Lake view and lake shore real estate is hard to find

South Dakota Lakes Navigation

South Dakota Lakes and Vacations Home
Lake view real estate

About
Privacy
Contact

Site map for South Dakota Lakes
Resources for SD Lakes

South Dakota Fishing Lakes GPS coordinates

South Dakota Lake View and Shoreline Lots

I spent a lot of time looking for lake view real estate in South Dakota and in MINN. I figured it would be easy to find lake real estate in South Dakota but it wasn't. There is now a south dakota lakes and streams assoc at South Shore in SD but the net wasn't as advanced as it is now when I was looking for a lake lot so I never found it. It probably would have been easier if I had.

There is a lot of land around SD lakes but it's not near as developed as all of the lakes in MN are. I was quite surprised when I discovered that. When I checked the SD DNR lake home regulations I also discovered they weren't as strict as Minnesotas were. Lake shore prices were much cheaper too.

I thought about buying on the Missouri River because I read many walleye fishing report lake for oahe in SD but I really didn't want to go that far west. Eventually I settled on Lake Thompson between Lake Preston and DeSmet SD.

I wanted to be on a lake that was great for fishing. Particularly for northerns, walleyes and perch. Thompson is a great lake for those and crappies and smallmouth bass.

It's also a natural lake instead of a reservoir. The water level came up in the 80's when they had some really wet years. A lot of farmland got flooded so it has lots of structure, stock damns, sunken trees and trees standing in the water.

There are parts of it where you can fish sand, mud, gravel or rocks. It's a real snag filled lake and most people have the best luck with bottom bouncers. Lol, I even lost a lot of tackle fishing from my dock.

Lake thompson is big too. Somewhere around 17-18000 acres or so. Depends on the water levels. It was so big that one of the first things I did was get a map. I looked at the South Dakota GFP map but it didn't have enough detail so I got one from the bait shop in Lake Preston.

Mikes South Dakota Lake Maps were the best I found. He has more maps than just for Thompson tho. GPS maps at that and you definitely need the GPS info on Thompson. It's big enough to get lost at night. I had a few people knock on my door in the middle of the night, every year I lived there.

Thompson, Henry and Whitewood are the three I know the most about. All are right close to the town of Lake Preston. I caught a lot of 8-10 pound northerns while ice fishing on Lake Henry and some nice perch ice fishing on Whitewood.

In my opinion Thompson is one of the best lakes in the state. It doesn't have much lake shore or lake view real estate for sale tho. Still surprises me it hasn't developed much since 1998 when I bought my lots.

Due to the great state recreation area on the North end of the lake it does have a lot of fishing pressure. Wind can also be a big problem but if you are familiar with South Dakota you already know that. Seems like the wind always blows.

The boat ramp at the state recreation area is a very nice ramp and there is enough room for two boats to launch at the same time. If you get to Eastern SD and want to fish be sure to check out Lake Thompson.