Black Hills Fishing Report - May 17

Fishing has been good - don't let the high flows scare you off. Yes, the flows are high. The fish are fat, sassy, and packing on some pounds with the increased flows and increased food. A couple places are still blown out - Rapid Creek at Silver City is pretty muddy, lower Spearfish Canyon, and Box Elder Creek. Other than those, pretty much everywhere is fishing pretty darn well. The key to catching fish with the higher flows is using bigger flies, a little more weight, and making sure you're getting down to the fish. If you're not hitting bottom every few casts, chances are you're not deep enough. Bigger flies have been doing well for me. Things like UV Czechs, Amexes, North Fork Specials, G-String Worms, and some of the new jig nymphs we got in have been getting good numbers lately. For all you dry fly folks, there's still plenty of options as well. The smaller streams are fishing well with attractor style dries, such as Klinkhamers, Humpies, Elk Hair Caddis, and Stimulators. The dry fly fishing in town has been silly still - the BWO's still haven't stopped. There's still runs of 15 or 20 fish rising at any given time, and they're more than willing to eat Students, CDC Thorax Duns, F-Flies, Brook's Sprout Emergers, and a new pattern called a Hackle Stacker has been killing it. There's also good numbers of little black stoneflies out, and the fish will start keying on them any day now. If you like hunting heads looking for a big fish on a dry, below Pactola has been borderline ridiculous as well. The fish aren't easy by any stretch, and getting a good drift at 210 cfs is a little tricky, but they've been looking up and rising consistently from about 2 o'clock on. Streamer junkies can find plenty of fish looking to chase big, articulated streamers as well. We've seen some big fish caught lately on big meat like Home Invaders, Sex Dungeons, Kreelexes, Sparkle Minnows, Zoo Cougars, and Bottom's Up style flies. The flows right now are very conducive to throwing a sink tip and something nasty, and it definitely increases your odds of hooking into a toad. It's not a numbers game by any means, but throwing big stuff could produce the fish of your year. Also, the warmwater fishing is picking up steam, and Pierre has been getting good. The white bass fishing at Pierre has been great, and the guys that are there this weekend are reporting good fishing. This is some of my favorite fishing of the year, and if you've never done it I would highly recommend it! On the good days you can catch them until your thumbs hurt from lipping them. Overall, the fishing has been great! If you have any other questions about certain waters or tactics, don't hesitate to give us a shout at the shop or shot us an email. Ryan