Well finally managed to make the first trip out here in Western South Dakota. It was an air temp of around 65, with pretty strong winds.  I planned on just fishing off of the dam, casting crankbaits trying to catch some large and small mouths.  Ended up on the opposite side of the lake casting into the wind on a nice muddy/rocky flat and had a large mouth hammer my spinner bait.  Weird thing is, the tail of this fish was all red, almost like they are when they're spawning.  I know that wasn't the case, because the ice only came off this lake probably two weeks ago.  Real fat fish though, probably a nice 2.5 lber.  Ended up going back to the face and just paralleling the rocks from the bank with my spinnerbait and had a nice 2-2.5 lb smallie crush my bait.  Those were the only two fish I caught, but all in all it was a good first outing.  sorry no pics, will get some next time.

Well done!

Which dam were you fishing at?

Fishing over on Newell lake, right outside of Newell, SD.  Way on the other end of the state from you.  also went to a little bass pond outside of Spearfish and caught a nice 2.5 lber that also had beat up fins, they were all red and beat up.