If I were a gambling man, I’d be willing to bet that no matter how avid an angler you are, no matter how long you’ve been at it, you would learn something you didn’t know if you read the latest South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks 2022 Fishing Handbook. I thought that I knew it all, but I didn’t.

I had always wondered why SDGF&P stocked only Amsden Lake, west of Aberdeen, with muskies. In the “What’s New” part of the 2022 Handbook on page 3, I learned that Lynn and Middle Lynn in Day County, Lake Sinai and Twin Lake in Brookings County, Twin Lake west of Hwy 81 in Kingsbury County, and North Island and South Island Lakes in McCook and Minnehaha Counties now have muskies.

Not new to me this year, but more relevant to me is that sunfish and bluegills can now be used as bait. This came about when anglers in the North Sioux City area convinced SDGF&P that they should be able to use bluegills as bait for flathead catfish in the Big Sioux River. I knew that bluegills/ sunfish were the preferred table fare for flathead cats, but I never tried it as it was illegal.

I’ve never specifically targeted flathead cats, but on a sunny afternoon many years ago I hooked two flatheads along the east bank of Francis Case Reservoir between North Point and White Swan while trolling a spinner/night crawler combination behind a bottom bouncer for walleyes. I landed a ten-pound flathead but never managed to get the 35-40 pound fish into my boat. My biggest cat ever was a 25 kilo/55 pound rainbow cat taken in the Amazon River near Colombia’s Leticia.

With this bluegill/sunfish bait thing, I now have a plan. If you’re not easily bored, feel free to join me, but bring some heavy-duty rods. The James as well as Francis Case has flatheads. I’ve always felt that putting into the James below the spillway at Olivet would be a good place to start. So would Milltown’s Island Park. Anywhere on the Missouri would be OK, and I’d probably choose the area where I hooked those flatheads in the past. I’d use my depth finder to search for holes. The Springfield area might also work well. If you’re a cat man, I’d welcome your advice.

For live bluegill/sunfish bait, we must be careful to stay within the law that reads, “Bait may not be transported in water taken from a lake, pond, stream, or river.” That said, we’re looking at tap, well, or rain water. For bluegill/sunfish bait, Wagner Lake has an abundance of small bluegills/sunfish that can be taken the instant a small piece of worm hits the water. Bluegill/sunfish bait could also be had from Menno Lake, Lake Henry (Scotland), Dimock Lake, or Tripp Lake. There’s also a wealth of bluegill ponds in the Mitchell area.

In the past I‘ve written about trips to Ontario’s Kwinigan’s Lake where my good friend, Francis Doom, owns a cabin. During the last week of May, Francis, his son, Jeff, along with friends and cousins, made the Kwinigans trip to open the cabin for the summer. For Jeff and Ted Honke, it was a matter of being at exactly the right place at exactly the right time. Northern pike spawn in shallow water immediately after ice out, but it was the farthest thing from their minds.

The two had hiked into a small lake north of the cabin where a boat and motor were kept for occasional changes in scenery. The lake had risen about 18 inches and flooded the timber adjacent to the area. As Jeff attended to the motor, Ted made a cast into the flooded timber. His small chartreuse jig disappeared in a swirl of water. A second cast produced the same result. Now that the action caught Jeff’s attention, they moved the boat far enough out to clear the sunken timber and proceeded to fish. During the next 45 minutes, they caught and released twenty northern pike that ran 36-43 inches in length.

Jeff said that most of the pike were bloody, bruised, and stressed – signs of physical spawning activity. Most of us are familiar with like conditions in recently spawned walleyes. Like other recently spawned-out species, a feeding binge follows. When I asked Jeff about their strength, he believed that they exhibited less stamina than they would show later in the season. I wish I could have been there.

See you next week with a rundown on my return trip to Saskatchewan’s Lake Besnard.