Wonderful walleyes of Waubay By Larry Myhre
Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal
WEBSTER, S.D. — A heavy overcast threatened rain and an occasional sprinkle emphasized that fact.
But when Tim Chandler, Watertown, S.D., guided his boat around the north side of Duck Island the graph lit up with arches signalling lots of fish below, thoughts of rain were forgotten. We attached number five Salmo Hornets to our trolling rods and began the search for walleyes.
We were on sprawling Waubay Lake, a walleye factory for the past several years.
It was once a duck slough but an infusion of water throughout northeast South Dakota in the early 90s turned it into a 16,000-acre fishing paradise
The lake more than quadrupled its size in the past decade and swallowed up many smaller lakes to create a massive fishery nine miles long and five miles wide.
It has receded somewhat from its high levels set in July of 1999. It has a maximum depth of 35 feet.
The lake once kicked out limits of five-pound average walleyes, but today that is only a memory. Tremendous pressure from anglers has resulted in a two-fish limit today with a minimum length limit of 14 inches and one over 20.
While the average size has declined, the number of fish has not, thanks to enlightened management by South Dakota fisheries.
There are good numbers of 15 to 18 inch walleyes and the chances of catching something in the eight pound range is good.
But on this day, the walleye didn’t want crankbaits. So, we switched to bottom bouncers and spinners with nightcrawlers.
We left the island and went to the nearby north shore and hadn’t trolled 50 feet when Gary Howey’s rod bent under the pull of a good fish which couldn’t ignore his firetiger spinnerblade and crawler.
We continued to work a couple hundred yards of shoreline and picked up our limit.
I was surprised that we didn’t hook up to any of the large perch for which the lake is also noted or a northern pike.
But considering the weather front we had run into we did well to even catch walleyes.
The day before we sat out a constant barrage of rain at the Travelers Inn in Watertown. We tried a preserve pheasant hunt but gave up because of the rain.
Our guide Tim Chandler, operates Glacial Lakes Guide Service and handles both pheasant hunters and fishermen on any of the lakes in northeast South Dakota.
Contact him at: (605) 886-8743 or Cell at: (605) 881-6448. His web site is: www.glaciallakesguideservice.com
From now till ice-up, walleye fishing on northeast lakes will just get better.