If you’re a serious ice angler and interested in hearing news about hot bites—I’ve got one to share! For the last two winters, we’ve taken a few days to ice fish in South Dakota. While the tremendous fishing there might not exactly be a secret–I think most anglers have heard about the exploding perch action and the quality walleye fisheries, what’s often overlooked are ‘alternate’ species such as white bass, crappies, largemouth bass—and perhaps most importantly, northern pike.
In fact, I’d have to rate pike fishing in South Dakota among some of the best in the country, not only for quantity, but quality as well. Lake Oahe alone offers thousands of acres of prime pike spawning habitat, plus a favorable blend of water chemistry, structure, cover and forage that allows pike to flourish from the time they hatch right up until they grow to trophy size—and grow to trophy proportions they do!
Yet with so many anglers focusing on the walleyes, pike aren’t often targeted–taken as incidental catches, yes, but pike are usually not the focus of most ice anglers’ attention. I really became aware of this when HT pro staffer Dennis Foster and I first got speaking about meeting to fish South Dakota two seasons ago. Essentially, the conversation revolved around perch and walleyes–and Dennis didn’t have to twist my arm too hard when trying to convince me to join him. But as we continued to talk, he kept referencing pike, and ironically, did so in an almost derogatory manner.
“Darn things,” he sort of-complained at one point, “no matter how hard you try to selectively fish walleyes, it’s almost impossible to avoid catching them. Due to rapidly expanding sloughs, favorable habitat and essentially, lack of targeted fishing pressure; populations have literally exploded in many South Dakota waters.”
As I continued listening to him rant about too many pike, my mind began churning. I enjoy catching perch and walleyes as much as anyone—but I also love tip-up fishing for northern pike. Both go together like cake and milk, and with FOUR lines allowed per angler in South Dakota, I not only have the chance to set three tip-ups, but still have a line free to jig with, too.
Yup, that’s right, jig! Jigging for pike has been an overlooked facet of the ice fishing world by many anglers for too long. Fact is, a bit longer, 40-50” medium-heavy to heavy action spinning or bait casting rod featuring a little backbone, larger diameter, sturdy guides and a balanced reel spooled with an appropriate line allows you to work large, flashy spoons, swimming minnows, blade baits, lipless crank baits, tube jigs or swim baits quite effectively.
Strategically positioned between tip-ups, I’ve found the additional jigging motion helps draw pike to the minnows—and should pike be attracted by the tip-up baits but pass them by, they’ll often react to the jigged lures.
So as Dennis finishes yet another story about South Dakota’s excessive pike populations, I snap from my daydreaming and jump back into the conversation.
“How big do these fish get?” I inquire, mouth watering. “The way you’re talking, I would actually be interested in targeting some of those bothersome pike. Don’t get me wrong, I want to fish perch and walleyes, too. It just seems if the pike fisheries are that strong, we shouldn’t overlook that opportunity!”
Dennis appears somewhat surprised with my response, but doesn’t hesitate to concede. “Okay, we can do that. We routinely catch pike running 10-20 pounds, and there are plenty of multi-species locations where we can accomplish that while catching some walleyes, maybe even a few catfish while targeting those pike, too.”
He’s right. We film a full episode out of Mobridge on the famed Lake Oahe, and using a combination of magnetic Polar Pop-Ups and jigging tactics, catch a tremendous quantity of pike—a couple in the 40” class—along with a few walleyes and catfish to create a nice mixed bag, just as Dennis had said we could. The action was so good, in fact; we decide to come back to South Dakota again for season two, focusing strictly on pike.
We meet in Webster, right in the heart of South Dakota’s Glacial Lakes region. With an abundance of excellent pike water within a 60 mile radius–and being in the famed Waubay area where perch and walleyes are prime fare and receive the majority of the fishing pressure–we know there are plenty of untapped places to explore in our search for pike, and we waste no time getting started.
Slush!
Stopping briefly to see Doug Johnson over at Sportsman’s Cove, we’re immediately forewarned about the slush conditions making travel on the ice challenging—really challenging. There’s plenty of ice—almost three feet—but due to heavy snowfall, slush conditions are worsening and have limited access to anglers on most area lakes. Reports are that in some spots where drifting has been an issue, slush is easily measuring a couple feet deep atop the ice.
We’ve heard about this and come prepared. In addition to Dennis’ trusty four wheel drive 4-wheeler– outfitted with J-Wheelz for safety and designed to help propel the machine through snow—we also have South Dakota native Mike Rogers, a sales representative specializing in vehicles designed to get around on the ice—and he’s brought a Wilcraft amphibious vehicle outfitted with accessory skis positioned over the front wheels for steering. The nice thing about a Wilcraft is you can easily travel over land, ice, even water with ease, and Mike is now anxious to try some test runs in slush.
Still, having been warned about extremely adverse conditions, Mike has also trailered a Sno Bear–a tracked vehicle made specifically for ice fishing and known for pushing through even the worst conditions with relative ease. No matter what the tough South Dakota winter throws at us, we’ll be ready.
Good thing, too, because when we arrive at the lake even I’m somewhat aghast by what I see.
“They weren’t kidding when they said the slush was a couple feet deep, were they?” I blurt out, eyeing the launch. “Wow!”
We all stand in silence for a moment, staring. Dennis mutters something to himself unloads his four-wheeler and races off shore toward the slush covered ice to test things out.
“Even with the J-Wheelz, he’ll never make it through that,” Mike comments as Dennis roars past. “That slush is just too deep.”
Sean Casper, our TGO camera man, readies his gear as Mike and I watch Dennis’ machine literally splash into the heavy slush…and promptly sink, leaving all four wheels buried up to the axles and spinning ineffectively. Dennis guns the engine while rocking back and forth in an effort to pull forward and up onto a solid surface. No luck. He’s stuck, and he’s not even pulling a load. Defeated, he groans and shuts off the engine.
It’s too slushy to even think about pushing him out, so Mike decides to try the Wilcraft. “The Wilcraft is designed for safety, and should it break through the ice, the craft floats and will bring you back atop solid ice or through open water to shore safely,” Mike explains. “It’s really not made to go through this kind of slush, and I really don’t know what to expect, but we’re here to test this machine, so here goes!” Mike steers down the launch, plunges in and suffers the same fate as Dennis. By this point, Sean and I are wondering if we’ll ever start fishing.
Sno-Bear to the Rescue
Mike reads my expression well. “No worries, Tom,” he says confidently. “I’ll get the Sno-Bear.”
Minutes later, his Sno Bear rolls off the trailer and down toward the two stranded vehicles. I cringe as Mike drives onto the lake, but as he predicted, the tracks remain atop the slush. He backs up to the 4-wheeler, hooks up a rope and with Dennis steering, the Sno-Bear effortlessly pulls them from the sinkhole, through the slush and back to shore.
Mike then returns to hook up to the Wilcraft and with me at the helm, pulls that free, too. On shore, we take a few minutes to clear the slush from the four wheeler and Wilcraft, load our gear in the Sno-Bear and (finally!) head out to fish. I’m thankful to find the Sno-Bear moves across the slush with ease.
“If we didn’t have this Sno-Bear, there would be almost no way of accessing the lake,” I mention to Mike as we’re traveling. Honestly, I can’t thank him enough. I notice very few other anglers are out fishing—other than those who have somehow reached close to shore flats by avoiding deep, massive slush pockets and wading their way through the deep snow in-between. I’d have to say these are the toughest ice conditions I’ve ever had to negotiate. If Mike hadn’t brought along his Sno Bear, we would have been severely restricted in our mobility–and had extreme difficulty getting much, if anything at all, filmed.
Guided by our GPS and map chart, we reach our spot. Noting heavy slush pockets, we decide to run the Sno-Bear along the break and spots we want to fish, using the tracks to pack down the slush. Our hope is that once packed down and subjected to the cold air, the slush will freeze, providing us with a convenient, dry path to access our tip-up set. Mission completed, we hop out, and finding the strategy successful, begin drilling holes and readying our tip-ups.
We’re fishing a wide, vegetated flat adjoining a rocky, main lake point extending into a deep basin. Our plan is to set tip-ups along the weed line, focusing on anomalies such as hooks, points, turns, pockets, and most importantly, a deep slot that extends from the deep water up into the flat. We also work a few lines out onto and along the edge of a deep, hard-bottom point adjoining the far edge of this flat. Prime territory and I’m anxious to fish it all.
Our presentations are based primarily around HT’s Polar Pop-Up Magnetic tip-ups—clearly Dennis’ favorites.
“I really like the unique magnetic trip system,” Dennis emphasized. “A magnet on the spool aligns with another on a bright orange colored shaft is encased within a sealed tube body. When a fish bites and turns the spool, the magnetic tension is broken and the brightly colored shaft pops out the top of the tube, revealing the strike. They’re completely freeze-proof and wind proof, plus stand relatively tall, so they’re easy to see, and fold down compactly for convenient transport and storage. It doesn’t get much better than that!”
After adding a few wraps of mono to coat the spool arbor, Dennis spools with Berkley Gorilla Braid or Stren Sonic Braid in 50 to 65# strengths, power pro, then uses a ball bearing swivel to attach a long, 3-4’ length of 30# Seaguar Premier fluorocarbon leader. “I also add a flashy smile blade to the leader as an attractor before tying on my hook, and always bait up with the largest, liveliest, oversized red-tailed or creek chub I can find,” he explains.
“Then, depending on depth, I set my presentations suspended well off bottom. I believe the way a pike’s eyes are situated on top of their heads they can see baits better when looking up at them, and the wide profile of a large chub is not only easier to see, but a meal worth chasing, which I’ve found helps attract bigger fish. My feeling is the bigger the chub, the better!”
Dennis grabs a rod storage case loaded down heavily with rigged Polar Pop-Ups—a case Dennis has sprayed inside with Flex Seal ™ to prevent his hooks from snagging the liner—and along with his 6 gallon bucket filled with giant chubs being serenaded by a bubbling aerator, he sets out to begin our set-up. I follow with a skimmer and my Vexilar.
The South Dakota pike don’t fail to cooperate. We’ve barely finished drilling our holes and are just dunking the third Pop-Up when a flag trips. Still carrying my skimmer, I run over, kneel down and peer into the hole. The spool is spinning off line rapidly, in fact, I notice about half the spool of line is already emptied. I gently lift the unit, and when the fish slows, set the hook. It’s not a big one, but it’s a fish. Minutes later, I ice our first South Dakota pike of the trip.
Dennis still has the bait bucket and is off in the distance, so I just wrap the line back on the spool up to our marker, and laying the tip-up beside the hole, join Dennis to continue setting lines. But we don’t stay together long. After setting just one more unit, another flag trips in the distance. Dennis offers to continue with set up, so I run to attend the tripped line—and suddenly, everything breaks loose.
The action becomes so fast we scarcely have time to re-set a line. For every tip-up we set, another goes off. By the time we skim another hole, re-bait, drop the minnow down and set a flag, another trips—and this same activity repeats itself several times.
Within 30 minutes, we’ve caught and released eight pike and missed two. I stop to scan the area. We’ve got another flag up, another four tip-ups sitting atop the ice waiting to be re-set–and Dennis still hasn’t finished setting our initial lines.
I smile and head toward the raised flag. This tip-up is set along a shallow water ridge lining the edge of the deep slot running from a deep basin up and leading into the otherwise relatively shallow, weedy flat. I’m thinking this will likely be another small fish, so already panting and sweating from all the running around, take my time getting there.
Again, line is spinning out quickly, and inspecting the spool, I notice there’s only a couple wraps left. No time to waste. I heft the unit and set-up, and it feels like I’ve just hooked into a stump. There’s weight–heavy weight—and it doesn’t move. Then, just like that, the line goes slack. I’m confused, but only briefly.
Without hesitation, I start pulling line to catch up with the running fish, and when I do, my suspicions are confirmed: This is not a small fish. Line zips from my cold, wet fingers as I struggle to control the fish. Each time I gain some line, the fish gets it back. The battle is on.
Dennis takes notice and comes over to help, and after several runs, we lift a chunky, very respectably sized South Dakota pike onto the ice, the first of several we’ll take on this trip.
Once settled down from all the excitement, we finish setting our lines, and in addition to the Pop-Ups, try out one of the new HT Polar Thunder Tip-Ups. We also decide to take some time to try a little jigging, too—and again, we’re not disappointed. We have so many fish we’re literally running out of bait, and Sean mentions he’s almost filled his memory cards, but still films a few minutes of us icing a couple pike on the rods before declaring we need to call it a day.
I hate to leave, but still okay with it, because there’s another area we want to fish that appears interesting: A nearby lake filled with flooded trees. It’s acclaimed for pike, and Dennis knows a local angler who fishes this lake and is willing to come along, so he makes arrangements to meet him there the following day.
Another Amazing Day
Unsurprisingly, the Sno Bear is required for access–if anything, the slush conditions are actually worse here than the first lake—but we reach our destination. Upon arrival we find just as many trees covering the bottom at various angles as we see standing. Great pike cover, but we’ll need to be careful not to get fish hooked up in all these snags once fish bite or are hooked and run.
Now re-stocked with fresh bait, we set some Polar Pop-Ups, along with the new Polar Thunder and a couple classic Polar Therm and Windlass wind tip-ups. Again, we aren’t disappointed, the pike begin cooperating right away, and a couple of them are pretty nice sized fish as well. Once things settle, we try a little jigging and add several additional pike to our catch. Impressive to say the least!
A front soon moves in, bringing with it falling temperatures and strong, gusty Dakota winds to slow things down, but we’re still catching fish, and having already had an outstanding trip, no one really seems to mind.
There’s certainly some tremendous ice fishing opportunities in South Dakota. Come for the classic perch and walleyes if you wish–you’re not likely to come home empty handed. Just don’t forget about the northern pike.
I’m convinced you’ll be hard pressed to find more consistent, better quality winter pike action anywhere—and with so much water to choose from and relatively speaking, such minimal fishing pressure, you might just experience the trip—or, perhaps, the fish–of a life time.
Don’t wait until the peak passes and you simply hear stories about how good the pike fishing once was. Although I expect pike fishing in South Dakota may remain productive for a while, opportunities like this don’t last forever, and due to a variety of factors, could change rapidly.
So if you truly enjoy ice fishing for pike and are looking for a place to go, don’t hesitate! Plan a trip and take advantage of this hot tip. There’s no question that South Dakota is a destination you should be considering–and there may be no better time to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity than right now.
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