Medicine Lake in Codington County: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Medicine Lake belongs to Codington County, South Dakota. This is mixed forest country. About 266 acres, so local knowledge or a boat saves a lot of walking. You are looking at roughly 3.7 miles of shoreline, with plenty of water between access points. It is one of the smaller waters we list in Codington County. The nearest town is Watertown, 13 miles away. The big place round here is Sioux Falls, 104 miles distant. The nearest boundary is a fair way off.

• Where to Fish on Medicine Lake

  Without a survey to go on, judge depth from how the bank falls away. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Fish documented in Codington County include Iowa darter, green sunfish, white sucker, northern pike and yellow perch. Records at this level tell you what is in the area. On Medicine Lake the obvious spot is not always the productive one.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages here run 72°F at the top of summer and 11°F at the bottom of winter. Cold winters and warm summers give a wide working range. The freeze runs deep into the year, with break-up near early April. Break-up near early April, freeze-up near late November: that is the shape of an average year. The weeks after the thaw and the ones before the freeze are the strongest. Time your trip to Medicine Lake by conditions rather than dates.

• Tackle & Baits

  Nothing we hold confirms whether access is permitted. Records list it as a natural water body rather than an impoundment. Mapping records no facilities at all near this water. Pike mean a wire trace, no exceptions; big spoons and jerkbaits do the searching. Where the road in crosses private land, ask first. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. Cooley Lake at 1.2 miles is the sensible second choice. What applies at Medicine Lake may have changed since it was mapped.