Hey everyone. Planning to head to the Black Hills in South Dakota around Memorial Day weekend. How wide spread is the Didymo infestation in the Black Hills?
Any suggestions as to where a person should go to chase a few trout? I usually spend some time ABOVE Deerfield Lake but water levels were quite low the last couple of years. Have also fished BELOW Pactola but understand there is a Didymo problem there.
How about Spearfish Creek?
Any suggestions? Thanks.
Royce,
Here’s the limited information I know.
Below Pactola, on Rapid Creek, there is didymo. Below Deerfield res., on Castle Creek is didymo, close up by the dam. There’s didymo in Rapid Creek by Mystic. At last report, seeding the creeks with nutrients to kill off the didymo was supposed to start in April, though I haven’t heard if they have started or not. There is NO posted information anywhere along the streams saying the waters are infested with didymo, and the State, in all it’s wisdom, has continued to release rainbow trout, even in the infected waters. Responsible fishers are disinfecting boots, waders and lines, and letting felt soles boots dry COMPLETELY before using them in a different body of water. If you see any waters that look like they are full of wet toilet paper, don’t go in them! And disinfect everything that’s touched even the grass around them!
Above Deerfield, on castle Creek, a lot of damming has taken place. It’s getting really hard to get in, and the water goes from dry to 8" in a hairs width!! And frequently MUCH deeper, as you no longer can tell where the original channel was!! Spearfish is beautiful. We understand the dam at the power plant (along the highway) has been breeched, but I don’t know first hand what that’s done to the fishing. Hanna Creek is always challanging, and a lot of fun!
We’ll be there for a few weeks staarting around Memorial day. I hope the water levels are higher, and the didymo is under control. I also hope for 75 degrees and sun each day, and serious catches of fish. Think any of that will happen? :roll:
Betty
Hi,
Didymo has infested the South Island here in NZ. It’s a major problem. It’s not a hard process to clean your gear, in fact, a decent concentration of dish detergent in hot water will kill it in your gear. The thing is to make sure you really soak your felt boots completely, for an hour or so, and then dry completely. They were originally suggesting 48 hours of drying, but with felt boots, the soles can stay wet for days and the didymo cells can be pushed into the felt and survive in there for just as long. If you don’t need your felt boots, wear something else; just don’t put yourself at risk of course. If you do need them, clean them, each and every trip. Didymo is awful stuff.
Jeff,
Thank you for the update! Obviously, NZ is doing far more that SD!!! Will take my dish soap with me, and still plan on wearing the other soles to my Korkers for the most part!
Betty
Once again showing my ignorance but not wanting to be part of a problem.
What the heck is didymo?
I plan to travel to the black hills this summer and dont want to spread anything around.
Any info would be nice.
Thanks
Hi Perch and Betty,
Check out this link from New Zealand on Didymo:
http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/didymo
It contains information on what it is and cleaning methods to help avoid spreading it. Betty, you might find some information there that would be worth sharing with other people you know. And this information needs to be spread to people other than just anglers, those who hike through the woods and cross streams can just as easily spread the stuff as those of us who fish in the streams!
I try to get out to the Black Hills at least once a year as I am about a day’s drive from there. The last time I was there was spring of 06 and we did not notice Didymo as much as the glaring lack of water out there. We had good fishing in Castle creek, both above and below the Deerfield reservior, in Spearfish creek (which you need to see if you have never fished it), and in Rapid creek above Pactola (which is another beautiful place to fish). If you want to take the first exit off 90 in Wyoming, you will find Sand Creek which is an awesome fishery if it has water. We did not go to Rapid Creek below Pactola. Something started killing off the brown trout there about 3-4 years ago and I never heard if the DNR ever figured that out. That’s why they are stocking bows below Pactola. Didymo is another strange thing that has naturalists puzzled, it is native to the Northern Hemisphere in North America and Europe. It has been imported to NZ where it is a very nasty invasive species and has ruined some fine trout water. If you haven’t heard of it, Didymo is basically a slippery algae that will grow to cover everything. The odd thing about it is that even in it’s historical native range, it sometimes goes wild, acts like an invasive species and just overwhelms everything else in the environment! If you find it in North America in some body of water there is no telling if that is just a normal occurance or if it is ‘super Didymo’ (unless of course it has obviously overwhelmed everything). There are a few theories about what is making Didymo go wild. It is probably not too great a stretch to say that the low water in the Black Hills has concentrated the nutrient load and allowed greater light penetration below Pactola which would contribute to the situation. Even though it may not be invasive in North America, you need to be really careful not to spread it around from places where there is an infestation. One theory is that it has mutated and the ‘super Didymo’ is some kind of mutated strain. The stuff is perfectly adapted to being spread around via felt soled wading shoes!
Thanks for the info. Hoping to get in a couple days of fishing while we are out in the Hills. Never fished Spearfish Creek. I think your information has put that on the top of the list for this trip. Thanks again.
Hey Royce - there are some great places along Spearfish creek to fish - not only inthecreek but also in the numerous ponds that are up and down the canyon. My favorite is a pond created by a hydro dam just up the road from Savoy. There are also a couple of good places up on Little spearfish creek as well. email me and I’ll give you the details. You can also check with Betty Hiner since she’s also up in the hills quite a bit.
Good luck and PLEASE be careful about cleaning up between trips to keep Didymo from spreading in our sweet, sweet Black Hills waters!
There is actually talk here in nz of banning felt soled bos altogether sometime soon. Fish and game have banned their use in the rivers and lakes of fiordland already and have shortened the open season on these waters in an attempt to keep this algae out of these pristine waters, and they could implement these measures so readily as they have full control over the conditions of a special license required to fish these select waters.
Getting such regulations banning felt into the national regulations will take time, as they must petition the minister of conservation first, but I have no doubt that sometime soon, we will see their use outlawed completly on nz waters.
even using the aforementioned measures, felt soles have proved almost impossible to effectivly clean via chemical measures, and biosecurity nz reccomend freezing your boots solid (yup) to kill off cells.
The other method is soaking them in solution and hot 60 degree C water for 40 odd minutes, but Im sure you all realise that water temp cools with time, and this is not the most accurate way to comply with biosecurity requirements.
A friend who owns a disinfectant company here in nz has created a specialist didymo killer which has taken off here with anglers, simple to use, and proved effective by NIWA, and at the moment he is working on refining this product so that it will more readily penetrate deeper into the felt than other solutions. Thus far his tests are proving positive, and soon he hopes to take his product again to NIWA for official testing. The findings may prove interesting.
In the meantime guys, I know it is a pain, but I thuroughly reccomend the use of rubber or studded aquastealth soles and vigilent cleaning practises to ANYONE who even steps foot in any river, didymo affected or not… You can neve be sure that a river or lake is didymo free!
Chris
Hey Folks,
If you Google Didymo Rapid City, you’ll get several links with GFP announcements, Rapid City Journal articles, scientific info, and the like. They stocked the infested waters, more as a “Gotta Do It” than a “Need To Do It”. The drought has taken it’s toll in many ways, and this is one of them.
On a small positive note. We’ve had some good rain this spring, with more on the way this week. Drove by Rapid Creek yesterday and it was about over the bank. Hopefully, it rained as much in the Hills. Pactola Reservoir was only at 61% with no snow melt left to help fill it. Without a lot of moisture this spring, it could be a disasterous summer here in the Hills.
Betty, I hope we can get together this time you’re out. Nothing but good health and no barbed wire for the both of you!
Not meaning to start something but if this were dirt bike trail riding we were talking about they’d have CLOSED the trails to us becaue of an 'infestation’that can be spread by the user. Why is fishing different? I just don’t understand…
We have that White junk in the White River in Arkansas also.
I’m heading west again , if someone can tell me where to fish Spearfish Creek
I might go back to S.D. I went there last year following 14A and found a creek so small I could have jumped across it when I was younger. I didn’t even see a Minnow, some sections didn’t even have any water.
Hi,
When you say “a hydro dam just up the road from Savoy” which way up the road? Are you talking about the paved highway, or the gravel road going to Roughlock Falls. We often fish around Silver City on Rapid Creek, and we would like to venture out to “new” places. thanks.
Craig
Hey Craig,
You’re from REMSEN??? I went to Briar Cliff in Sioux City!
Small stinkin’ world.
Here’s the skinny on spearfish creek. You’re DEFINITELY missing out on some great fishing if you don’t try to wet your line there.
There are several places that will either make you giddy or extremely frustrated - depending on how you fish them.
Hydro dam #1 - as you head up Spearfish Canyon road from Spearfish, this is the first dam PAST Bridal Veil falls. There’s a BIG hole that drops in the there…try brassies and copper johns into the hole, but then also fish pheasant hairs or brassies up over the weeds towards the water intake. You can get out on the concrete dam and have unimpeded casting up the flow of the water. Don’t try any drys here (unless you happen to match the hatch) - generally they get enough sub-aquatic food to be happy with what drifts their way on the current. Figure that out and your golden.
Litttle Spearfish Creek - the biggest secret of the hills. Caught the biggest rainbow in my hills fishing in these waters. keep going south up the canyon towards Savoy. Take a right on a gravel road (222) and there’s a little dam not more than 2 minutes up…go with little brassies or zebra nymphs here and float them deep and slow.
Go a little further up the creek and it will wind it’s way through an open meadow…last time I was there a beaver had set several dams along the way - making the fishing sometimes challenging…but you’ll find hopper patterns will kill along the grassy banks, tricos and sulfers are hatching all the time. You can also go with a hopper and a dropper with a brassie, pheasant hair or scud.
Hydro dam #2 - just down the road and up the canyon from Savoy is another hydro dam. I will usually start with a black elk hair caddis with a nymph dropper - one or the other seems to find more than a few fish for me here. You can also park farther up and walk back down to the point that’s in the middle and offers a pretty good casting point to either side. Be careful of the muskrat here - I wasn’t paying attention and he swam across my line and I ended up with more than I bargained for on the other end.
Yates ponds - keep heading south and up the canyon towards yates ponds - these are just north of cheyenne crossing (great lunch spot). These get fished pretty hard - but if you are brave enough to not just fish drys - go with a nymph or two - also emergers work good here.
HERE’S THE SUPER SECRET SPOT - when you’re getting your arse kicked on every other area…you need to head south from Cheyenne Crossing on Hanna Road (CR-196) about 2 - 2.5 miles (past the campground) until you get to CR-209 (go right) and there you’ll find the hottest little brook trout pond around. If you feel skunked - start with some emergers, tricos or caddis and you’ll feel MUCH better about you’re fishing capability.
There’s a great book about fly fishing in the black hills…it lists out these and many other spots that will make your Black Hills fishing trip a great one!
Hi Jim,
We have lived in Remsen for 17 years this summer. I grew up in Des Moines. When we moved here, I had never heard of Remsen, but it seems everyone I meet knows where Remsen is, or knows somebody who lives here.
Thanks for the info on Spearfish Creek, and for some GREAT pictures. I have the book you mention, ?Trout Fishing the Black Hills.? I need to dig it out and study it some more. Your directions are great, however, we usually drive into the Canyon from the South, and so we will have to fish the Creek backwards!
We stay at Happy Trails Cabins in Silver City, so it will be a bit of a drive. We have been fishing on Rapid Creek. The last few years, fishing has been hard, but there are fish in those waters.
BTW, when fishing on Spearfish, is there a better time of the day to fish. On Rapid, we seemed to do better in the evening rather than early morning.
Thanks!!
Craig
AAAAAACCCKKKKK!!! What are you two trying to do!!!
THERE ARE NO FISH IN THE BLACK HILLS!!! TROUTS OR OTHERWISE!!! Do NOT try to fish there! :shock:
Don’t forget to stop in Cheyenne Crossing for the best pie around, or the Inn at Savoy for incredible bread pudding!!
OOOPS!.. I forgot. It’s a secret 
I will vouch for Betty. All the fish have gone. By the way, Betty. What tourist traps ARE you going to see this next time out? 
:shock: Ummmm … aaahhhh… how 'bout some nifty trees? Buffaloes? Certainly NO TROUTS!!!