Ice continues in South Dakota

Well warm temps have done little to South Dakota Ice. We had 38 inches to wrestle with so it is gonna take some serious melt. With nightimes still in the low 20s and a few days only in the 30s we are doing ok at the present time. This morning the ice had that rice crispy looking top to it, but I still saw a few trucks out and about. I would prefer 4 wheeler traffic at this time. As of this morning no shorelines had yet pulled off.

Perch and eyes continue to bite well on silver backed tinglers, as well as some lighter biting perch coming on pug bugs with a few spikes. The perch pattern with silver back tingler is producing best for my crew as of late. Perch from 25-30 fow on basin edges with eyes in morning and evening as well as sliding up to 12-14 foot on points for some of the eyes. I intend to fish till the bitter end. Good luck and be safe, – QB

I will be out of town until Thursday night or Friday morning but intend to be back on NE Sodak ice come Friday at some time. Will try to check IDO from the phone call or shoot a txt if ya have any questions.

Boy would I like to fry up some of those perch! Yum Yum!

I’m going to tag onto Quintin’s report for the southern part of the state. I was up in his neck of the woods this past weekend after spending the entire season fishing the southeastern part of the state. He recommended I bring my extension and glad I did as I barely broke thru one lake without it. The extension saved my back. On one NE lake, we were able to drive on but thru about 6” of water at the ramp. The cold winds on Saturday made it tough to hole hop so we fished out of the Otter XT1200. We moved several times and were able to get on some nice gills.

Lakes south of Hwy 212 have most of the snow melted off and left a few shorelines questionable. We stopped by a lake west of Watertown to do a little sundown walleye on our way home. The ramp access with the truck was a little wet and there was still 30”+ of ice on the lake, but it came up in chip’s most of the depth instead of shaving. Think about changing to ATV’s on lakes south of this line. We’re supposed to get 5” to 7” of snow tonight from Brookings to Watertown and that’ll mask any questionable ice. 40’s temps later this week could make these lake a little messy.

South of Hwy 14, you need to take caution getting onto the lakes. All of the snow is melted and left a lot of a water on top making soft spots and some very questionable shorelines. A truck went though on Thompson yesterday, so I would highly recommend ATV travel only. The crappie and perch fishing on these lake is going strong right now, but take caution and be safe.

The pictures below are of fish caught in the last two weeks with the gills being caught a few days ago. It’s gonna be a great bite the next few weeks. Tight lines and think safety.

Nice looking fish! Can’t wait to get out there for one last trip. Can you give any more specifics for targeting the eyes?