No Ice Fishing In Western SD For A While

[Waterbeater]

We had 40 degrees all night last night and hit 62 today with some wind. Got nervous so went and got our house of the ice and about 2" of water already. They're calling for 60's the rest of the week with no freeze at night. Guess it'll been football playoffs and cards at home this weekend.

[rap]

i guess you guys have it worse than we do.. the temp here in minot right now is 50 degrees, our temps are supposed to get to freezing tomorrow night tho, hopefully the ice won't get screwed up to terribly much by the end of the week

[This message has been edited by rap (edited 01-08-2002).]

[fishinphyl]

Just talked to a guy that went to check his fish house on Franklin lake and it had water around it and ice was soft. He said there is water around the shore and he took his and his neighbors houses off today. It is suppose to be warm here all week so better check on your fish houses!

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Phyl

[Waterbeater]

Almost hit 70 today and it's 40 at 9:30 PM. Maybe a guy can get his float tube and fly rod out.

[huskminn]

Waterbeater,

I'm a former West River boy. Hearing you talk of the temps just reminds me of how frustrating it can be to try to ice fish in Western South Dakota. I used to spend a good portion of the winter fishing open water in various places!

I love the area you're in.......wish I was back there. Need a ranch hand?

[Waterbeater]

Huskminn,
Good to hear from a fellow West River guy. No matter if you leave, you're still a West River Boy. Where did you live back here anyway? As for needing another ranch hand, always but you know the score, the pay REALLY sucks. Take care out there,
Waterbeater

[huskminn]

I grew up on a small place just east of Rapid City. Spent a lot of time hunting and fishing both in the Hills and on the prairie. Used to hunt grouse quite a bit out in your area. I go back quite a bit to hunt and fish. Just hunted deer in the Hills again last fall.

You can e-mail me at [email protected] if you want.....that way these Minnesota folks don't have to listen to our South Dakota talk.

[Dave]

That's ok huskminn, we enjoy the humor in your South Dakota lingo....

[mpls_ham]

My gal and I are considering relocating to the Back Hills (Spearfish) where she grew up. It does my heart good to read your posts. I assumed that there was no ice fishing at all out there.

[Waterbeater]

Hey there's fishing all over the place. The plains (were I live) is littered with stock dams, just ask and most are more than willing to let you in. And the Hills are full of lakes stocked with trout and there are a few around Rapid City with perch. If I were to move to the hills, Spearfish or Hill City would be my chioce. If you like Walleye, Lake Oahe is only 200 miles from Spearfish and is great fishing I hear. So come on out mpls_ham, but don't tell anybody because we're kinda a secret out here in Western SD.
By the way as far as fishing conditions, it finally got cool enough to strengthen the ice so I went out yesterday to try a trout dam I had stocked a couple years ago and got soaked to the bone. It must have rained a couple tenths of an inch.It's the strangest weather I've ever seen. Now today the wind is blowing 50 mph with gusts of 65. I can't get a break. Good luck all.

[This message has been edited by Waterbeater (edited 01-13-2002).]

[Guest]

I was up to a big dam Saturday here in central SD (I'm a west river boy too, west of the James)and drilled through over 20" of good ice. Then we got about 55/100s of rain Sunday followed by 1 inch of snow. We did end up catching a bunch of northern Saturday.

[huskminn]

Hey, Waterbeater, I don't like to see you advertising Western South Dakota so much. I'd like to move back there someday and I don't want all these Minnesotan's buying up the land before I get there!

They don't need to know that there's a dam in every draw, either.

I can only hope that they'll get stuck in Sioux Falls and never make it all the way.