Lake Oahe has become a world class fishery in my humble opinion. The whole system from the state line all the way to the Garrison Dam Tailrace has opportunities of catching State Record Class fish. Over the years it has become a trophy Northern Pike fishery with Pike exceeding 45 inches. Numerous walleyes have been taken recently including the new State Record Walleye which was caught this past spring. These fish or this class of fish, that are 14 pound plus fish are being caught which seems at a regular pace. I predict a new state record Walleye this spring near Bismarck.
Another fish that has really exploded onto the scene is the crappie. I have been chasing these fish hard for over half my life starting back in my days playing college hockey up in a Duluth. I made it my mission to find and catch these guys and the lure, no pun intended is these are fun fish to catch and awesome table fair! Last winter my daughters and I iced one that was just over 16” and with that came a taxidermy bill.
I decide yesterday I needed to head down to some sunken trees on Lake Oahe near Beaver Bay. Upon arriving I turned on my GPS only to find somehow I lost my waypoints. Years and years worth of scouting and collecting these hot spots all gone. I’m gonna have to start all over to try and find these sweet spots again.
I set up near or what I thought was near one of my old spots and it just wasn’t quite right. I kept on moving around and boom I found one of my trees. Crazy enough it didn’t take long to start to catch some crappies! Another crazy thing was the amount of perch that we were seeing on the Lowrance and also on camera. No wonder the Northern Pike are getting so big!
Nothing special, a frosty Lindy jig and a minnow head near the sunken trees in the river channel is where they reside. Find the trees and you will find the fish!
I also have my spear shacks out and set up to spear out of! I’ll be sitting a couple times this coming week! Email me at mikepelusooutdoors@gmail.com or text me at 7014718649 to reserve a day!