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Lake Thompson Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

The prairie ghost lake: South Dakota's risen giant, drowned farmland turned walleye factory when the wet cycle rewrote the map.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~55 F est.
Air / High
76 / 77 F
Wind
SSE 26 mph

Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Lake Thompson feels the season turning: shorter days, grouping fish. Today brings a mixed sky, wind SSE around 26 mph, falling pressure near 1009 hPa and a high of 77. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 10:06 AM-12:06 PM and 10:36 PM-12:36 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

WalleyeGood

Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

Northern pikeGood

The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

White bassFair

The spring run happens in this band: tributaries, shoals and the upper ends of reservoirs as the water reaches about 55Β°F.

CrappieFair

Pre-spawn fish move toward shallow coves, and Iowa DNR points to wading as an effective way to reach them in spring; minnows or small jigs under a float.

Tomorrow: Cooler at 67 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

South Dakota requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $41.00 for residents. What a South Dakota licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing walleye here? Check the size and bag limits with SD GFP before you keep anything. The season dates for South Dakota, read off the agency, are on the South Dakota seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

No live gauge on this water

Conditions here are modeled from weather, season and the nearest stations. Water readings appear when a USGS gauge is available.

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp76 F
High / Low77 / 62 F
WindSSE 26-43 mph
Pressure1008.8 hPa, falling
Sky / Rain47% cloud, 19%
Sunrise / Sunset07:55 / 18:32
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~55 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Lake Thompson this week

Today is the pick of the week on Lake Thompson, at 3 out of 5.

Best day this week: today, Oct 23 β€” fair at 3/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
10:06 AM-12:06 PM and 10:36 PM-12:36 AM
Minor period
4:29 AM-5:29 AM
Sun
07:55 to 18:32
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 27 mph
Rain chance
19%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Lake Thompson: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Walleye illustration

Walleye

Best: spring and late fall, around dawn, dusk and night

A cool-water perch of large lakes, reservoirs and rivers whose reflective eyes are built for low light, so it feeds most at night and in murky water. The Missouri Department of Conservation ranks it among the continent's most important freshwater game fish. Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

White bass illustration

White bass

Best: the spring run up the tributaries, then summer surface schools

A silvery temperate bass of rivers and large reservoirs, also called sand bass, that schools in open water after shad and runs up tributaries to spawn in early spring. The spring run happens in this band: tributaries, shoals and the upper ends of reservoirs as the water reaches about 55Β°F.

Northern pike illustration

Northern pike

Best: cool water, from ice-out through spring, in fall and under the ice

A long, duck-billed predator of weedy lakes, slow rivers and backwaters that ambushes fish from vegetation. Wisconsin DNR points out that, unlike most of the state's common game fish, pike do their best feeding in cool water. The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

Crappie illustration

Crappie

Best: the spring spawn; summer around docks, brush and the thermocline

Two slab-sided panfish, the white crappie and the black crappie, that gather around submerged timber, brush piles, docks and bridge pilings in lakes, reservoirs and slow river backwaters. Texas Parks and Wildlife counts crappie as the state's most popular panfish. Pre-spawn fish move toward shallow coves, and Iowa DNR points to wading as an effective way to reach them in spring; minnows or small jigs under a float.

When to come: the Lake Thompson calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Walleye
White bass
Northern pike
Crappie
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 55 F (estimated, not a reading).

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Lake Thompson today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 76 F, wind to 14 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 75 F, wind to 9 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Walleye led the card at excellent. High of 69 F, wind to 19 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

South Dakota requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

South Dakota license. Walleye 4/day standard: check GFP east-river rules and current ramp status.

Access

GFP accesses on the east/south shores (level-dependent): local roads to the flooded grades.

About this water

15,000+ acres of risen prairie water, Kingsbury County, SD. The wet-cycle walleye factory.

Fishing Lake Thompson: the full guide

Born of the wet years

Thompson was a marsh until the 1980s-90s wet cycle drowned 15,000 acres of Kingsbury County farmland: fences, groves and roadbeds now structure South Dakota's famous 'new' walleye factory. The state's largest natural lake by the rise: and its proof that prairie hydrology writes fisheries faster than agencies can.

Walleye over the farmsteads

The drowned shelterbelts and road grades hold the program: jig the tree lines at ice-out, pull harnesses along the old section roads (straight-line structure a GPS loves), and crank the windward field edges come fall. Fertility keeps the fish thick: limits of 15-20-inch gold remain the realistic expectation when the year-classes align.

The perch-and-pike pulse

Jumbo perch boom in cycles (the ice villages track them: when Thompson's perch run, the whole region drives over), and pike patrol every flooded grove: tip-up flags fly all winter. White bass appeared with the connections' high-water years: the prairie system shares fish when it floods.

Prairie logistics

GFP ramps serve the east and south shores (levels move them: confirm current access notes), Lake Preston and De Smet supply basics, and the wind owns everything: 15,000 shallow acres whitecaps on any sustained blow: fish mornings, use the grove lees. Winter access follows local plowing: ask at the bait shops: they know which section roads end at water now.

Common questions

Why is Lake Thompson so full of structure?

Because it drowned a township: shelterbelts, roads and farmsteads all hold fish now. The straight-line grades make electronics fishing almost unfairly easy.

Is Lake Thompson still producing walleye?

The factory runs on year-classes: strong hatches keep restoring limits-fishing. Check the GFP surveys and winter reports: when Thompson is on, it is the region's best value.

Is fishing good at Lake Thompson right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Lake Poinsett26 miBig Sioux River53 miBitter Lake66 miWaubay Lake77 miBig Stone Lake88 miLake Francis Case99 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 44.2830, -97.4500 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.