The Outdoor Campus in Sioux Falls held its 3rd annual Women’s Try It Day on Saturday. Photos by Rebecca Johnson.
Women’s Try It Day
Tag: fishing
The Hidden Beauty of Lake Hiddenwood
The first time I experienced Lake Hiddenwood State Park I was a mere 16-year-old volunteering as a camp counselor. This park was only an hour and a half drive from my home and I had never heard of it. I was told the place was full of trees, hiking trails and a small lake. As we drove east of Mobridge and then north of Selby through the wide open, rolling fields and pastures, it didn’t seem possible that there could be a forested state park anywhere in the area. We then crested a hill and eased into Hiddenwood Creek Valley and there it was, a little gem of a lake sparkling in the sun and surrounded by thick stands of trees. We had a lot of fun with the campers that afternoon and I was thoroughly impressed with the place.
Some 20-plus years later I find myself walking the”Hidden Beauty” trail before dawn with camera in hand. The trees are thick and the undergrowth is green with life along the trail. I hear turkey, nearly step on a fawn quietly sleeping on a hillside of grass (which nearly gave me a heart attack) and photograph a rosebush unfurling its pink flowers. I swear I must have groomed the trail of at least a dozen cobwebs with my big head. Again, I find it hard to believe that such a place exists in the middle of the high plains of north central South Dakota.
According to South Dakota’s Game, Fish and Parks website, melting glaciers carved the valley. In 1927, the department used a new technique called an earthen dam to create Lake Hiddenwood. It is one of the first artificial lakes in South Dakota. The lake is not deep, but it does contain a variety of fish species including perch, bass and bullhead. The place is also a haven for birds and wildlife. From hawk to deer and turtles to amphibians, you’ll find them all at Hiddenwood.
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| The first sunlight of the day lights up Lake Hiddenwood State Park. |
My older brother and his family live near Selby so I invited them to join me at the park to go canoeing. I thought it would be a fun thing to photograph and since he owns the canoe, it was pretty essential they agreed to go. You couldn’t have asked for a better evening on the calm waters of the lake as the sun was glowing yellow through the trees. Hiddenwood Creek’s channel is deep enough to canoe quite a way upstream. If you prefer more open waters, you can turn your boat to the west where the water widens until reaching the small spillway on the northwest part of the dam. I’m not sure what it is, but there is something peaceful as well as memorable being out on the water of Hiddenwood. It might be that the water is so calm even on windy days because of the trees and hills acting as windbreak. Whatever it is, the lake is a special place, especially when spending time on it with family.
The fishing is also entertaining. My nephew and a couple of his friends spent a good hour catching and releasing fish after fish from the boat dock as the last light of the day dimmed. They were quite intrigued to be able to see the schooling perch swim in lazy circles and even see the small little shadows of fish hit their spinner lures just a foot or so under the water. I can see why this place is popular with the local Boy Scout chapter. I’m coming up on 40 years on this earth and I’m not ashamed to say that spending time playing at Lake Hiddenwood made me feel like that wide-eyed kid again. I know I’m not 16 any more but places like Hiddenwood can take you back there even if it’s just for an evening. Thanks to my brother, his wife, and my nephews for making the weekend another special one at Lake Hiddenwood State Park.
Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he’s not working at Midcontinent Communications he is often on the road photographing our prettiest spots around the state. Follow Begeman on his blog. To view Christian’s columns on other South Dakota state parks and recreation areas, visit his state parks page.
King of the Prairie Waters
Noted historian George Kingsbury lumped farm immigration, gold discoveries and — yes, believe it or not — catfish as three important factors to the settlement of Dakota.
In his book History of Dakota Territory (Vol. 1, p. 165), Kingsbury wrote, “in the opinion of many of the early settlers the food problem would have been a very serious one had it not been for the abundant supply of this best of all fishes right at the threshhold of the settlements.”
Kingsbury noted that catfish was somewhat out of favor at the time he wrote the book (about 1915). “It is occassionally remarked in these later times that the people of Dakota are not acquainted with the edible merits of this excellent fish, but send to eastern and western markets for an inferior article, while they have such an inexhaustible supply here at home.”
Immigrants to South Dakota make the same discovery today, according to a story in our May/June 2012 issue in which we feature Ukraine-born Nata Jones, who came to Yankton and enthusiastically took to catching and grilling Missouri River catfish.
Nata married a local fellow and instantly appreciated the smalltown atmosphere in Yankton. She hailed from Chernivtsi, a city of 240,000. “Everybody is so friendly and smiling. You don’t need to worry about nothing,” she told us in a delightful Euroopean accent. “If something happened, everybody would help me.”
And the catfish? “I fished in the Ukraine, too, but this is a little bit different here.” She and her husband, Brad, use stink bait to lure the whiskered bottom feeders so famous for their ability to smell.
South Dakota has Blue Catfish, Channel Cats and Flatheads. All can grow to immense proportions, but today’s intensive fishing — and perhaps the damming of the Missouri — might be resulting in fewer giant cats. The record Blue was a 97-pounder caught in 1959 and the biggest Channel was a 55-pounder caught way back in 1949.
However, Davin Holland of Tabor caught the state record Flathead (63.5 lbs.) just six years ago in the James River near Yankton. Cats are found in rivers, lakes and ponds across our state.
“For scores of years, the early traders subsisted almost exclusively on a diet of buffalo and catfish,” wrote Kingsbury a century ago.
Throw in a few tomatoes, morel mushrooms and wild asparagus and it doesn’t sound like a bad way to eat in South Dakota.
Can Fishermen Be Trusted?
I stopped at Gramp’s, a favorite hangout for hunters and fishermen in Yankton. It’s a convenience store with homemade soup, real black coffee, sinful cookies and Dimock cheese.
I was on a second cup of coffee when Larry, the proprietor’s husband, came by to ask about some new law or rule from Game, Fish and Parks that says he can no longer net minnows for bait in the Missouri River.
GF&P is notoriously powerful in South Dakota, but any new rules must be approved by the legislature’s Rules Committee so I contacted two buddies on the committee. Yes, they said, there is such a rule. Nobody opposed its adoption so it sailed through.
Soon after my inquiry, some of the top brass at GF&P emailed me to explain the department’s position. News travels quickly in South Dakota. Naturally, it has to do with the spread of Asian Carp. Gavins Point Dam in Yankton is the last defense against this dreaded species’ emergence into the Upper Missouri. The carp are a big menace to boaters and anglers downriver, and GF&P will go to any lengths to keep them out of Lewis and Clark Lake and the other lakes to the north.
The worry is that fishermen will seine minnows in the Missouri, the Big Sioux or the James and then use the same minnow bucket as they travel northward up the Missouri. They might eventually dump the minnows in a reservoir and, voila, the Asian Carp will have arrived.
Thus the new rule. But of course the new rule, to be effective, will require education. Families have been netting minnows for bait in this Dakota Country long before GF&P existed. It is a tradition, a time-honored practice that seemed ecologically friendly for generations.
To stop people from doing so will take time. Wouldn’t it be just as easy to demand that anyone who nets minnows must release those minnows the same day in the same spot?
Nobody is on the side of the Asian Carp, but rules have to be realistic and sensible. Let’s have a discussion — is there a better way for GF&P to proceed?
Fishing Report from Pickstown
The salmon of the Dakotas are migrating southward, thanks to the big flood of 2011 in the Missouri River valley. Katie and I stopped for breakfast last Friday at Fort Randall Bait and Tackle in Pickstown (very fine omelets, by the way). Of course, you can’t eat at a bait shop without asking about the fishing.
The waitress gave us a thorough report. The walleye are still biting, and boats are thick below the dam. Plus she said a few anglers have even caught salmon. Now that’s a new development for Gregory and Charles Mix counties in South Dakota.
Chinook salmon from the West Coast have been released into the Fort Peck and Oahe reservoirs for a number of years with good results. The waters in those lakes run deep and cold, and the salmon seem to thrive — though they don’t grow as big as they do in the Pacific Northwest.
Adult salmon instinctively try to migrate back to the place where they were hatched and released to spawn. In the Dakotas, that would be a government fish hatchery. The cycle is actually completed, because hatchery workers capture some of the salmon and collect the eggs in autumn.
Due to the massive water releases in all six Missouri River dams this summer, some salmon from Fort Peck and Oahe have swam southward into Lake Sharpe and Lake Francis Case. I haven’t heard of any reports of salmon caught in Lewis and Clark Lake.
Next October, the adult salmon will try to swim back to the north to spawn … but they have a giant concrete problem lying ahead of them.
Can We Live With Asian Carp?
Asian carp are slowly invading South Dakota’s rivers and streams. The invasive fish first appeared in the Missouri River below Gavins Point Dam in 2003. Now they are working their way up the Big Sioux, James and Vermillion rivers, and they could destroy the ecosystems of those waterways.
Asian carp are a threat both to South Dakota’s native fish and fishermen. They quickly gobble up plankton and other food sources, leaving nothing for the walleyes, perch and other species. Carp also like to jump, and since they can grow so big (some 100 ponders have been reported) they are a danger to boaters, who can be struck and seriously injured.
Asian carp were brought to the United States largely because they are such voracious eaters. Catfish farmers introduced them into their ponds in the 1970s to eat algae. Flooding washed them into the Mississippi River, and they’ve been swimming north ever since.
Researchers in South Dakota are trying to determine how far Asian carp have swum. One was caught just south of Sioux Falls in the Big Sioux, but they still don’t know if the fish will be able to survive long term in South Dakota rivers. Historically Asian carp haven’t had to deal with strong springtime flows driven by snowmelt, and lower summertime flows.
If you’re fishing on the Missouri at Yankton, you can do your part to help by not transporting bait above the dam. So far the concrete wall has kept the carp from the northern reaches of the Missouri, but young carp resemble baitfish, and if they are mistakenly moved upriver, they’ll be free to swim to Fort Randall.
