My first stop was to try a stretch of Spearfish Creek that flows through town. I parked in my usual spot, which was empty, so I thought I had this stretch to myself. Got all my gear on and rigged up and headed down to the creek. Rats, there was a guy fishing where I normally start fishing. So, I decided to make a sweep around him and get to the spot where I typically start to catch fish anyway. Dang, there was another fisherman strolling along heading to that spot too. The tough thing about fly fishing a stream is if somebody is fishing ahead of you, you might as well pack up and go someplace else since the fish will be spooked. I headed back to the car and decided to try my luck in the canyon, which can be just as busy on the weekends but there are more spots to fish than in town.
It’s officially the first day of the Rally and I swear on my favorite fly rod that there are 10 million bikers right now in Spearfish Canyon as I am typing this out. Bridal Veil Falls was blushing from the attention she was getting from all the burly bikers. I drove past very slowly, being careful not to run anyone over as they were pouring onto the road from every direction. I decided to fish a stretch of creek up the road a bit where I usually do well. The parking spot was empty, so my luck was changing. I scaled down the steep bank to my first spot, tossed out my fly and caught a brown trout on the first cast. That is always a good sign. In this stretch, the creek hasn’t been flowing very strong so most of the trout are grouping up in the deeper areas. By deep I am talking as little as 4 inches with some deeper pools maybe 2.5 feet deep. The trout are very spooky in this shallow water so when one trout spooks and darts off, the rest of his buddies follow his lead. I managed to catch maybe a half dozen brown trout and had a beautiful brook trout spit my fly. I fished for about an hour and then started walking back to the car as an endless stream of motorcycles rumbled by. Some biker dudes were parked by my car, so I visited with them a bit, and they seemed pretty interested in my fishing stories.
I decided to try and shoot a video of myself fly fishing this morning with my camera and tripod. I found out it’s sort of a pain. Somehow, I did manage to hook a trout while filming. There is no sound so don’t bother turning up your volume, and if there was sound all you would hear is the rumble of 10 million Harley’s driving through the canyon.
