THE fly fishing thread.
- Thread starter xEchOx
- Start date
Took a nice long trip off over labor day weekend. Left home Wednesday night and came back on Monday. This was my first trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota. As usual, this was a fishing trip. I rarely plan extended time off anymore if I'm not holding a rod, or a gun. We camped in the national forest (tent). It was a good time, but it would have been better if (A) I would have remembered to bring a sleeping pad, and (B) if the fishing was a little better.
We started out in spearfish canyon. Supposedly one of the most scenic areas to fly fish in the midwest. Perhaps this is true but I guess I'm used to the mountains. Idaho national panhandle forest is truely beautiful, and although the black hills are nice as well, they aren't mountains. I guess I was a tad bit underwhelmed. Spearfish creek is just that... a creek. No wider than a road in most areas and most of it is pretty shallow, under 3 ft deep. The water was also fast moving. So much so that it was pretty hard to stand in the water in a lot of areas. This also makes fighting hooked fish... interesting. I lost a lot of fish on this trip. The other thing that was tough about fishing this area was the access. It's very brushy. A lot of small trees and shrubs line the creeks and as I said, they are so small that it can make casting a fly pretty difficult. There are also very few pull outs along the roads which means you have to walk a lot further just to check out potential fishing spots. All the same, we fished hard all day. We got on some fish, but there weren't many.
We stopped in spearfish for lunch at a lodge. Ate some grub on the deck that faced the canyon. This was a pretty nice view.
After spearfish, we hit up Castle creek in the southern part of the hills. The stream was similar, small and fast water. Not as fast, and the creek was slightly deeper so that helped us a bit as far as moving around in the water. This seemed to hold more fish too. Not big ones, but there were plenty here. Browns, Brookies mostly. I caught my first brookie here.
Another little brown.
We had plans to fish Rapid creek, supposedly holds some of the largest fish in the Hills, but the morning we headed there it rained hard for about 45 minutes and stained the creek a dusty orange color. So fishing that area was done for a day or two. We went back to our campground and fished Pactola reservoir. Beautiful area. If I had to bring my family somewhere for a long weekend, I think this is where I would go. Easy access right off the hwy, really nice campground that over looks the reservoir. Lots and lots of fish too. I bet we caught 40-50 little rock bass on the fly, and sunfish, perch, largemouth bass and I even had a small northern pike hit a rock bass that I was bringing in. Most fight I had all weekend. Beautiful area.
We started out in spearfish canyon. Supposedly one of the most scenic areas to fly fish in the midwest. Perhaps this is true but I guess I'm used to the mountains. Idaho national panhandle forest is truely beautiful, and although the black hills are nice as well, they aren't mountains. I guess I was a tad bit underwhelmed. Spearfish creek is just that... a creek. No wider than a road in most areas and most of it is pretty shallow, under 3 ft deep. The water was also fast moving. So much so that it was pretty hard to stand in the water in a lot of areas. This also makes fighting hooked fish... interesting. I lost a lot of fish on this trip. The other thing that was tough about fishing this area was the access. It's very brushy. A lot of small trees and shrubs line the creeks and as I said, they are so small that it can make casting a fly pretty difficult. There are also very few pull outs along the roads which means you have to walk a lot further just to check out potential fishing spots. All the same, we fished hard all day. We got on some fish, but there weren't many.
We stopped in spearfish for lunch at a lodge. Ate some grub on the deck that faced the canyon. This was a pretty nice view.
After spearfish, we hit up Castle creek in the southern part of the hills. The stream was similar, small and fast water. Not as fast, and the creek was slightly deeper so that helped us a bit as far as moving around in the water. This seemed to hold more fish too. Not big ones, but there were plenty here. Browns, Brookies mostly. I caught my first brookie here.
Another little brown.
We had plans to fish Rapid creek, supposedly holds some of the largest fish in the Hills, but the morning we headed there it rained hard for about 45 minutes and stained the creek a dusty orange color. So fishing that area was done for a day or two. We went back to our campground and fished Pactola reservoir. Beautiful area. If I had to bring my family somewhere for a long weekend, I think this is where I would go. Easy access right off the hwy, really nice campground that over looks the reservoir. Lots and lots of fish too. I bet we caught 40-50 little rock bass on the fly, and sunfish, perch, largemouth bass and I even had a small northern pike hit a rock bass that I was bringing in. Most fight I had all weekend. Beautiful area.
I'm chucking a spear right now man! http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?601220-Darkhouse-spearing
20 inches of ice on the water here!
Glad to see you are still dominating the waters out west. I see you have a new reel? What is it? Looks bad ace. Keep feeding me pics until the ice thaws here man!
20 inches of ice on the water here!
Glad to see you are still dominating the waters out west. I see you have a new reel? What is it? Looks bad ace. Keep feeding me pics until the ice thaws here man!
I never even knew there was a fly fishing thread! I was just posting on the fishing season thread last year and wondered why there wasn't any fly guys there other than me . I'll be posting here this year a lot then, I do a lot of fly fishing from March-October.
. I'll be posting here this year a lot then, I do a lot of fly fishing from March-October.Its a taylor reels type 1 i think. Its working stellar for the cheap price. Im hard on my gear as well and so far so good.
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