Sunday after church we packed the camper and loaded the boat to head out for Tongue River Reservoir. Coming in on a Sunday afternoon we see a mass exodus out of the park! We chose a camping spot near Sand Point where we could safely leave the boat in the water over night, something we rarely do. We decided to eat a dinner of pork ribs before fishing for the evening. When we got on the water our favorite island near the dam was first on the agenda. It wasn’t producing and the beaver lodge we’ve been so successful around was gone. So, we headed to a bay with quite a few private cabins to fish their docks. Bingo! We first tried the dock that floats out in the middle of the bay. we hammered several right off the bat. After that slowed down we started working from the middle shore dock toward the back of the bay. More of the crappie were black, but we caught many white crappie too. The biggest fish were 11” and most of the bigger ones were 9 1/2-10 1/2”. It was a very good first evening.
Monday morning we got up expecting the fishing at the docks to be equally as good. We were mistaken. Although we caught quite a few and by most people’s standards great fishing, it just wasn’t as fast as the night before. After some time we started working our way around the lake slowly, trying different types of terrain: rocky, brushy and river channel. We headed for a culvert having heard from a friend that he had some good fishing near one a couple years ago. Erik caught a nice small mouth and a nice black crappie, but no other fish were brought in. So, we headed back to camp for a light lunch and a nap. After we ate Erik decided to throw a jig off the back of the boat. Michelle followed along with a book. It was the best fishing of the day! Soon both of us were bringing in fish, although not keeper size. When this slowed we got back in the camper and decided to wait until evening to try our luck again around the docks. We had steaks on the grill before heading out for the evening. The docks proved to be better that this morning, but still not quite as good as yesterday, strange fish those crappie. We were able to catch 10 keepers(10” or bigger). 
Over by the dock labeled rattlesnake way, Michelle hooked a decent walleye. Erik decided to get out the net since it was on 2lb line. As we watched the walleye near the boat a HUGE northern came up from the depths and attacked the walleye from its side. It must have been 20lbs! The northern started taking the walleye to the depths on that light line, and then came up just enough for Erik to see him drop the walleye and try to turn it before retaking it. Down again we went, this time when Michelle was able to pull the line to the surface, the northern was gone leaving a marred walleye on the hook. We kept the walleye and will never forget the excitement of seeing that pike rise form the depths and clamp on to that walleye with such ferocity- oh, if only he had held on! We stayed out until after sunset.
Hot pockets and highway. A perfect Friday evening! We drove straight to a stock pond West of Pierre stopping only for gas outside of Sturgis. We made it to the reservoir just in time for bed. Erik got out around 7am and fished from the bank with his flyrod for a while with no bites. So, we decided to head to Pierre for coffee then make our way to some stock ponds in the area.
end of the day Erik put a sneak on a big bass sitting on a nest, he spent a good 30 minutes or so waiting patiently for the opportunity to hook into him – no luck. Great day! These gills should be getting big over the next two years.
. Later in the morning we decided to head to the other end of the lake and try our luck at some Crappie. Within the first hour we both caught nice 14” fish. But then it was pretty dead for the rest of the afternoon. We made a couple moves and also threw out for the catfish, with no luck. Much later, after heading back where we caught the first two crappie, Michelle hooked into one more slightly smaller crappie.