The 'Eyes Have It

When we arrived at Orman Reservoir, it was almost hard to believe we'd traveled less than an hour from Deadwood, which sits deep in the Black Hills. Orman is flat, nearly pancake flat, with very few trees along the shore (although you do see the mountains in the distance if you look to the southwest). What seemingly doesn't change no matter which direction you travel from Deadwood is that the fishing is outstanding.

I spent a fun day at Orman with walleye pro Jim Sherman, with Lee Harstad, executive director of the Deadwood Chamber of Commerce, joining us for the afternoon. We spent most of the day casting jigs to weedy bars and caught big numbers of walleyes and smallmouths. We began the day fishing minnow-tipped curly-tailed grubs, but ended up catching most of our fish on hair jigs. My jigs of choice, of course, were Ugly Bugs. Specifically, I did best with brown and orange marabou jigs, each with a pair of brown rooster feathers flared out to suggest crawfish claws.

The walleye was a new species for my 2014 fish species list. Both walleyes and smallmouths were different from any of the nine species I'd caught the day before with Tyler French on Lake Pactola. Yet another reason why Deadwood has become one of my absolute favorite fishing destinations!

Northbound Plane

Jeff Sundin with a pretty northern Minnesota bluegill

Come Monday, I'm once again airport bound to travel well to the north for a few days of ice play. I'm looking forward to spending time with Jeff Sundin in northern Minnesota, where the outlook for lows around zero and highs approaching 20 would be an absolute heat wave, were it to hold true.

It has been cold there. Seriously cold. However, walleyes and panfish alike have bit well from the reports I have read. The combination of major slush problems through the first half of the season and brutal cold through most of the winter has kept fishing pressure comparatively light this year, and seemingly that has been good for the bite.

I'm not sure yet what we'll be targeting. Walleyes? Crappie? 'Gills? Whatever it is, I'll be ready. I've already bought my license, which begins the very hour I'm scheduled to land, so if it turns out to be practical to hit the ice for a while on Monday afternoon, I'll be ready to go.

Watch here, on my facebook fishing page and on my Twitter feed for pictures and reports.

Home from the Wintery North

It seems I left North Dakota just in time. It was -2 and snowing sideways when I got on my airplane early this morning. I just looked at the weather, and it's currently 10 below and dropping, with the wind howling at 25 mph and warnings for folks to stay inside.

I spent two fun days fishing mostly for yellow perch with Jason Feldner of Perch-Eyes Guide Service and learned a tremendous amount about prairie lakes and strategies for jumbo perch and walleyes. Devils Lake has an amazing perch fishery with fish that are ridiculously fat.

I also was able to add three species to the 2012 list: yellow perch, walleye and northern pike. It's early in the year, so that doubled the tally. The next set of travels will be radically different in character as I will be Florida bound.