South Dakota is walleye country by charter: the Missouri River reservoirs (Oahe, Sharpe, Francis Case) form a 400-mile fishery where limits are the expectation, smallmouth thrive on every riprap, and salmon swim the cold water below the dams. The glacial northeast adds a hundred prairie lakes that quietly produce the state's biggest fish.
Reports current for Friday, September 4
Live verdicts from this morning's reports.
South Dakota's 231-mile walleye highway, with salmon below the thermocline.
The glacial riser: a prairie-pothole lake that tripled with the wet cycle and stacked itself with walleye and jumbo perch.
The prairie ghost lake: South Dakota's risen giant, drowned farmland turned walleye factory when the wet cycle rewrote the map.
The deep one of the Glacial Lakes: Waubay's risen sister, where drowned groves drop into 40 feet and the walleye run heavier than the neighbors'.
The Missouri's forgotten middle: 107 miles of walleye water behind Fort Randall, where the crowds thin and the smallmouth took over the rocks.
Missouri River water: Lake Sharpe runs 80 miles of walleye, smallmouth and salmon between Pierre and Big Bend.
Black Hills gateway water: Angostura holds walleye, bass and warm water where the plains meet the pines.
The Missouri’s shallow reservoir: Lewis and Clark Lake holds walleye and catfish between two states.
The Black Hills’ deep lake: Pactola holds trout and lake trout in the clearest water in South Dakota.
Orman Dam water: Belle Fourche Reservoir holds walleye, pike and perch on the northern plains.
Sioux Falls’ river: the Big Sioux runs catfish, walleye and smallmouth along the South Dakota border.
Species activity across the state's covered waters. Peak of the year: April.
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.
Seasonal surface curve for this state's dominant water type (estimated).
| Water | Type | County | Live gauge | Peak month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Oahe | Reservoir | Hughes | USGS | Apr |
| Waubay Lake | Lake | Day | modeled | Apr |
| Lake Thompson | Lake | Kingsbury | modeled | Apr |
| Bitter Lake | Lake | Day | modeled | Apr |
| Lake Francis Case | Reservoir | Brule | modeled | Apr |
| Lake Sharpe | Reservoir | Lyman | modeled | Apr |
| Angostura Reservoir | Reservoir | Fall River | modeled | Apr |
| Lewis and Clark Lake | Reservoir | Yankton | modeled | Apr |
| Pactola Reservoir | Reservoir | Pennington | USGS | Apr |
| Belle Fourche Reservoir | Reservoir | Butte | modeled | Apr |
| Big Sioux River | River | Minnehaha | USGS | May |
Oahe is the flagship: scattered walleye schools, big-water trolling and chinook salmon by the dam. Sharpe below it offers the best shore fishing (the spillway and Big Bend tailrace are legendary), and Francis Case rounds out the chain. The rhythm is seasonal depth: shallow points in May, 25-40 ft flats by August, back shallow with October's bait.
The glacial lakes (Waubay, Bitter, Enemy Swim) exploded during wet decades into perch-and-walleye factories with flooded-tree structure. Ice season is the region's crown: December perch and walleye through two feet of clear prairie ice, sleeper houses on every named bay.
The tailraces: below Oahe Dam at Pierre and Big Bend at Fort Thompson: are among the best walleye shore fisheries in America, especially April-May and October.