As if it’s from a picture. Something time long forgot. The Black Hills has some truly great views. To stop and see the lakes and streams is very awe inspiring. And definitely worth the visit. With views that can rival some of the best lakes in the US.
But for me, that’s not enough. I want to see what’s in those beautiful waters. Are there bluegill? How about bass? Maybe a pike to add to the adventure? And there has to be trout right?
To find this out I had to try it for myself. After all. Dropping in a hook is the only way to tell for sure. Right?
I grew up in South Eastern South Dakota. Mostly fishing small lakes, ponds, the Jim River, and the Missouri River. The normal is catfish, walleye, crappie, and bluegill. And honestly, with a hook and nightcrawlers you can catch any of the above. So attacking a mountain stream or cold water lake? I may as well been visiting the moon. What do I use for bait? How deep do I fish? Where can I fish? I knew I wanted to target Trout. Since there are few places in eastern SD you can fish them. But what kinds are there? How big do they get? And where do I stay where I won’t have to fork over a life savings to go? All questions I would soon find out.
In honesty, I did get to fish some of the Black Hills lakes in the past. Deerfield Lake and Pactola Lake. At least for some small amounts of time anyways. At Deerfield lake I tried to fish the creek. To only find out that trout are very spooky and hard to catch from a creek. And I didn’t get a bite. When I fished the lake itself, I had caught quite a few fish in a short time. Varying from rainbow trout, to brown trout, and even a few perch. All smaller. At Pactola, I had only caught a few rock bass. But both of these times were more of a quick dip of the pole. And it wasn’t really the purpose to try to catch fish as much as it was other things. This time, was with the purpose of going there to fish.
But maybe I should back up a couple months. It was the summer of 2020. And I was getting ready to get married to my beautiful wife. We had everything planned out the best we could. Considering it was 2020. But our honeymoon was not happening. We first planned to go to Florida. But the hotel we were looking at was only partially opened. We decided instead to get tickets to a Cleveland Browns game, go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and hang out in Cleveland. Then the NFL decided not to allow fans. Our honeymoon was looking like we were staying home.
Then my wife suggested something. “What if we just go somewhere small? And do a big honeymoon later. We talked about going fishing in the Black Hills. We could do that?” It was then that I was reminded how lucky I was and how much I loved this girl. With this in mind we started searching for places to stay.
To our surprise, a lot of hotels and cabins were still open and functioning normally in October when we were going. And we had a very good selection of places to choose from. We chose Rustic Ridge Cabin’s. Since it was centrally located. And seemed very nice, clean, and well priced.
When we got there we were met by Jim. He checked us in and asked us what we were up to in the Black Hills. We told him fishing. He then filled us in on the bite in the area. And suggested we try out Sheridan Lake. He told us to try to fish deep for them. And that nightcrawlers or power bait may be our best bet. We thanked him and walked to our cabin.
Stepping inside of this gorgeous cabin was amazing. Beautiful, clean, spacious and could have easily slept another couple peacefully. And one of the big selling points for us, was it had a small kitchen. Especially since we were not sure how many restaurants would be opened. And it cut down on the food bill a bit. With 2 full beds, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, and even a TV it was just we wanted for a temporary home.
The next morning we set out to Sheridan Lake. Which was only a short drive away. We had already bought Red Ball bait and power bait. So we were set to go. After exploring the area a bit, we found an area that had docks that went into the water. And benches to sit at. We first tried from shore. But this seemed to be a bit tough. Since there was a lot of vegetation growing around the shoreline. Besides, the benches made a great place to sit in between bites. Looking down, the water was crystal clear. I could see the bottom. Even though I knew it was at least 10 ft. deep.
My thoughts were to start by throwing in a bait rod, and use another rod to cast spinners and lures. Even though I did get some strikes on spinners, I realized quickly that I had to pick one or the other. Since they would steal my bait and get away before I had a chance to hook them. So with more bites coming from the Red Balls, I stuck with them.
We were fishing about 20 minutes. And we had a few bites. But couldn’t hook them. Suddenly that changed. I felt a nibble, set the hook, and off it went. It started pulling out my drag to my amazement. And I could definitely feel the weight. These were much bigger than the trout I had caught before by a long shot. And they fought much harder. As I reeled it in I seen it. A nice big trout. I slipped it onto the stringer and we kept fishing.
We slowly got more bites. But for some reason kept missing them. Then it hit me. The rig I was using had a light weight slip sinker with a hook on the end. They kept stripping the hook clean. So I used the universal southeast South Dakota fishing technique. A crappie rig with a heavier sinker. Low and behold, very few fish got away then.
By about 2 o’clock, the fish seemed to have lock jaw. And wouldn’t bite. We were only 2 fish from our limit. I put my arm around my wife and kissed her. We decided to go back to the cabin. We had already had a ton of fun.
Since we had the fish we wanted we decided to spend the rest of our time exploring the Black Hills and the sites. It’s a trip I won’t soon forget.
When I think back at it now I get a smile on my face. I’m not sure it was about the fish, the Black Hills, the cabin, or anything else. I have a memory of having an awesome time, in a year that seemed to only give off doom and gloom. I married an incredible women and we had an amazing time. And that is an adventure that is still going. And I have a feeling, the next time we go out there, will be just as incredible.
Until next time.
Mary jo bertrand