"Size tends to be good for all those species. They get bluegills up to 9 inches, crappie pushing 10 to 12 inches, perch up to 9 to 10 inches. It is a tiny lake -- under 100 acres. You can access it with a small boat. It has quite clear water, and is kind of atypical for a southeastern South Dakota lake. It is more like what you might find in southern Iowa or Minnesota.

"It is a nice lake with camping facilities. Newton Hills State Park is right there. It's a good lake on a windy day because it is small and down in a hole. Most people who go there catch a few of something. It is one of those situations where everybody catches a few fish, typically."

Lake Henry, near Scotland, was without water until a few years ago, as the dam had been breached. That was repaired, and now the panfishing's good. "It has good largemouth bass and bluegills, and yellow perch are pretty good," said Lucchesi. "The bluegill population is coming on and they are growing pretty well."

For those who want some fast action and the potential to take a lot of weight in fish, the sturdy bullhead lives in abundance in several Dakota waters, although they're perhaps not as common now as in previous decades. State game and fish departments often manage waters to hold bullhead populations in check because the fish compete for food with popular game species. But still, the bullhead is a tough fish, and thrives anyway.

"We do have some populations of bullheads," said Lucchesi. "If you want to go after a monster bullhead, the biggest came out of West Highway 81 Lake -- basically right across the highway from East Highway 81 Lake. It has bullheads up to 16 inches long, and they are huge yellow bullheads.

Some of these fish range up to 3 pounds -- a real lunker size for bullheads.

"They were fairly abundant in our lake survey," said Lucchesi. "Basically, if you stop in the middle of the road with a Johnson silver minnow, you could fish both lakes if you didn't get hit by a bus. The state-record yellow bullhead was caught out of West Highway 81 Lake.

Small boats can be used there if you can launch them by hand. "We do have some really big bullheads in some of our lakes," said Lucchesi. "Lake Lakota has good numbers of big bullheads -- 12- to 15-inch bullheads."

The bullheads there are of the black variety, which is the main one found in South Dakota. You can tell by looking at the "barbels" (whiskers) on the underside. The barbels are black on black bullheads, and yellow on yellow bullheads. The tail on yellow bullheads is also more rounded.

"Most people see the yellow belly and say it is a yellow bullhead, but most are black bullheads," said Lucchesi.

Other interesting lakes for the panfisherman include Staum Dam, near Huron, which has bullheads and a fair number of bluegills. The bullheads there will range from 12 to 15 inches, with a few 16-inchers.

"Wall Lake near Sioux Falls also has a decent bullhead population," said Lucchesi. "There are some in the 12- to 15-inch class.

To step up the size a bit, some anglers go after channel cats. These are actually game fish that are prized in many places. In the Dakotas, they're less sought after.

"Marindahl Lake, near Irene, has an excellent channel cat population from 1 to 7 pounds," said Lucchesi. "They average better than 2 pounds apiece. They are quite abundant, and I think most people that know how to catch cats will catch catfish there. We have OK catfish populations in a fair number of our lakes.