Photo by Terry Jacobs

By the time June rolls around, the lakes in the Dakotas are full of some very hungry fish. You'd be hungry, too, if you'd gone through a winter both grimly cold and meager in its opportunities for feeding. For fish at this time of year, it's like a big smorgasbord suddenly laid out for them, its sole purpose being to facilitate their gorging themselves throughout the entire month.

Among the main types of fish that will be eating eagerly here will be the region's panfish. They're generally not heavily fished for, as anglers mostly pursue the superstars of Dakota fishing, walleyes. But those anglers who like a lot of fish on the end of the line -- and a lot of action at a fast, furious pace -- will find (if they don't already know) that the panfish is the ideal antidote for the boredom of that long, cold winter now past.

A variety of panfish can be found in the Dakotas, but abundance varies from lake to lake. Originally, this was mainly an ecosystem based on the predator-prey relationship between devourers -- walleyes and northern pike -- and devoured -- the yellow perch living in the natural lakes and rivers of the northern Great Plains. These days, that give and take is still the mainstay, but some other fish also make for some entertaining fishing, bluegills, crappie, bullheads and white bass among them.

Though water levels have begun dropping across the prairie, enough still remains of the booming panfish populations of the past 10 years to promise some quite serviceable fishing in 2005. What follows is a sampling of what biologists and anglers expect this June.

SOUTH DAKOTA
The prospects for panfish in South Dakota's northeastern lakes remain positive. These natural lakes are shallow and bowl-shaped, so adequately high water levels are important if the fish are to survive the cold winters and sometimes hot summers. Perch, the main panfish, are present just about everywhere.

"Overall, this northeast part of the state is the place to come for panfish," said Mark Ermer, South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks regional fisheries biologist at Webster. "We have really exceptional fisheries.

"Actually, a lot of lakes in the region have had high water the last 10 years. Many were never lakes 10 or 15 years ago -- they used to be just cattail sloughs, or whatever. When you form a new lake, there are a large amount of nutrients in the system when the terrestrial vegetation is flooded. Whatever fish you put in there initially can create some incredible fishing. There are no predators at first."

The perch and other panfish still have some strong year-classes in many lakes, and fishermen are catching them right now. "Those densities that are there will go down once water starts to go down, which we are seeing now," noted Ermer. "We won't be able to maintain the high-quality fisheries that we have now, just because the lakes are dropping. So we are certainly in the 'good old days' right now."

South Drywood and Waubay lakes are two that Ermer recommends. "There is one good year-class in Waubay that is good -- 1999," he said. "They are getting old. We haven't had any significant year-classes since then. They are in the 9- to 10-inch range. They can go up to 12 in that lake. In a couple years we will get out of them, and then it will decrease quite a bit."

According to Ermer, once the perch get to the 8- to 10-inch range, they're pretty popular with panfish fans. And that's why Waubay is excellent. "A really good place to look, from our most recent test netting, is South Drywood and Waubay," he stated. "Waubay is good all summer long. That has definitely been the go-to place in the northeast region for the past three to four years."

Much of that fishing takes place during winter, when perch are being caught by ice-fishermen. Interest wanes at this time of year, but the perch are still there to be caught.