FSH 210 Sport
Jetboaters Admiral
- Messages
- 6,008
- Reaction score
- 7,054
- Points
- 437
- Location
- Tranquility Base
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2020
- Boat Model
- FSH Sport
- Boat Length
- 21
Headed to Pierre SD recently for three days on the Missouri River, including Lake Oahe, and Lake Sharp.
The campground at Oahe Downstream was nothing short of fantastic, covered by towering cotton wood trees and a carpet of thick green grass. Electric hookups only, with bathrooms and showers, all facilities were clean and up to date. Thousands of song birds and migratory birds with hundreds of goslings. A river access boat launch with a courtesy dock capable of accommodating at least 8 boats for launching and retrieval, the launch ramp and docks are in immaculate shape, with well kept bumpers around the docks.
Access to Lake Oahe is 5 mins away on the other side of the dam with a more spartan launch ramp, but still in great shape. There are many other launch ramps on this 268 mile long lake.
First day out we put in at Minneconju which was 1.5 hours up the road, this would have been a two to two and half hour boat ride, and I will probably make this trip on the water later this summer. This day was a cold and cloudy spring day on the lake but not very much wind. My friend, his 13 year old son and I were after walleye on this trip. Day one was a little disappointing as the bite was cold….like the weather. The lowlight for the day was ending up on a shoal and sucking up some gravel, my friend jumped in the 55* water and pushed us off the shoal. Inspected the impellers and pumps when we pulled out and no damage at all to the drive system.. just a bruised and enlightened ego.
Day two dawned warmer with some light clouds that burned off by noon. We put in on the river down stream a ways from Pierre. This was another state park, and again the dock and boat ramp were in good order, this would prove useful later in the day. The water was shallow in the launch area, roughly 4-5’. As we headed out the channel towards the river the bottom came up to 3.5’, and still twitching a bit from the day before we stopped to contemplate our course of action. I saw another boater put in with a 16’ aluminum boat at the launch with a 25 horse outboard. We watched him come down the channel and make a hard turn around the point like a boss and accelerate away. I said to my friend, I can go anywhere he can go, so we followed his path without incident. We spent the rest of the day on the river fishing for the elusive walleye, the other boaters that drifted by on the current were very friendly and had caught a few and offered up what they were using to catch the fish.. very nice people. We took a ride down stream a ways where the river opened up it’s width to an incredible span that was anywhere from 2’ deep to 30’ deep in the main channel. After eating lunch we headed back up river, further up from where we had put in, it was here, in the swifter current that we managed to catch a couple of walleye. As we continued to fish into the late afternoon, the wind came up, then got stronger, blowing straight up the river. The wind became a sustained 35 mph, with gusts into the low 40’s. As we headed back down river to leave for the day we encountered the some pretty big waves, at least 6’ from the bottom of the wave to the crest. I kept the water speed at 15 mph to keep the nose as high as possible, as we hit the waves, the water that splashed out was instantly picked up by the wind and thrown back on us, like someone throwing five gallon buckets of water on us. Thankfully the day had warmed to the upper 80’s. Several of the waves were so steep that the boat caught air after cresting the peak and the engines hit the rev limiters. When we got back to the boat ramp, the winds were blowing perpendicular to the dock.. this was going to be a bit challenging putting the boat back on the trailer! The engines were not powerful enough to use split throttle for steering control, so had to use both engines together and the wheel, this required some pretty aggressive throttle work to maintain control. I had my friend back the trailer in, leaving the front fenders just above the water and leaving the very front of the bunks out of the water as well. Once the trailer was in position I made my approach quartering into the wind and came onto the trailer at about a 30* angle, gliding over the fenders, and let the bow slid along the bunks and it settled into the bunks and forward. Probably the hardest wind I’ve had to deal with yet.
Day three dawned blue skies and no wind as we headed further down river to West Bend / Lake Sharp and another beautiful SD state campground. This boat ramp had two docks and the ability to launch / retrieve 4 boats at once in a very protected little marina. Again, the docks were in great shape with ample cleats and fenders in great shape. We headed up river from the marina and chose an area to start fishing in the general area where some other boats were. It wasn’t too long before we managed to catch a couple of walleye. We fished this area for a while before heading back to the marina to pick up my friends wife who had driven down to join us. After picking her up we headed down river to another place the good folks at a sporting good store told us was a good area to fish. We probably motored 30 mins or so down river before getting to a place where we could get some shelter from the wind that had come up. We found a place that looked pretty good and headed over that way from the main channel… I had seen these little orange dots on my chart plotter and wondered what they were. As we got closer we saw some old tree tops sticking out of the water, we approached them very slowly thinking this might be some good structure to fish. What we found was an entire grove of old trees, many of their tops an inch or two below the surface. We found this to be a bit too sketchy for us and headed towards the shore. We spot locked about 50’ or so off the shore in 12’ of water. I tossed out my jig with a live minnow and by the third jig I had a walleye on! This would continue for the next few hours, as we caught walleye and catfish. The catfish were the best fighters and averaged about 5 pounds, the walleye ranged anywhere from 12” (too small to keep) to 22”. At the end of the day we had 12 keeper walleyes in the live well! Between the two caught the previous day and these 12 we had about 5 # of fillets.
Our last day on the water was a bit shorter since we had to go home that day… we put in on Lake Oahe, just the other side of the dam, roughly a five minute tow. We put in and fishies along the dam nabbing a few small mouth bass. Then headed out into deeper water looking to mark any fish that might be down deep, found a few bait balls of what we assume were herring. The wind had been forecast to start coming up by mid morning and this time the forecast was correct. We headed up river to a large cove that would give us shelter from the growing swells and wind. Cruising at 25 mph the ride was good over the 2’ chop and we were at the sheltered cove in about 10 minutes. Fishing here was pleasant but unproductive.. as our time was beginning to run a little short we decided to head further up river. By now the wind had increased and so had the wave size, the chop was now at 3’ with some larger sets mixed in. We motored at 21 mph for another 25-30 minutes up river until we came upon another large cove where we were sheltered from the wind and waves. We hung out here for a while and had some snacks and a soda before heading back to the boat ramp. Going back to the ramp we were in following seas, there were some big sets in there with the rest of the waves, 22 mph provided a good ride that everyone enjoyed, it was a dry ride all the way back.
We will be heading back there later in the summer I’m sure to do some more exploring of the massive Lake Oahe and Missouri River.
The campground at Oahe Downstream was nothing short of fantastic, covered by towering cotton wood trees and a carpet of thick green grass. Electric hookups only, with bathrooms and showers, all facilities were clean and up to date. Thousands of song birds and migratory birds with hundreds of goslings. A river access boat launch with a courtesy dock capable of accommodating at least 8 boats for launching and retrieval, the launch ramp and docks are in immaculate shape, with well kept bumpers around the docks.
Access to Lake Oahe is 5 mins away on the other side of the dam with a more spartan launch ramp, but still in great shape. There are many other launch ramps on this 268 mile long lake.
First day out we put in at Minneconju which was 1.5 hours up the road, this would have been a two to two and half hour boat ride, and I will probably make this trip on the water later this summer. This day was a cold and cloudy spring day on the lake but not very much wind. My friend, his 13 year old son and I were after walleye on this trip. Day one was a little disappointing as the bite was cold….like the weather. The lowlight for the day was ending up on a shoal and sucking up some gravel, my friend jumped in the 55* water and pushed us off the shoal. Inspected the impellers and pumps when we pulled out and no damage at all to the drive system.. just a bruised and enlightened ego.
Day two dawned warmer with some light clouds that burned off by noon. We put in on the river down stream a ways from Pierre. This was another state park, and again the dock and boat ramp were in good order, this would prove useful later in the day. The water was shallow in the launch area, roughly 4-5’. As we headed out the channel towards the river the bottom came up to 3.5’, and still twitching a bit from the day before we stopped to contemplate our course of action. I saw another boater put in with a 16’ aluminum boat at the launch with a 25 horse outboard. We watched him come down the channel and make a hard turn around the point like a boss and accelerate away. I said to my friend, I can go anywhere he can go, so we followed his path without incident. We spent the rest of the day on the river fishing for the elusive walleye, the other boaters that drifted by on the current were very friendly and had caught a few and offered up what they were using to catch the fish.. very nice people. We took a ride down stream a ways where the river opened up it’s width to an incredible span that was anywhere from 2’ deep to 30’ deep in the main channel. After eating lunch we headed back up river, further up from where we had put in, it was here, in the swifter current that we managed to catch a couple of walleye. As we continued to fish into the late afternoon, the wind came up, then got stronger, blowing straight up the river. The wind became a sustained 35 mph, with gusts into the low 40’s. As we headed back down river to leave for the day we encountered the some pretty big waves, at least 6’ from the bottom of the wave to the crest. I kept the water speed at 15 mph to keep the nose as high as possible, as we hit the waves, the water that splashed out was instantly picked up by the wind and thrown back on us, like someone throwing five gallon buckets of water on us. Thankfully the day had warmed to the upper 80’s. Several of the waves were so steep that the boat caught air after cresting the peak and the engines hit the rev limiters. When we got back to the boat ramp, the winds were blowing perpendicular to the dock.. this was going to be a bit challenging putting the boat back on the trailer! The engines were not powerful enough to use split throttle for steering control, so had to use both engines together and the wheel, this required some pretty aggressive throttle work to maintain control. I had my friend back the trailer in, leaving the front fenders just above the water and leaving the very front of the bunks out of the water as well. Once the trailer was in position I made my approach quartering into the wind and came onto the trailer at about a 30* angle, gliding over the fenders, and let the bow slid along the bunks and it settled into the bunks and forward. Probably the hardest wind I’ve had to deal with yet.
Day three dawned blue skies and no wind as we headed further down river to West Bend / Lake Sharp and another beautiful SD state campground. This boat ramp had two docks and the ability to launch / retrieve 4 boats at once in a very protected little marina. Again, the docks were in great shape with ample cleats and fenders in great shape. We headed up river from the marina and chose an area to start fishing in the general area where some other boats were. It wasn’t too long before we managed to catch a couple of walleye. We fished this area for a while before heading back to the marina to pick up my friends wife who had driven down to join us. After picking her up we headed down river to another place the good folks at a sporting good store told us was a good area to fish. We probably motored 30 mins or so down river before getting to a place where we could get some shelter from the wind that had come up. We found a place that looked pretty good and headed over that way from the main channel… I had seen these little orange dots on my chart plotter and wondered what they were. As we got closer we saw some old tree tops sticking out of the water, we approached them very slowly thinking this might be some good structure to fish. What we found was an entire grove of old trees, many of their tops an inch or two below the surface. We found this to be a bit too sketchy for us and headed towards the shore. We spot locked about 50’ or so off the shore in 12’ of water. I tossed out my jig with a live minnow and by the third jig I had a walleye on! This would continue for the next few hours, as we caught walleye and catfish. The catfish were the best fighters and averaged about 5 pounds, the walleye ranged anywhere from 12” (too small to keep) to 22”. At the end of the day we had 12 keeper walleyes in the live well! Between the two caught the previous day and these 12 we had about 5 # of fillets.
Our last day on the water was a bit shorter since we had to go home that day… we put in on Lake Oahe, just the other side of the dam, roughly a five minute tow. We put in and fishies along the dam nabbing a few small mouth bass. Then headed out into deeper water looking to mark any fish that might be down deep, found a few bait balls of what we assume were herring. The wind had been forecast to start coming up by mid morning and this time the forecast was correct. We headed up river to a large cove that would give us shelter from the growing swells and wind. Cruising at 25 mph the ride was good over the 2’ chop and we were at the sheltered cove in about 10 minutes. Fishing here was pleasant but unproductive.. as our time was beginning to run a little short we decided to head further up river. By now the wind had increased and so had the wave size, the chop was now at 3’ with some larger sets mixed in. We motored at 21 mph for another 25-30 minutes up river until we came upon another large cove where we were sheltered from the wind and waves. We hung out here for a while and had some snacks and a soda before heading back to the boat ramp. Going back to the ramp we were in following seas, there were some big sets in there with the rest of the waves, 22 mph provided a good ride that everyone enjoyed, it was a dry ride all the way back.
We will be heading back there later in the summer I’m sure to do some more exploring of the massive Lake Oahe and Missouri River.
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