Like most other anglers in South Dakota, I spend more time chasing walleyes than what I devote to all other species combined -- and then some.

Back in the 1980s and mid-'90s I spent many a summer's day either chasing eyes on Lake Oahe or dreaming of doing so. Hardly a week went by without my putting the boat in somewhere on the reservoir, and more than once a week when the big June bite was on.

Of course, the good old days crashed when high water levels flushed out the forage and the whole predator-prey situation got out of whack in the late '90s; you know the story. After the crash, I looked to other waters to fill my appetite for catching walleyes. Although I enjoyed fishing new water, and had a lot of success in certain areas, I never met with the consistency I'd enjoyed at Lake Oahe when it was in its prime.

A couple of years ago, a good friend of mine tried to convince me that Oahe was getting back to normal and again deserved my attention. Because a few of my favorite lakes in the northeast part of the state had started to slip and the lower Missouri River reservoirs were succumbing to a constant barrage of pressure, that came as great news, and I started to look at Oahe once again.

I had a fair season two years ago, catching good-looking walleyes that resembled somewhat the fish of old -- fat as footballs and equally tough. Last year that bite took a big step forward, and on certain days in late June, we absolutely hammered the 'eyes in true Oahe fashion. No, it wasn't like the old days: no trophies, no limits of 5-pound walleyes -- just oodles of chunky walleyes into the 3-pound range, and an occasional larger fish.

I don't keep any of the fish I catch. Not that I think that anything's wrong with taking a couple of fish home for the table -- it's just that I'm one of the few Dakotans who just plain can't stand the taste of them.

But, oh, do I love to catch those fish! And for a couple of weeks last June I thought I was in heaven. The June walleye bite on Oahe was no secret last year, and everyone I know is looking forward to the frenzy that's all but upon us again this year.

I remember waiting last year for the local Thursday fishing report on the Watertown radio station, looking for some indication the bite was on. Once I found the bite, of course, I -- like any true fisherman -- was wishing that the guy on the radio would keep his trap shut! But on a lake the size of Oahe, pressure and overcrowding is seldom anything too serious.

Annually, anglers on Oahe witness a bite that starts in mid-May in the warm northern reaches of the reservoir near Pollock and Mobridge and then progresses to the south. By early June the bite's going strong in the midlake portion near Gettysburg, and by month's end has stretched along the entire reaches of the lake past the Cheyenne River and beyond to Spring and Cow creeks and the Oahe dam. By then, everyone's enjoying good fishing.