Orvis

My wife said she would make the trip with me to Platte, SD to fish on Lake Francis Case.  The lake is part of the Missouri River system of dams and lakes that provide some of the finest walleye fishing in America.  Her only requirement is for good weather and she will even tolerate windy days.  Cold and wet is a no go situation.  Just as you enter the town of Platte, you are greeted with this antique sign in outstanding condition.  Plus, there is the original gas station.  I showed that pic to some friends and they said the sign if in good condition is worth some change. The lodge put us up at the new pheasant lodge they had just purchased.  Pam had never seen this before and was astounded this first class hunting lodge was on the prairie of South Dakota and no one knew about it.  Great rooms and we had the entire run of the lodge.  There was another couple there and we visited with them about the fantastic setting of the lodge.  We did supply our own meals, and our local grocery store deli has pre made meals that supplied us with all we needed. A micro wave was available so we are set with meals. Totally vacant, but Tom and Nova have purchased a pheasant lodge ready to go.  First class lodging and Tom and Nova will provide an outstanding pheasant hunting experience. We teamed up early with our guide and his boat and off to the lake we went. The weather was perfect with a light SW wind and ripple on the water.  I prefer total dark overcast and a heavy wind of at least of 15-20 mph.   We were fishing in 50 feet of water trolling lead core line with counting reels.  Two rods per person is allowed in South Dakota and on the outside rods that were really long, we let out 130 feet of line.  The two inside rods we let out the line to 85 feet, but 20 feet up the line we added a 5 ounce weight.  The plug was my favorite for walleye and that is the Berkley Flicker Shad.  The guide seemed to like the darker colors best in chartreuse and similar.  He also liked smaller lures in the two inch category.  Studies have shown that walleye will single out small shad even when they have other forage available to them. To buy click on the following link (https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/berkley-flicker-shad-crankbait)         The big Lund used the electric trolling motor in the front to steer and the kicker on the rear to push us forward.  The guide wanted the boat in a certain depth and the trolling motor kept the boat in the depth.  Around his neck was a small control device where he could change the depth the boat was running.  This is gentleman's fishing and totally hands off.  All you have to do is sit back and wait for a hit on the rod.  The speed of the boat was around 1-2 mph.  How sweet it is.  I should have felt guilty about how easy it was catching fish, but I didn't because as a former owner of three different boats spread out over 36 years, I can remember when I got skunked. Sold my boat two years ago before the Pandemic.  Crestliner 18 ft with a Yamaha 90 and an 8 on the back. Then I went and gave all my fishing equipment to the Boy Scouts.  Still have the truck. Besides the equipment the most important item was our guide.  He is a native of the area and has spent his life fishing on Francis Case and knows where to go on this enormous reservoir.  People frequently call him up on the phone to find out where to go searching for free advice.  Always courteous but somewhat vague, we pay for his expertise and they are not.  At first all we caught were shorts.  A short is a fish less than 15 inches and Francis Case is a really fertile lake as we caught a lot of them during the first hour of fishing.  An old walleye fisherman once told me, "When all you are catching is small fish, that is all you will catch in that area".  It was time to move.  When you have to manage two rods with lead core line out to 130 feet, you have a lot a hauling in to do.  I used to fish primarily with ultra lights pulling bottom bouncers, and you could tell immediately what you were pulling in, but with the length of line out you did not have that feel until the fish was closer to the boat.  After an hour we moved. At a new location we

Here it is, boys and girls, the Berkley Flicker Shad that we caught the majority of the Walleye.  Just click on the picture and go to Bass Pro and buy several in case you lose a couple.  The reservation was made in February of this year to fish our favorite lake on the Missouri River.  Lake Francis Case is the large, gently winding reservoir behind Fort Randall Dam on the Missouri River in south-central South Dakota. The lake has an area of 102,000 acres and a maximum depth of 140 feet. Lake Francis Case covers just over 100 miles and has a shoreline of 540 miles.  With all that shoreline, this reservoir is a regular walleye factory. My wife, Pam, likes to fish and was looking forward to this trip.  We generally go up mid June, but talking with friends, they had always gone in early May.  The weather that time of the year in South Dakota can be a little iffy, but we scheduled a trip anyway, but made it later in the month.  That way we believed would avoid the inclement weather.  Ah, my friends, the best laid plans of mice and men never work out, and this was the case the third week of May.  The weather went from gorgeous to down right hideous.  Cold temperatures moved in right above freezing, the wind blew out of the east, and with all that came rain and fog.  It was the low pressure of low pressures and as the old saying goes, wind from the east, fishing is least, wind from the west, fishing is best.  I don't care, but Pam said, "There is no way I am going up and fish in that kind of weather.  You are on your own." I will never give up and with that kind of weather. The lake will be all to ourselves.  I checked with the guide and he said, "Come up.  We don't let a little blow get in the way of catching walleye."  That is the attitude I like to hear.  I was on my way, weather and all.  When I got to Platte Creek Lodge in Platte, SD.  they had a really nice surprise for me.  The owners had bought a pheasant operation the first of May and would be open in the fall.  The interesting part was they put me over at this new facility instead of at the lodge.  There is a lot more to tell about this great experience, but later.  Fishing was the name of the game. Pam and I always stay at Platte Creek Lodge (https://www.plattecreek.com/) but the owners have now purchased this property that has been vacant for over 10 years.  It has been totally maintained and all the equipment, fixtures, and equipment were ready to start using.  More later about this pheasant hunting lodge. The guide called me and gave me the time to be at the lodge in the morning to hit the lake, weather or not.  It was tough. The wind blew all night and the rain pounded the roof of the lodge.  In the morning the temperature was about 34, with visibility about one mile.  Low fog, drizzle, and wind made for a great morning.    It doesn't look too bad at the boat dock.  Note my finger at the bottom of the picture.  I was trying to keep it warm near the battery. We plowed through the lake with wind and rain stinging our faces.  My glasses dripped rain down my face and neck into the inside of the rain suit. This was fun.  We fished initially in 4 to 8 feet of water.  This has been the depth where the walleye were hanging out but it produced nothing.  Wave action in the area along the bank had churned up the bottom and the lake in this location had a muddy appearance.  The graph did not show any fish and after 45 minutes we moved.  The guide got on the two way radio with one of the other guides from the lodge and checked their location and results.  He said they were fishing the channel of the river and had picked a couple of fish.  We move then out to almost the center of the lake.  Rock n Roll, here we go.  We fished in 25 feet of water and weighted down the line to get the lures close to the bottom.  In South Dakota, you can fish two rods per individual, so, we had four lines out, trolled against the wind, and slowly moved up the channel into the wind.  When this picture was taken it does not look too bad.  At least it wasn't raining. It did not take long.  Bang, the walleye hit hard and this was not what was expected.  The fish were