South Dakota Perch

With no ice in Iowa and Christmas break looming, I just had to go fishing!  A friend and I decided to travel to the Brookings, South Dakota area to find some safe ice.  Kirk Moe, of ProMoe Outdoors assured me that ice would be available and a pretty good perch bite was just starting.  If you are looking for a trip to Eastern South Dakota make a stop to his website and he will provide a great trip for you and your ice fishing party.
We found a lake that had 4-5 inches of ice and we were delighted to walking on water once again.  With minimum tackle, the K-Drill and a one-man shack we made the walk to a large mud flat.  It took us awhile to locate the perch, but once we did they were eating our spoons and minnows very aggressively.  The key in the morning hours was to move the spoon/minnow very erratically to call the perch into your area.  It was a fun bite, but the perch were on the move that morning, so drilling out different areas was necessary to stay on the fish.  After the noon hour, the perch wanted the spoons, but a lot less movement, too much and they would disappear from the Vexilar not to be seen a gain.  Once again, I cannot say enough about the K-Drill and its power.  However, the best thing that I think sells the K-Drill is how much weight it saves on the ice.  It is like you don't even have an auger with you.  It you haven't had the chance to take a look at one, track me down this winter, or ask someone on the ice that has one.  They are amazing.
The perch were jumping around that day, so we did too.  Popping holes, checking for fish activity with the Vexilar FLX-28's kept us on track with them all day.  It was a long trip, but the good company and fish stories made my first ever trip to South Dakota well worth it.  Hopefully, many more ice fishing reports will follow this one...from IOWA! Be safe out there and ALWAYS take a rope, flotation device, picks, and a friend.