Brad Garrett, Oahe (O-wah-hee) Lake fishing guide, bent his rod to
duel with one of Lake Oahe’s finest. Fishing a bottom bouncer trailing a 24-inch leader equipped with stinger hook and night crawler, he eventually fought a large walleye grudgingly to the surface.
In Oahe’s crystalline waters, the trophy first swam into view 15-feet down. Garrett finally netted it unassisted. It weighed seven and one half pounds.
Lake Oahe is one of four of The Great Lakes Of South Dakota created by constructing four dams across the upper Missouri River. Oahe is by far the largest with more than 2000-miles of shore line. That distance exceeds the nation’s total of either the Pacific or Atlantic length of either coast’s shoreline.
Oahe is Sioux meaning “Father Of Waters.” Its remarkable clarity rivals that of Missouri’s Table Rock Lake. Big Muddy it ain’t!
Mike McClelland, Mr. Walleye in the nation’s earliest burgeoning walleye tournaments, lives in Pierre, S.D. just South of Oahe Dam. He views that impoundment as the finest walleye fishery anywhere on the planet.
Oahe’s vastness defies description. At places, it exceeds five miles in 
width - treeless shore to treeless shore - at normal pool. At twenty feet above normal pool when I fished it, the breadth of this riverine system looked like an inland sea in places. It reaches more than a thousand miles North into North Dakota. Reportedly exceeding 200-feet in depth, I saw 180-feet recorded on depth recorders. The two tiny whitish specs just to the right of center in the photo to the left are two boats fishing the shoreline for walleye. The area can be extremely remote and uninhabited.
The Missouri River’s 1993 terrible ravages of its southern flood plains merely filled South Dakota’s drought-shrunken reservoirs to capacity at the time. Extra water held above normal pool can be a bonus to area ranchers and farmers coveting it for future irrigation needs.
During my visit, blue bird weather offered excellent photographic opportunities but the resulting glassy surfaces glued walleyes tight to the
bottom. After marking fish at 20 to 25-feet, I missed strike after soft-mouthed strike recovering only the head of a night crawler on the hook-harness afterward.
Don Cameron was my guide out of Oahe Lodge courtesy of owner Dennis Spencer. (Since this trip, Oahe Lodge is under new owner Bruce Peterson and a new name, Whitehouse Point.)
The first morning out saw Don and I accompanied by Mike Cameron (Don’s son) and his grandson - six year old Andy. Arriving at the first spot that morning, Andy plopped his harness into 40-feet of water immediately hooking a two and a half pound walleye.
And, that was it for the day.
Fishing a tournament in the rain that weekend (and placing fifth to McClelland’s fourth), Mike reported few walleye weighed in then either.
The next day found Cameron and myself accompanying Garrett to the
Little Bend area fishing near the mouth of the Cheyenne River. The buttes and rolling country South of the Cheyenne contained the famed Houck Ranch - the largest privately owned buffalo ranch in the world. Kevin Costner filmed “Dances With Wolves” on its 60,000 acres. An old line-shack built on a Houck Ranch fence-line was visible from the water.
Both boats got into fish this day. Equipped with CB radios and marine band radios, Cameron and Garrett stayed in close communication with
each other. When one got into fish, he called the other to the spot. Garrett’s radio acted up but we managed to communicate well enough.
Cameron explained how Oahe’s vastness, when combined with wind, made coping with three to four foot wind driven waves a matter of survival. Photographing mirror images over glassy surfaces at 11:00 a.m. with fluffy white clouds suspended against an azure sky was decisively not normal according to him. Those images are a treasure in my photo files.
Most boats navigating Oahe were V-bottom Lunds featuring deep free
boards. A front platform held a swivel seat for the trolling motor operator and depth finder. Fold over windows and a drop-in door sheltered travelers from wind chill when under way in the back section. The back section also had built in decks leveling the floor there.
A three-foot free board in back permitted back trolling against heavy wave action allowing slower and tighter control of bait presentations in heavy waves. These boats showed solid promise for comparable rough-water impoundments.
Cameron stated bass boats navigating Lake Oahe were at risk when the wind was up. According to him, dramatic accidents in heavy waves have sent more than a few such craft to Oahe’s distant bottom.
The vastness of this lake and virtual undevelopment of its pristine shore line demands all boat operators consider every safety measure.
Extra fuel, marine band radio, well tuned engine, tool box with extra fuses, spark plugs, etc. and fishing the buddy system is astute here. In case there is trouble, you may discover (for ten or fifteen miles either direction) you are the only one out there.
Dennis “Spencer For Hire” Spencer, former owner of Oahe Lodge (now Whitehouse Point), stated Lake Oahe offers excellent walleye, chinook salmon, smallmouth bass and crappie fishing. Additionally, it offers Northern pike exceeding 30-pounds occasionally.
Spencer pointed out Oahe is a summer fishing lake for walleye and salmon because of its tremendous depth. Due to its depth of up to 200-feet deep, the mass of water takes comparatively longer to warm above 60-degrees (reaching optimum fish activity temperatures) than in impoundments not as deep.
Winter ice fishing is popular in the winter with most of the largest walleye and northern pike taken then.
Spencer and the guides reported salmon start their spring run in shallower water first - creeks, bays, etc. As the main lake’s water warms above 60-degrees, they move into deeper (as in cooler) depths. Locals use downriggers during summer months to reach fish holding as much as 130-feet deep.
A fall salmon run usually occurs in October as lake temperatures decline. At this time, they feed on a prolific food base of rainbow smelt and herring preparing for winter’s lean times.
Fishing Oahe was a heady experience. The vastness of the place swallows you. Rolling buttes surrounding the shore line displayed mule and white tail deer simultaneously. Buffalo grazing in the distance, an occasional antelope-family slaking thirst shoreside while sharptails (Hungarian grouse) and pheasants call from scattered positions during early morning and late evening tended to disorient mental faculties – as in: Is this for real?
At any moment, I eagerly anticipated bare-back riders on painted ponies charging over the next grassy rise clad only in loin cloths and Eagle feathers. After participating in a graciously served community fish fry, I finally just settled for a limit of walleyes to take home.
SIDE BAR
*Phone numbers providing more complete information:
*Pierre Area Chamber of Commerce - 1-800-962-2034
(Lake Oahe accomodations & information)
*South Dakota Hunting & Fishing - (605) 773-3485
(Licenses and seasons information.)
*S.D. Parks & Recreation - (605) 773-3391/Parkinfo@state.sd.us
*State Campground Reservations - 1-800-710-2267
*Wildlife Division - (605) 773-3381/Wildinfo@state.sd.us
*South Dakota Game Fish & Parks Dept. - www.sdgfp.info
For license information, contact the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks, 445 East Capitol, Pierre, SD 57501.