help

[skinnylee]

looking for a starting point to fish the river we never been there before looking for a few spot to try and what to use thanks

[Tyler Holm]

Ice or open water?

Which area of interest?

Desired species?

[jdbigeye]

Open water.

Anywhere.

Pre-spawn Walleyes.

We're gonna be heading there in a week to check out the situtation. Any tips would help. Thanks.

[Tyler Holm]

Ft. Thompson would be a good place to start. Pitch jigs and minnows into the shallows and retrieve slowly. Work the front and back sides of the points on the West shoreline from the Dam back. The distillin-basin / spillway holds decent numbers of fish as well. Work the mouth of that as well as venturing up towards the spillways a bit. The bay between the dam and spillway can give up some action as well.

[percherman]

I would have to agree with Tyler Its a great place to start if you are not familiar with the river. You can launch there and fish in just minutes. Located in the stillin basin are small humps of just a few feet. While working your way up or down work these small humps very slow and sometimes they can really produce.

Good Luck and Get The Net

[skinnylee]

thanks Tyler we got a bigger boat and we were thing about heading out there to try are like so all info is greatly appreciated thanks Ron

[Mike Walerak]

I am planning on getting to either Pierre or Ft. Thompson this weekend. I will post the results!

mw

[jdbigeye]

Let me know how it goes Mike, I'm not too far from Arlington if you need some company, and I'm starting to get the itch for some open water fishin pretty bad.

Any luck finding a job back in MN yet?

Josh

[Mike Walerak]

Thank god weathermen are never right! I woke up yesterday and hit the road for Pierre knowing my chances of getting snowed out were pretty good. The forcasted blizzard turned into a 40 degree and sunny afternoon.

Once I hit the water it didn't take long for me to connect with the first fish of the day. (I wish I had a picture but I forgot the camera on the table.) It was immediatly followed by another fish. The fish seemed to be schooled tight as I never caught one just once in a while. They were always caught in pairs.

After a while I noticed one of my fishing buddies happened to be fishing with his dad so when it was time for them to pack up he jumped in my boat and started putting on a fishing clinic in the back of my boat. I wish I would have had a camera as he popped a dandy sauger and some pretty dang nice eyes.

I went back out this morning by myself and met the forcasted blizzard. I never was declared a very smart person so off I went looking for big female walleyes. I took a long cold boat ride down river and was nearly soaked by the time I got there but I immediatly I connected with an 18" sauger. It did'nt take long for the snow to melt through my clothed so I had to call off the morning of fishing after an hour or so. Next time I will be wearing my duck hunting clothes.

Please throw the egg filled females back. I saw many people putting them in there livewells. Livewells are not good spawning habitat.

Not sure where I will be next weekend but I hope it will be back on the river somewhere!

Good luck to all that venture out, it is worth the time.

mw

[Rost]

Hey Mike-

How did your motors run?

[Mike Walerak]

The boat is a full functioning walleye rig! I even had the chance to run my kicker for a while and I can't be happier. Now it just time before I can run it during a plug bite.

mw