Fishermen are an interesting bunch. Have you ever noticed that much of the time an angler who lives on the north end of the lake usually heads to the south end to fish, while the angler who lives on the southern section boats to the north side to fish?

How about those anglers who drive by an outstanding lake close to home to get to another more well-known body of water. The more well-known lake or river or reservoir is farther away, and maybe that adds to the mystique. However, if you’ve got four days to go fishing, wouldn’t you rather drive a half a day each way and fish for three days instead of driving eight hours each way and just fishing for two days?

Lewis and Clark Lake near Yankton South Dakota is a lake that’s close to a good number anglers and can provide outstanding fishing for a variety of fish, with walleyes being the most popular. Lots of anglers drive near this picturesque body of water in their journeys to other lakes. If they knew how good the fishing can be in Lewis and Clark, they could save a lot of gas and have more fishing time, and more fishing time often translates into more fish catching.

Yankton is an easy drive from Midwest cities like Omaha, Sioux City, and Sioux Falls. If you leave home at nine a.m. from any of these cities, you’ll be fishing by noon easily.

As mentioned earlier, walleyes are probably the most sought-after fish in Lewis and Clark Lake, and for good reason. There are lots of’em, and they can be willing biters. Day-in and day-out, crankbaits take many, many, many walleyes from this impoundment of the Missouri River that forms a border between South Dakota and Nebraska.

On our trip to Lewis and Clark Lake in early June, we trolled #5 Berkley Flicker Shad crankbaits along the bluffs on the South Dakota side of the lake. It was an unusual feeling trolling just a few feet off-shore with bluffs towering hundreds of feet overhead. And it was productive!

The water depth drops off quickly along these bluffs, and some areas were more productive than others. Wherever there were baitfish, there were walleyes. We would troll along with four lines in the water and cover maybe a couple hundred yards with no action, then the sonar unit would reveal baitfish. Within a few seconds of seeing the baitfish, a rod would usually bend over from the weight of a walleye. Doubles were not unusual, and we even had a couple of triples. Our sonar unit, a Humminbird 798ci S Combo, enabled us to anticipate strikes and showed us exactly the types of areas the baitfish and walleyes were using.

Along with the walleyes were big white bass, the ones with the blue fins. Even though we were after walleyes, the strong fight of these big whites was appreciated. We enjoy catching anything that pulls back. White bass pull back hard, are abundant and willing biters, and that’s something that we appreciate.

Another good area for us was the rip-rap along the dam. We pulled #7 Flicker Shads here with good success. We were trolling the seven to ten foot depths, but noticed anglers catching smallmouth bass with regularity right along the rip-rap bank. On our next trip to Lewis and Clark Lake we plan to check that out.