Black Hills<\/p>\n

It was decided last year that we would be making a family trip to the Black Hills this summer.\u00a0 When I say family, I mean FAMILY\u2026lots of cousins, aunts, uncles and other kin would be gathering near Deadwood.\u00a0 I don\u2019t get excited about gatherings, especially ones that involve more than about 3 or 4 people, but being the fishing nerd that I am, I already had a basic fishing plan formulated before the cabins were reserved.<\/p>\n

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As far as I can tell, no one goes to the Black Hills for the trout fishing, at least not if you aren\u2019t a local. \u00a0The cabin we stayed at was in a ski area.\u00a0 Have you ever hear of skiing in the Black Hills?\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t.\u00a0 The slopes looked good enough, but I suspect the skiing here is like the trout fishing\u2014good for locals, but if you are going to travel for your skiing [or trout fishing], you can do better by going to Colorado or Montana. \u00a0In the three mornings that I fished, I saw virtually no other anglers, and almost everyone else I saw fishing was in one specific area.\u00a0 I knew that my fishing would be confined to morning sessions, and as it turned out, that was perfect, as Spearfish Creek was only about a 20 minute drive from the cabin.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure there are other streams in the Black Hills that offer better fishing, but I can\u2019t believe any would offer better scenery, and I was totally satisfied with the fishing experience I had.\u00a0 <\/a>The sunrise I encountered on the first morning was spectacular, made getting up at 5 completely worth it.<\/a><\/p>\n

Internet research on message boards, Dakota Angler\u2019s website and Google Earth gave me enough info to step with confidence into the creek that first morning.\u00a0 Trout streams are all kind of the same, and I know good water when I see it. \u00a0The water in the creek was pretty high\u2014I would call it \u201cfull\u201d, but it was flowing clear.\u00a0 I rigged up at streamside with the same nymphing set up I use here, and it wasn\u2019t long before I was into some very active browns.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t big, but they jumped a lot, and while research indicated that these were all wild fish, it was curious that they seemed to be mostly the same size, about 10-11\u201d.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

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There are supposed to be wild rainbows in the stream as well, but I never saw one, although I did catch a fine looking brook trout from one of the stillwater areas.<\/a><\/p>\n

I fished a different section of the creek each day, and had better action in the upper part, mostly about 2-3 miles downstream from Cheyenne Crossing.\u00a0 I never saw enough surface activity to get me to try any dry fly fishing, but I suspect in the evenings there could be some, and later in the summer might also be better for hatches.\u00a0 Most fish were caught on hare\u2019s ear variations; I suspect the fly didn\u2019t matter much, as this is a swift little creek, and the fish just don\u2019t have much time to inspect what they eat. There is an area with a few small ponds, and another section that is backed up by a dam to form a still water area.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Both of these spots provided great action during low light periods.\u00a0 In fact one morning I was casting a bugger off the rocks near the dam\u2014after a dozen fish to hand and many others lost or missed, the hackle on the bugger came unraveled.\u00a0 Not a huge surprise, and decided that maybe it was time to move.\u00a0 \u201cJust a few more casts\u201d I thought, always keeping in mind one of my Absolute Rules of Fishing \u2013\u201cDON\u2019T LEAVE FISH TO FIND OTHER FISH!\u201d The trout liked the hackle-less bugger just as much, and after I few more I finally left them biting.<\/p>\n

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So for review, don\u2019t go to the Black Hills to go trout fishing.\u00a0 Go there for the history and the family fun.\u00a0 But pack your waders, your vest, and your favorite trout rod.\u00a0 In the time we spent out there we crossed many other little streams that looked inviting. These streams are scattered all over the Black Hills, so whether you are in the North like I was, or down in the Southern end near Rushmore, it is very likely that there will be some trout fishing to be had.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Black Hills It was decided last year that we would be making a family trip to the Black Hills this summer.\u00a0 When I say family, I mean FAMILY\u2026lots of cousins, aunts, uncles and other kin would be gathering near Deadwood.\u00a0 I don\u2019t get excited about gatherings, especially ones that involve more than about 3 or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8,32],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions\/484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}