I  recently got introduced to the great fishing in the Black Hills by my good friend John Carl Miller, further known as JC. The Black Hills has a web page of information on fishing and other stuff. There is a very good outfitter in town. Dakota Angler and Outfitters has helped  me a lot. I am not affiliated with them but they are a great asset. The Black Hills streams can be broken down into three regions; north, south and central. My experiences and according to the people I have talked to is that the central region has the best fishing. The northern region gets the most rain and is colder in general. It also gets more storms.

Above picture from Sven Froiland's "Natural History of the Black Hills and Badlands". It was very interesting reading this while I was out there and helped me understand the fishing conditions.

Northern Region
Spearfish is in Spearfish Canyon south of the town of Spearfish. A very deep and narrow limestone (mostly) canyon. The water is fast ,clear, and is of low fertility. The fish I have caught here are all browns ranging from 8" to 12". Access is from stops along the highway that follows it. There are numerous private holdings along it. The stream bed went dry by the time it left the national forest area. The stream is about 25 feet wide where I fished.

Little Spearfish is in a side canyon that is even narrower but not as deep. The stream is narrow and well
vegetated. There are two national Forest campgrounds in the canyon. That I can tell the two places to fish it are just above and below the picnic and falls area about a mile up from the junction with Spearfish. One of the last scenes in "Dances With Wolves " was taken here. I caught lots of 10" to l1". If I were more familiar with it I wold not have had to buck as much brush.

Central Region
Rapid Creek is above and below Pactola Lake. Above the lake at Silver City is a walk in access. A bike  would allow you to reach more stream. Both times I have tried this section the water has been high and muddy due to recent rains. There are large fish in this section. In the fall there are lake-run browns of extra character and salmon that move upstream into this section.The scenery is grand.

Below the lake is a pool that some fish with tubes. The rest is clear water although high when I have been there. There are large fish. The fish JC and I have gotten were browns from 10" to 19" and a couple bows around 18". I have also seen a large brook trout there. The fish following my streamer were even bigger than what we caught. Access is off the road over the dam, off Hwy 385.

Castle Creek goes into Rapid Creek. It comes out of Deerfield Lake which also has trout. A lot of this stream is walk in. It has nice browns and brook trout. if the surface does not pan out, a bead head will always get fish.

Slate Creek is a tributary of Castle Creek. It is usually clear due to the lack of soil where it runs. Access is from rough back road and jeep trail. We caught lots of browns here to 16" and brook trout to 10". This stream is in none of the literature that I have read. Beadhead and ant patterns did the best here in August.

Spring Creek is above and below Sheridan Lake. I have only fished below. There are browns of all sizes and rainbow trout above 16" are planted each week. Last year JC and I got 3 rainbows that were 21" long. Matching the hatch for some of the browns can be maddening. They eat mainly midges and size 28 mayflies. I have never had browns strike on the same fly twice in a row.

Southern Region
Grace Coolidge is a small stream coming out of Center Lake in Custer State Park. It has native brookies and stocked rainbows. It is surprising the size of fish that will come out of the small pools.

French Creek starts near Custer, SD, and goes through Stockade Lake and into Custer state park.. In drought conditions the main source is the Custer  sewer system. Not to worry, the lake filters this out.. I have had mixed success here. The brown trout are there but so are bass and crappie.  There is a walk in are in the

Custer State Park is where I have done much of my fishing. Grace Coolidge is a wonderful little stream that has a walk in area above the camp ground. Don't be fooled by it's small size. there can be some nice fish in this little gem. Do watch out for the poison ivy though. French Creek also has a walk in area that will get you away from the crowds. There are also lots of lakes for warm and cold water tubing.