Black Hills Fishing Report February 10th 2015

Warmer weather continues to provide better fishing. Options are improving as water on Rapid Creek in town appears to be clearing. Hopefully the water through town continues to clear. This could be due to changes in the construction at the Canyon Lake dam rebuild. We will keep and eye on the water clarity and keep you posted.

Black Hills Fishing Report

I fished on Sunday and Monday. The water was much much clearer than my last outing this past Thursday. The improved clarity was a welcome change. Rather than sporadic streamer fishing results, the fishing with clearer water allowed for better nymph fishing. I didn't see many fish rising, but midge hatches appeared to be getting thicker. A few baetis (blue winged olive) mayflies were hatching too. Typically the midge dry fly fishing picks up mid-February. With clearer water and warmer temperatures, the hatch should be good this year. Start tying f-flies!

My last couple outings on Rapid Creek, I experimented with a new size of the Inline Indicators from Strike Foundry. What I like about these indicators is the ability to customize your nymph rig and to rig inline.I attached one end of a 2.5' Maxima 25-30 lb butt section to the fly line and the other to a Lil Nugget size Inline indicator. From the other end I tied 4' of 5x fluorocarbon tippet. At the end of the tippet I put on my first of two flies. With this rig you can use a tungsten nymph as your lead fly and get to bottom with ease. Without any thick leader material between your indicator and fly strikes are immediately telegraphed to the angler. I also experimented with attaching both my butt section and tippet to the gray end of the indicator- I first saw this on the excellent Headhunters Fly Shop Blog! By using a heavily weighted fly, the indicator floated vertically and also indicated the quality of the drift. Very cool! Check out the indicators at our website- Strike Foundry InLine Indicators.

A client had good luck on Spearfish Creek through the city of Spearfish this past weekend. Snow was reportedly too deep along the majority of the creek in Spearfish Canyon to provide much access, but the fishing was well worth it in town. Spring Creek continues to fish well below Sheridan Lake in the trailhead section. The best concentrations of fish are in the larger pools.