This is a must try on Lake Oahe in early/late spring. When I was a kid a bobber, small weight, and hook was pretty much all the fishing gear I had. It was so much fun watching that little red and white bobber start to twitch and then slowly slip below the surface- you get that excited feeling in your chest each and every time guaranteed. Well, if you want to relive that experience it is still possible, like back then all you need is a bobber, little weight, a hook and some bait…oh yeah and a fishing pole would help too. This is basically shore fishing, but I used my boat to get back into a creek arm and just pulled up to shore and put out my lines. Where I fished back in Cow Creek, a person can walk in too so you really don’t need a boat.
Here are more details
- I use a slightly heavier spinning rod or a bait casting rod, basically I just used the rods I would use for catching walleye on a bottom bouncer rig.
- Slip bobber – sorry no little red and white bobber
- I like to use a circle hook which prevents the cats from swallowing the hook, the hook usually ends up right in the corner of their mouth.
- My preferred bait is frozen smelt or herring.
- Go back into the bay/creek arm as far as you can, the cats will be in there shallow – 3 feet deep or so.
- Throw out your lines and wait. Remember it’s pretty early spring so the fish don’t get going until noonish sometimes. But once they get going it’s almost constant action as schools of cats move in and out.
- As a bonus, you will certainly hook into a nice northern pike. I will save that for my next post.
