Elite

Day 1: Elites on Oahe

Follow the Elites on the first day of the 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Lake Oahe!

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Photography by
Andy Crawford
The 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Lake Oahe is taking place on a lake surrounded by landscape foreign to most of the Elite Series pros. We caught up with Tennessee’s Buddy Gross rigging baits, backed by the sprawling South Dakota prairies.
Texas’ Ray Hanselman ran by, heading north on the lake …
… stopping at one of the bridges.
Bill Lowen was working the bridge a few columns down.
The winds already had begun to pick up, forcing the anglers to balance as waves crashed against their boats.
Florida’s Bernie Schultz also stayed close to the host town of Mobridge, working a shoreline.
The South Dakota prairies support huge numbers of cattle. This herd was grazing right along the water’s edge. The lake is 3 feet low, and grasses growing on the exposed land provided new groceries for the cattle.
Schultz hooked up …
… but it was the wrong species.
Schultz soon headed off to new waters.
David Williams was leaving a small cove in the upper lake when we arrived.
So was Cliff Prince.
Matty Wong was a little farther downriver, working a small cove on the edge of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.
Signs of the agricultural nature of the economy were evident on the prairie above the lake.
Lake Oahe was sitting at 23 feet below pool today, exposing boulders that normally serve as structure for smallmouth. My boater, walleye guide Jeff Gottbreht, said there is more of that structure below the existing water level.
Louisiana’s Darold Gleason was fishing an underwater hump, backed by the sweeping tableau of the plains.
Gleason already had a 12-pound limit when we arrived.
Gleason was using his forward-facing sonar to locate fish to target.
And he struck gold again …
… on a bass that needed to be worked on the light tackle Gleason was using.
Finally, the bass was in hand.
After pulling out the balance beam …
… Gleason upgraded.

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