Buddy Seiner, an Aquatic Education Advisor with SD Game, Fish and Parks, is a fly fishing enthusiast. Seiner teaches people about fish and fishing and stresses the importance of getting kids outside to enjoy the outdoors, which he does with his children Gray, Maya, and Lilly.
"I think a lot of people take it for granted," Seiner said. "Having family, I know I do. I'm educating people all the time about fishing and a lot of times I find myself educating other family members and other families in general and their kids more than I'm educating my kids. And that's something I'm committing to this year. To be better at getting my kids out and teaching them how to fish, because I have taken it for granted in the past. I would just encourage people not to take it for granted. Get your kids out as much as you can, fishing. Get other kids out as much as you can, fishing, if you can, and they will be better afterward and you'll be better afterward."
Seiner says white bass are growing in popularity as a sport fish.
"White bass are an amazing species and most often you might hear walleye anglers grumbling about them when they happen to catch a white bass, when they're trying to target walleyes," said Seiner. "They'll say, 'Oh, it's just another white bass.' But I think more and more people are beginning to target them. They're a species that's found all around the state of South Dakota, most prominently in the Missouri River corridor. In the glacial lakes region you'll find a lot of white bass. They are typically about 12 to 15 inches in length. They have five to seven horizontal black stripes down their somewhat compressed body. They're white and silver in color so a lot of times people call them silver bass. They're a schooling fish so you'll find them in large numbers more often than not. They are aggressive feeders. They feed on minnows, crustaceans, and vertebrates."
Buddy Seiner also says that white bass are fairly finicky eaters. Fly fishing gives you plenty of options.
"Fly fishing offers some advantages mostly in presentation," Seiner said. "Mark Sosin used to have a fishing show called 'Mark Sosin's Saltwater Journal' and one of his favorite phrases to use was, 'Most of fishing is presentation.' I was just out the other night fishing for white bass and there were four anglers. There were two in a boat and two onshore that were pitching a jig and a minnow. And when you're casting, for example, a three eighths-ounce jig with a minnow, that's essentially your presentation. It's a minnow. It's a bait fish presentation and you can only work a three eighths-ounce jig and a couple of different ways. So you're very significantly limited in your presentation. What the fly offers is a number of different presentations in your back pocket. You can throw a bait fish pattern, you can throw a cross station, you can throw an invertebrate, an insect pattern of some kind, and you can also vary the depth at which you're fishing so easily that you can quickly adjust to the white bass because they are fairly finicky eaters - as much as they do like to eat.