A buddy and I spent a couple of days in the Black Hills. (I know, Betty, there are no trout in the Black Hills.)
Caught a bunch of eager but small Brookies in Castle & Ditch Creeks above Deefield Lake along with a couple of nice Rainbows. At the confluence of Castle and Ditch Creeks my buddy caught the biggest Brookie I’ve seen caught in that stretch of water. Probably went about 12". Not a monster by any means but certainly a nice “trophy” for that particular water.
We also spent some time on Rapid Creek below Pactola Reservoir. For those of you not familiar with this water, it typically holds the largest trout in the Black Hills but they are a bugger to catch. One can walk along the first 200-300 yards of this stretch and see browns and rainbows happily feeding away, sipping bugs off the surface and snatching up nymphs. A person can spend an entire day fishing here, trying everything in the fly box and never get a fish’s attention. Our theory is that this small chunk of water gets SO much pressure that these fish have seen every artificial fly ever tied. People get out of their car, walk along the water and see these fish stacked up and never get any further down steam. This makes these fish EXTREMELY difficult to catch.
Armed with this theory my buddy and I decided the thing to do would be to park the pickup and walk down stream a long ways and fish back, thus getting past the fish that everyone else hammers away at. We hiked down stream for about an hour and a half and began fishing back up stream with absolutely NO LUCK! After an hour of fishing with no results it occurred to us that we haven’t even SEEN a fish. We abandoned the actual fishing for a while and simply started walking back up stream, stopping at likely looking holes and run and trying to spot some fish. Still nothing.
Now, you probably know where this is going. When we got back to the stretch of stream we were trying to avoid in the first place I caught 2 of the nicest Browns I’ve ever caught…
200 YARDS FROM THE PICKUP WE LEFT 4 HOUR EARLIER!!!
Is that not just the kewlest thing?!? Where the two streams meet up is usually really good, if you’re looking for brookies and rainbows and browns instead of trouts! We didn’t go too far south on Ditch Creek this time (May) as there had been cougar sightings the day before our being there.
I think a lot of people think that area gets pounded … but we’ve just not seen that. We’ve seen them look, and then go down stream, or over to the lake. I love it!!!
Betty, one of the days Tullahoma’s own Wandering Jack is going to pay a visit to the Black Hills and come back with pictures. Your secret is out, Betty.
Me too, but a whole different trip… Got back Monday at 1 AM after a twelve hour continuous drive from the Canyons south of Spearfish. Lots of spooky fish up high above the main drag by the Timons Campsite. Couldn’t get the little buggers in the beaver dammed stream to eat anything. Constant thunderstorms made waving a wet stick kind of scary and consequently spent a lot of tent time and not much water time. Had the Great White Dope along, Ollie the Yellow Lab, and I was more like “sleeps with dogs” rather than “dances with wolves.” Really pretty country up there, but hard to fish the little holes surrounded with Alder. Betty, if you have any sure fire tricks for extracting Brookies from those beaver ponds I’d sure like to hear them…
You should give the Little Juniata a try near Tyrone and Huntingdon. Fished the trophy trout section behind Baree a few weeks ago and prob pulled 50-60
trout out of the stream in 2 days. Although I was flinging a minnow rig. :roll:
Oh, my!! Sleeps with dogs!!! Familiar with the Timons area … usually have cows to keep you company up there! Beautiful, beautiful canyon up there, but, really, really spooky fish!!
Further back down the canyon, between Roughlock falls and the lodge, is a wonderful stretch of wade-able water (no, not the new containment area … you’ll drown if you try wading it!!!). Lots of brookies. John Scotts’ adaption of the Henry Fork caddis works incredibly!! Regular caddis work, too, but man oh man! The HFC is beyond belief!! As for the beaver ponds, usually caddis or grasshoppers will do the trick … that and a lot of patience, and staying out of their line of sight! Soft hackled flies (spiders) work well, too!!
Betty, you are certainly on your game. I’m swept off my feet. I hope that you are soon able to travel to the Land of No Trouts and catch a basketful or rainbows.
You’re sure right about the view, and the spooky trouts too. I saw that stretch above the impoundment area on the drive out, but the the thunderboomers scared me off. I’ll try it next trip.
