Anticipating Deadwood Return

Most fishing stops along the Rebel Trout Trek, which begins in four and a half weeks, will be new destinations to Asher and me. Actually, all will be new to Asher. I've watched Asher's older brother Nathaniel fish Dry Run Creek in Arkansas several times. I've also visited Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks and California's Eastern Sierra region, but have not fished in of those places. Most destinations on our fishing loop will be places where I've never traveled at all.

Deadwood, SD, where  we'll begin our western fishing, is the exception. I've actually visited Deadwood and fished Black Hills waters twice previously, once through the ice during mid-winter and again last summer. Both have been among my favorite fishing trips, so I couldn't resist including a Deadwoood stop when I was planning the trip. The Black Hills are ruggedly beautiful, and I've only found excellent fishing in my admittedly limited exposure.

Even though I've fished out of Deadwood twice, most of the actual waters we'll fish will be new to me. Plan is to begin with Whitewood Creek (pictured above), where I fished on last year's visit, as soon as we get to town. However, the next day we'll plan to explore the tailwater of Lake Pactola, a special-regulations area that has intrigued me since I first leaned about it but that I have not fished, and do some other "discovery" together. The next day, before we continue west toward Yellowstone, we'll explore the dramatic landscapes of Spearfish Canyon and the creek that tumbles though it. That was actually supposed to be part of last year's plan, but with so much good stuff to see, we ran out of time.

I'm extra intrigued by the canyon portion of Whitewood Creek because apparently it can produces a good 'hopper bite for brown trout through mid-summer. One of the patterns I'm most excited about for the whole trip is fishing Rebel Bighoppers, Crickhoppers and Micro Crickhoppers in some of the waters where Western flyfishermen do best with 'hopper flies.

Fishing aside, I'm simply looking forward to returning to Deadwood and introducing Asher to the Wild West. If I think the town of Deadwood is cool and fun, which I do, I'm pretty confident a 10-year-old boy will too!

Remember, I'll be blogging daily and sharing photos and videos on Rebellures.com and the Rebel Lures Facebook page throughout our trip, which begins July 21. #RebelTroutTrek

Looking Up

Nathaniel and I began yesterday afrernoon's pond outing with typical spring stuff, including squarebill crankbaits and weightless soft-plastic baits. The pond looked beautiful and we saw fish cruising, but they didn't seem eager to bite.

 

About 1/3 around the pond I  tied a Rebel Crickhopper onto my ultralight and fired it toward the bank. The response was immediate, and while the first hits were from bluegills that didn't get hooked, it showed me that the fish might be interested in surface offerings. 

 

Halfway around the pond we beached the boat and walked down to the middle pond to fish it from the bank (something we often do). I managed two bass and missed another on a frog while the fish completely ignored a YUM Dinger.

 

When we got back to the upper pond, Nathaniel tied on a Zara Puppy, and I stuck with the surface hopper on my little rod, and we managed to catch three bass and a bluegill before we finished the lap.

 

Seems the fish were looking up and had no interest in offerings presented beneath the surface.

Bugs & Rain Won

Yesterday afternoon's pond outing was pretty short. It didn't take long to figure out that the mosquitoes were far more apt to bite than the bass or the bream, so when a drizzle arose and then turned into a steady soaker, we decided to steer it toward home. That's a nice thing about having ponds nearby, I suppose. You can decide on a whim to fish for a while and if you decide to quite early, little is lost.

Nathaniel Asher and I did manage a few fish (one apiece, actually). Mine was a bluegill, and it actually came from the house pond, where we picked up a canoe for Nathaniel to use. Nathaniel and Asher each caught one bass from the beaver pond. I had several surface hits on a Rebel Bighopper, but they seemed to be from bream that were a little too small to fully engulf the bait.

A week or so ago Nathaniel and I fished the house pond for bluegills and the bite was really good, with the fish all over little grubs. I might need to slip back out there with Asher one day vary soon so that he can experience some of the same.

'Hoppers on my Mind

This morning I stopped briefly by the property where my children and I often fish the ponds, and now I can't get grasshoppers and poppers out of my mind. You see, Nathaniel had gone out there earlier with a friend -- not to fish but to do some yard work for the property owner. They were running weed eaters and bush axes along the edge of the pond, and from my vantage on the hill I could see splashes of grasshoppers that were fleeing the activity and landing in the drink.

I really had to return to writing fish stories at home, but I can't seem to keep myself from daydreaming a little about what would have happened if I'd slipped the canoe in the water and worked down that bank with a popping bug or a Rebel Bighopper. I didn't have a fly rod or an ultralight handy, and that probably is just as well. The curiosity might have gotten the best of me. And if I think it's hard for me to sit here at the computer wondering what the fish would have done, I can't imagine how hard it would have been for Nathaniel to have kept swinging that bush axe if I had been 30 feet in front of him catching the fish he was stirring up through his toils!

Maybe if the rain doesn't settle in to thick this afternoon...

Pigeon Hole

I never drive past the Pigeon River without thinking about its chunky smallmouths, but normally when I'm on the section of Interstate 40 that parallels the Pigeon, I'm on the way to or traveling home from a far-away destination, and stopping isn't practical. Yesterday afternoon, while driving home from Knoxville, Nathaniel and I decided to get off at the Waterville exit and hit one Pigeon hole.

We didn't fish terribly long because it was already late afternoon and we were still a couple of hours from home, and we stayed on the bank, instead of wading. Despite the quick-hit approach, we did draw a few fierce surface strikes with Rebel Bighoppers, drifted and waked on the surface, and Nathaniel managed to land one pretty fish. A fun stop, for sure, and now Nathaniel is pretty eager to get back to the Pigeon on a day when fishing is the main objective!