait rigging and pulling plugs were the fish catchers for us.

Todd and the crew fished the Red and Winnipeg in early October. We did well the first morning at the Red pulling Shad Raps and Thundersticks in the powerline area. We caught some nice 5-6# fish. That afternoon and the next few days we fished Traverse Bay. The trolling fish went on about any crank - Berkley Frenzy's, Salmo Bullheads, Thundersticks, husky jerks, etc. We caught a lot of 22/23" fish but none over 26". In our last day on the Red jigging Walleye Flashers we reallllly popped them! In one day we got four over 10#'s and a lot of other bumping that. Great trip. Thanks to all the guys we met up there!

2006

• Todd and his brother Troy hunted ringnecks north of Garden City, KS on December 31. We saw approximately 350 birds that morning hunting irrigation re-use pits (tailwater is another name), pivot corners, and abandoned farms and feedlots. KS allows four birds/day and they let you buy next year's license in mid-Dec. A great deal! The birds are thick down there and the hunting was fun!!! Let's just say my little lab is sure worn out. By the way, there are 40k geese and 40k ducks on Cedar Bluffs in central Kansas and Harlan County Reservoir had a very nice evening flight of ducks and geese when I drove by at sunset. Additionally, some of my brothers friends had limited 3 days in a row at Kirwin on geese. Chris Hansen/Lexington also reports a nice geese flight out that way. They're here - finally...
• Jan 13 - Todd fished with a group of guys on Waubay. Dusty Wilkens was a huge help! We ended up finding fish east of Wika's on Waubay. We caught a lot of walleyes and some perch, some of the walleyes were 16" and perch up to 12".
• Jan 14 - Todd fished the same spot in about 20-22' of water. Walleye were VERY cooperative, especially on glo red. Perch were fussy but we got some at least. We decided to not be mobile, wait out the fish we knew were there. From 430-620 pm the bite was absolutely non-stop
• Jan 15 - Mankey's. Fished the deepest part of the lake. Fish were extremely finicky and tough to catch. Needed to use the smallest jig or hook with a red spike or three. Some of the perch were 14" though! (some were 4" too :) )
• 1-25-06 John fished Chamberlain, South Dakota with Greg Girard.  Great fishing for 16-18 inch walleye.  Fished Crow Creek area with jigs and minnows. 
• January 27 - Todd fished Gavin's with Chuck Schulz we kept nice mess of fish, though small. Lindy rig with a red hook was the hot ticket. Use a limber, long lindy rig rod and ever soooo slightly lift once in awhile, if there is any weight, lift slowly 3 or 4' and set the hook. PLEASE don't sort a bunch of fish if you get into them in the deep hole. We got fish shallow and deep. Think slowwwww, small minnow, and aberdeen hook with fireline so you can pull free of snags and paddlefish instead of retieing.
• Feb 2 - Todd got schooled by trout in Fremont. Trout 9 - Todd and buddy 2. I believe I missed 9 bites roughly! Boy can they spit out powerbait fast!
• 4-5-06   John fished the tailrace at Yankton.  Best fishing ever for this area of the river.  Kept a nice limit of fish with the 2 biggest running right around 20 inches.  Jigs and bait were the ticket.  
• 4-13 thru 15-06  Jim Royer and John fished Chamberlain.  Fishing was good both north and south using jigs and plugs.  All depths produced fish from 10-25,   fishing was best on Friday in 90 degree weather.  The tourney on Saturday was slow for us , but nice catches were brought to the scale by other teams.  22# was the winning weight.
• 4-15 Todd and Chuck Schulz fished the Niobrara area without much success, a few cats was it. We fished from Verdel to the mouth of the Niobrara
• 4-23 Todd and Wade Kuehl (Jolly Ann Marine) went to Summit, caught a pile of bluegill and bass. We wanted to find walleye so we started out livebaiting in 10-20' and caught a lot of bluegill and bass. Switched over to spinners and little cranks and toured around the lake in various depths, we continued to catch all the bluegill and bass we wanted. We finished up throwing tubes and beetle spins over weed tops in 4-8'. Our biggest bass was roughly 16" with lots of small to quite nice bluegill. Most of the bass are 9-11". Please please release those bass, this lake will be great in a few years!
• 4-28  4-30   John and Greg Girard fished the Cedar Shores tourney on the 29-30th.  Fishing was good for walleyes in the 16-19 inch range.  We mostly pulled plugs in the Crow Creek area.   White being the best color and various plugs working.   We ended up 9th on the first day and 15th overall.   The fishing will do nothing but get better as the water temps.  warm up.  Get out and fish!!!!!!!!!
• Sherman NWA - April 30. Justin Lauby and I had a great tourney, finishing 5th. We caught fish drifting leeches, crawlers, and minnows. Our two in the tourney came in about 15-20' on leeches just N of Thunder Island. Justin is a good stick. The fishing was very tough.
• Big Mac Shut Up & Fish - May 20/21 - onditions - generally hot (90+ afternoons, variable winds, mostly light though occasionally heavy) Tournament had East winds which was important to "fill" the west end.
  
  Justin Lauby and I fished the 148 team Nebraska Walleye Trail (NWT) "Shut Up & Fish" tourney at Lake McConaughy on May 20 & 21.
  
  Historically this tournament has been won:
  
  1. Livebaiting on various points, bays and a west end flat.
  2. Using creek chubs by the dam early then going to another technique
  3. Casting jigs local lure called a doll fly generically for any maribou jib, spinnerbaits, and wiggle warts predominately, usually in white colors to imitate alewives
  4. Trolling
  5. This all depends mightily on the wind, temps, water height, flooded elements, inflows, etc.
  
  Justin pre-fished the previous Saturday and only caught 2 fish. On Wed he and two friends caught six and on Thur AM only 2 fish using traditional methods in non-typical locations. I arrived Thur afternoon and pre-fished Thur and Friday. Justin and I could not get a trolling bite to go in 3-15'anywhere on the lake, my preferred method that time of year. It can be typical to catch 30-50 fish per guy/day that time of year with the right cranks in the right milk run of locations. However, we did develop a spinner bite in 10-13 on nothern points and southern lake drop-offs on Friday, some fish to 22". The key was using my PTSv to follow contours exactly. The difficulty was the two key areas we wanted to fish seemed to also produce for some other teams and recreational anglers which led us to believe our spots would be crowded. 
  
  After much discussion Justin and I decided to live bait in the west end on a large flat in 10-13'. We felt, after talking and sharing with a few other teams we trust, that is was likely for teams to get limits but not a certainty. Many teams were not getting typical fish for the time of year on the lake though the weather, wind and rising water temps pointed towards a take-off in the bite.
  
  We felt that we could get a limit by drifting and then either stick with it if the fish were large enough or go to trolling or spinners depending on the other boat coverage of some keys spots to try and get some kicker fish. I had some key areas identified from previous years and the depth from pre-fishing and would simply go where the mass of boats didn't in the west end, we would be flexible to start.
  
  On our first two drifting passes we were lucky to be south of the main group and had our 5 fish by 830 am. Two of the fish were 22" and none were under 18". We continued to fish til 11:30 and switched to pulling jointed, regular and glass raps. We fished til 3:30 in 6-12' with boards and upgraded two fish weighing 14+ pounds for the day. Two bags of 21+ led the tourney, which pays out each day. 
  
  On day two we were in the last flight and went to the same area and found the boats were on our saturday area so we adjusted away from the main pack and struggled. I couldn't decide whether to go in the pack on top of our icons and slug it out or keep away. I decided to get more on the edge and compromise. Our first fish was a 24" and by 11:00 we only had three fish though an 8# fish was caught very close to us by recreational anglers. We decided to live or die with live bait and switched to pulling back up wind (which was very light to non-existent) and drifting down a 300 yard key stretch we wanted to live or die with. Eventually we got the fish to take off and ended up with 14+ again with a 24" as big fish. Unfortunately we could never upgrade a 18" fish we had to weigh. 
  
  The tournament results have not been posted though we are probably in the top 25?, it was a bit hard to determine with 148 teams. This was the type of tournament that many techniques proved to be successful - and - unsuccessful. Anglers trolled, casted onto points, drop-offs and flooded biomass along with drifting, jigging and everything else you could think of. I know many anglers that are quite good struggled also, it's definitely a tournament where you simply have to have one or more 7# class fish to have a hope of placing in the money usually.
  
  The fishery seems strong and I noticed the fish were probably feeding on 5-7" white bass judging by the barfed up skeletons (lost weight) in my livewells. They were too heavy boned to be alewive or shad.
  
  I enjoy this lake immensely and was proud of our effort though I was disappointed trolling wasn't our game plan. Sometimes in tournaments you simply have to be able to catch heavily pressured fish better than the next guy, we did ok but not enough.
  
  I think ultimately key components for us being successful was
  
  1. Making a high percentage decision to fish with livebait as we did. In the past when I've done well in this tourney it was done with cranks so this was a difficult decision. I didn't have the pre-fishing effort to "go for the win" with confidence.
  
  2. I got the best, largest leeches I could find. I also used a #12 hook so they could do their job. Yes, you can catch walleye on trout hooks. I missed one bite in two days.
  
  3. We caught one of our larger fish on crawlers though it was tempting to go away from them because of seeming prefence for leeches about 2:1. (Was that ultimately a mistake though too?)
  
  4. I do believe that pressured fish get away from a boat pack and we tried to stay with that idea.
  
  5. In a high boat traffic area it's easy to lose focus. I found myself getting frustrated by boats going by 30' away on plane, other competitors using cell phones, people dropping within casting distance on the downwind side of our boat while we were on a drift then having them drift slower. It probably wasn't true, but it felt like a few boats tried to follow me with their electrics no matter what I did to try to ease away. In other words, it's important to control your emotions and pay attention. For the most part I did that, but it's tough when you feel etiquette is out the window. As a tournament angler, it's imperative to be polite and considerate even when you feel there are issues around you and focus on what you can control.
  
  6. I'm a believer in having bait handy and getting your rod RIGHT back out. I generally keep a few leeches and crawlers in my minnow well in the front in leech bags when water is cool or in a small cooler when hot. I ALWAYS have my crawlers cleaned and in ice, water, and strips of paper. They live for two days and plump up nicely and are much cleaner to use. Just my obsessiveness coming out By the way, crawlers are good for 48-72 hours in water, ice and paper they can crawl up on.
  If you get a chance, definitely get to Big Mac in the next three weeks and get to fishing. If you are looking for a great meal. Eat at the Front Street Steakhouse in Ogallala. Mac is a beautiful lake, lots of services, striking to see and big fish are there!
• May 24 - Nice reports coming in of fish on the west side of Lewis & Clark. Think shallow and pull cranks and spinners.
• May 25 - Caught some bluegill and crappie in a local sandpit. Fish are very shallow, bluegill are on beds and cruising. An inline Mepps worked better than beetle spins.
• Harlan NWA June 3 - We didn't report because of Gov's Cup. John and I found fish 3-6' on the south and north side of harlan trolling, off the break in 10-14' and out in 18' of water, some suspended. We anchored and jigged for our keeper in Prairie Dog, the north side was much better in the heavy wind for trollers and live baiters. We picked wrong :)
• Mac NWA - we found a nice pod of fish way west on Thursday and caught some nice fish bang, bang, bang so like good pre-fisherman - we left to find new spots. On Friday we had a tough day and only caught one keeper, but we did find a lot of fish on the southern points and breaks. Sat we decided to livebait on the north, then south, then go out west to troll. We ended up catching most of our fish in a ver short time period on the north side trolling and weighed a limit, but none over 19". On sun we decided to livebait quick then get some trolling fish. It wasn't to be, there were fish on the south side away from the boats but we got a lot of dinks, the trolling bite we had going in 3 spots died and we weighed only two. Tough tourney, should have moved deeper but we couldn't get anything to go deep in pre-fishing.
• Fished Lake Oahe this past week, 6-25 thru the 27th with some success.  Fished the lower end around the Okobojo Creek area.   Pulled plugs in the 18-25 foot range, with the deep little Rippers and the Old 8A bomber being the best.   When the wind blew the fishing was short of fantastic, when the wind died it was work.  There really are some nice fat healthy fish in Oahe.  John McAllister
• Fished Devils Lake MWC. Here's the scoop - seriously. You can catch them however you would like - bobber, troll, cast, rig, jig, you name it. We found our best fish by casting shad raps and those types of lures in weedy areas. However, numbers of fish were better the other way. Our fish didn't go on Saturday and Sunday we had some mechanical difficulties and didn't get to our area and spent most of the day using our kicker to get back to the launch (We did fish one hump to get a limit of weigh fish, though we knew it wouldn't help us. Sometimes... you just have to be professional. I've NEVER had an engine go down on me before, could be fuel too, as yet undiagnosed).  We had great luck trolling the Golden Hwy, fishing humps in the Main Lake area (it was won on one btw), casting cranks, trolling old roads, etc. Out of respect for Johnnie, I can't divulge his areas or exact pattern, but we saw some BEAUTIFUL 20" plus walleye, pike and white bass. Put Devils Lake on your radar, as good as walleye fishing as I've ever seen.
•  7-26-06 Had a nice trip to Francis Case yesterday.   Fished the lower half of the lake , from North Point to Whetstone bay.  Fish were scattered so I kept on the move to find the active bitters.    Pulled plugs in 30 to 55 feet of water.   Static shads , the new Berkley Flicker Shad,  shad raps and other baits worked real well.    Lots of small fish, but did manage to get a pretty good limit of fish.   Didn't have a chance to pull planer boards, as I was fishing by myself, but think they might have really worked well in the calm / clear conditions. John McAllister
• 8-18-19-06 fished Francis Case with my brother Mark and pal Jim Royer.  Lived through one of the worst rain storms I have ever been in on the 18th.   The 19th the fishing was fair, we pulled plugs in the Pease Creek to Whetstone Bay area.  20 -30 feet deep.   Not a lot of keeper fish,  I think we kept 9 to clean on Saturday, but still fun.   Saturday also produced my first time of having 4 rods go off at once.   Too bad they we full of white bass, this happened twice. John McAllister
• 9-15 thru 17 at Lewis & Clark - The NWA tourney was Sunday, John and I placed 9th trolling on the west end. #5 Shad Raps were the best baits for us. We really did well off and on the past month pre-fishing but with the dredging and bad weather keepers were tough to get. Todd pre-fished the marsh area with Jim Wiese on Saturday but only got two shorts. I love my Tundra, but it's a lot of boats to play around on the sandbars in big wind! The marsh fish were definitely better for the placing teams in this tourney.
• 10-5-8 at Merritt NWA. 4 days, no keepers for either of us. Spooning and Bladebaits obviously aren't are forte'. However, looking at the results - they weren't for very many or maybe the fishing was poor :)
• 10-14 PM - 10-16 AM Todd - Drove up frid aft by myself into a 50 mph wind. Got 5-6 mpg, had to pull off every 80-100 miles for gas. Miserable, could only go 40 mph up some hills on the Interstate it was so bad. Got in really late. Blizzard from the border north. Drove on slush, snow, ice, or all three. Boat was caked with ice and snow. Stayed in Beasejour, great place.
   
  Hit the water about 10 sat, it was 23 degrees, about 3" of snow and slush, and 30 mph north wind. aaarrgggh. Fished about 20 minutes by the float plane base and Lester got an 8.3# fish, beauty. Curt D comes by and says they've got 2 biggies trolling up north from the Church back to Sugar. We jig til about 1 pm, no more big fish so we troll and catch about 5 20-23" fish. See another 13# caught. Again... aargh Fish til dark. 30 mph winds all day but it warmed to about 39. Thanks for trying Curt.
   
  Sunday -  Jigged again (guy with me caught four over 29" last year by the float plane base) caught some smaller fish, guys wanted to troll north again. We spent two hours, no fish. I said we should go to a spot I like - Powerline to Doc Reeds trolling, we catch 4-5 decent fish, no hogs. We saw a 13-14# caught in a spot under the power line between the red buoys I like to jig so we go back and jig, probably catch 75 fish, None over 20". Guys around us say 6 over 10# came out of that spot during the day. Fish til dark, last boat off. Perfect weather, but the water dropped 4' in one day. Nice to meet you and your wife Clancy!
   
  Mon AM - backing in the boat a guy (Brian E from Norfolk) comes up I don't know but looks at my website. He said another boat got two 11's on the other side of the island (south) we'd been jigging Saturday. We go back to the powerlines and jig til 930 - just dinks. Head back to the island, talk to those guys - they have zilch. Head to the spot we did well on in 05 on the north side, catch some dinks. Those guys radio they have a 29" fish. We fish another 15 minutes and they report another 28 and 30. I'm not too dumb so so we join them and catch a few dinks and call it after lunch.  Weather was miserable, rain, 25 mph wind at times. Drove home into 25 mph wind. Truck is up to 8 mpg, yippee!
   
  Fun trip, caught a pile of fish - probably 200. WAY more than normal, I've never went through that many salties, but they were mainly 12-17" fat sauger. Only saw a few 22" or so and then the 8 on our boat, probably the worst trip I've ever had personally up there since 1995 - but no complaints - other guys did catch some!!! Some guys we talked to did better, some a lot worse. I think we fished right, but got the wrong bites if that makes sense. Oh well
   
  I definitely think you need to be at the Red anymore before the 14th or so and go to Pine after the 14th OR if they have good water and good fishing up there. Water was 47, down to 44-45 when we left.

*Red River Selkirk, Manitoba Oct. 21-23 Fished with my old buddy Chip Crossgrove from Ponca Nebrasks.   Three days of snow, sun shine and rain on every day.   Fishing was fair for us, not our best trip, but certainly not our worst.   The 21st produced 2 fish around 5 lbs for the big fish honors.  The 22nd yeilded our biggest fish of the trip,   a 9 # green back.   The 23rd saw us get 2 fish around 7 pounds.   All of our big fish came off of plugs fished 175 feet back on  a slow troll of 1.4 miles per hour.  Small saugers were caught every day until we were sick of catching them.   White colored plugs seemed to be the best color.   Fish were also caught on the walleye teaser jigs from tnt tackle at www.tnttackle.com  Other fisherman in our group had about the same luck with Charlie Johnson from Woodbine, Iowa getting 2 fish over 8 and Bob Breckinridge from Tekamah Nebraska getting two  7#'s.  We will certainly be back next year.  JOHN MCALLISTER

A 7# taken on Oct. 23,2006 on the Red River.

October 28 - Took a few friends pheasant hunting, we got a few birds, should of had a lot more :) Lots of corn in yet so it's hard to assess the population.

November 8, 2006 Lake Francis Case. Fished with my buddy Greg Girard from Mitchell, South Dakota. The lake was real low, but access is still available at North Point. Fishing was slow in the morning , but the afternoon picked up. We pulled plugs in 30-60 feet of water in the Pease Creek area, and took a nice limit.   Hard to believe it was 80 degrees in November.  John McAllister

November 25, Fished Francis Case with my buddy Jim Royer from Woodbine, Iowa.  We enjoyed success pulling plugs in 30-70 feet of water.   Leadcore and snap weights helped us get down to these depths.   A variety of plugs worked with blue crome being the best color by far.   One of the best limits of fish I have had out of Francis Case in a long time, too bad the weather is going to put a stop to this great fishing.

December 16 - Fished Waubay and Enemy Swim with Tim Starostka. Bite was tough but Lynn Jurrens, FLW Amateur of the year in 2006 showed us a great time!!

2007

• January 5 & 6 - Okoboji - fished Ryan Hale's Harbor View Resort tourney. What a great time. Wade Kuehl from Jolly Ann Marine went over too. What a nice guy, definitely get your electronics from him! Wade caught 10 fish and I did a little worse. It was sight fishing in 5' of water. I definitely learned a lot and look forward to next year.
• January 19-21 - Fished the IDA outing at Mille Lacs with Brian Hass, Tom Cohee, Rhett Eckmann Jeff Stampohar and the famous Lester. Brian scored a 25.5" beauty. Overall the fishing was poor but we had a heckuva time.
• Early February - fished with Tim Starostka at a private lake. Tim is a GREAT guy, I've been hurt this winter and Tim set everything up. We caught really nice bluegill and some dandy crappie.
• Mid February, explored a family lake with Tim and an area private lake. We found a neat little public lake in the area loaded with bluegill and bass.
• Late Feb/Early March. Took numerous trips to Summit Lake and the West Point City Lake. I want to compliment the Neb GP with their nice job at Summit and the City of West Point for our new lake. Both fisheries are fantastic!
• Not really a report per se but I (TC) just traveled to the Green Bay and I must say there is water and waterfowl everywhere! Almost every field from Omaha up and through LaCrosse on the way back has water and a duck or goose in it. We saw tons of eagles and cranes also. The neatest thing was the ice flows coming out above the bedrock in the LaCrosse area. I wish I had a picture, it would have been hard to take at Interstate speed in the fog :)
• 3-23-07 Had a nice open water trip to Yankton.  Fishing below the dam was fair for small walleyes, cat fish and some of those monster paddle fish.  Jigs took all the fish.  The water level is low right now, so that made loading the boat a bit of a trick.   Thanks to a fellow fisherman for lending a hand.  Heard reports of a good   crappie bite on Lake Yankton and a good salmon bite below the dam a Pierre.   Now is the time to get those boats ready and  on the water.   Be safe and Good Luck.   John McAllister
• Early April - John and I went to a small NE Nebraska lake and slammed the walleyes. The bite was fast and furious though the weather was cold and windy. The fish were in 22' and wanted fatheads on lindy rigs.
• 4-28-29-07 Greg Girard and I fished the Cedar Shores tournament out of Chamberlain.  Fishing was pretty tough for us.   The deep water plug bite never did turn on, although we did witness the big fish of the tourney, a 7#  caught right by us.   Lots of good fish were pulled out of the White River area in shallow.   John McAllister 
• 5-03-06-2007 Got in a few days of fishing at the Platte Creek Area on Lake Francis Case with my buddy from Woodbine, Iowa Jim "Belly Cat" Royer.   Fishing was pretty good for us.   Thursday we took a good limit of fish pulling cranks in the 20 foot range in just a few hours of fishing.  Friday was a little tougher, but we never worked one area too long as we were pre-fishing for the Hagen's Walleye Classic.   Saturday brought some of the worst weather I have ever been in on the river.   We only fished a couple of hours before loading up and heading home.   We did have a pretty good program figured out with fish, but the weather didn't give us a chance to fish our areas in the tournament.   Some of the fish are still spawning and rock areas were good to try.  Casting jigs was also taking fish, with the jigs from T-N-T tackle taking top honors.   http://www.tnttackleonline.com/round%20head%20jigs.htm  We had our best luck on the usual plugs: wally divers, bombers,  reef runners .....   On a side note use your head when fishing.   Weather can blow in fast on the river,  and lightning kills.  
• I know this is fishing report page, but I will give my turkey hunting report here for all who want to read it.   Havested a nice Tom on 5-07 from the Soldier, Iowa area.    11 1/4 inch beard.  Never weighed it but I am sure it was over 20 lbs.   Hunted with my brother Mark, who did the guiding and calling.   Watched the birds work for 2 1/2 hours before one wandered close enough for me to harvest him.  Really a great hunt.  Now the gun is put away for another year. John McAllister

5-11-07 Fished Storm Lake with my daughter Katie.   Had a nice night.  Only boated 3 walleyes, but do think there is some good fishing going on over there right now.  We mostly boated and messed around.   Boat traffic is a little much, with everyone thinking they are in the right.  

6-05 THRU 6-09-07 CABELAS NATIONAL TEAM TOURNEY - GREEN BAY WISCONSIN.   We fished the Cabela's National Team Championship tourney on Green Bay.   Had a ball, fishing was tough for us, most every day we worked to get our fish but  we thought we had put together a pretty good program for big fish and enough of them off of reef tops and shallow flats (6-12') with #5 & 6 Bass Pro Shops XPS Gold Spinners and Green/Red beads off of boards. But as our luck would have it, the fish never went for us in our #1 spot either day of the tourney up by Oconto - about 40 miles away from Green Bay by boat.  That is fishing I guess! The tournament was won in the Oconto/Peshtigo area.   This was my (John's) first NTC and my first fishing trip on one of the Great Lakes,  really learned a lot for future trips and would love to go back.  We really swung for the fences in this tournament and it bit us, but we wanted to go all out for a top 25 and not look back and say we didn't go for it.

6-19 - John, Now back to the river in South Dakota! The walleyes are really on the bite with reports of limits out of Bush's Landing from 20 -28 inches.  I guess it was so good you had to stand behind a tree to bait your hook last weekend according to a friend of mine.  Fish were deep for this time of year 20-30 feet, but the storms that have been rolling through might have caused that.   A half crawler on an aberdeen hook was the best bait.   Also deep little rippers, bomber 24A's and 8A's worked well.  The dam face was also on fire for the salmon guys.   My neighbor brought home 77 fish from their family trip 5-13 lbs., that is a heck of a trip.  The Wet Stone Bay area on Lake Francis Case has been the hot spot for fishing.  Lots of small fish with sorting to get limits.   Here again 20-30 feet depths with crawlers and plugs getting the fish.    Hit the water before it gets to warm!!!!!!!!!!

6-27 Todd took Vince Maly and Greg Hennen to the SD Hospital Assn. tourney at Gettysburg on Oahe. The weather was horrible but we scratched some nice 22" fish trolling in 20' with White/Red Bomber 24's and Org/Chart Deep Little Rippers off boards. We were running them about 115' back off boards. We also caught fish on leadcore and snap weights. For a TON of fish under 15", just pull 1/2 crawlers or minnows on leaders or spinner in about 13'. This is last years weed lines. There were some nice bonus smallies and white bass also.

7-4 7-7  The McAllister's took a trip to Oahe over the 4th.  Fishing was fair to good for us.  Our biggest fish was right at 26 inches with my daughter taking the honors of reeling that dandy in.   We also caught a few fish between the 20 -24 inch slot each day.  We ended up taking our limit home  with a couple of bonus salmon.   We had our best luck in the Little Bend and Okoboji Creek areas.  We pulled plugs each day with Bomber 24's 8A's and Salmo Hornets taking all of the fish for us.  We tried other plugs, but these produced by far for us.  Leadcore and side planers were a must.  Our fish came out of 24 -50 feet of water. Katie and Dad with a nice 23 inch fat Oahe walleye.