Welcome to our Lake Oahe Fishing Home Page
Lake Oahe is a huge reservoir on the Missouri River in South Dakota. It is the largest of the four Missouri River reservoirs with around 370,000 total surface acres. It also is 231 miles long and has a maximum depth of more than 200 feet. It is known for its excellent fishing. Anglers may catch walleye, smallmouth bass, northern pike, brown trout, rainbow trout, salmon, lake trout, crappie, white bass and yellow perch.
Warm Water Species of Fish
Walleye, Northern Pike, Smallmouth Bass, Crappie & Perch
Walleye are the primary species of fish on the river for most anglers. The upper Lake Oahe is known for having large numbers of fish, but a smaller structure than you will see on the lower end of the lake. However, on lower Lake Oahe, the size structure has consistently been better over the years, so you may get a lot less bites, but the quality bites are swimming in this part of the lake.
Northern pike are not here in huge numbers, but there is a fishable population throughout the lake and some very big fish over 20 pounds are caught here consistently. Smallmouth bass can be found in good numbers with big fish too along the rocky areas of the lake. If you know how to target crappie, there can be some excellent fishing for them as well. Perch are here in small numbers, so unless you run into a school of them, don’t count on catching large numbers of perch.
Cold Water Species of Fish
Salmon & Trout
Lake Oahe has plenty of deep, cold water and there is a fishery here for salmon and trout. The tailwaters below Oahe Dam offers good fishing as salmon and trout move up to the dam to spawn. The colder tailwaters provide a nice fishery for these species which gives anglers more options when fishing Lake Oahe.
