Gearing Up For Summer Fishing Fun in The Black Hills of Dako

Gearing Up For Summer Fishing Fun in The Black Hills of Dakota and Wyoming

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BLACK HILLS TROUT AND BASS

I grew up fishing western South Dakota bass ponds within sight of the cool Black Hills, mountains filled with trout ponds embedded in the ponderosa pine timber. I enjoyed fishing trout streams in the morning, and then driving the beatup '57 Chevy pickup a short distance after lunch to fish the hot afternoons in my favorite bass pond - Mirror Lake.

It is the best of two different fishing worlds: after a few hours of hot bass action, the Mirror Lake trout begin tofeed aggressively in the deep natural artesian springs bubbling up water that that rained 500 years ago, now filtered throught the schist, shale and clay.

I am a shore fishing expert on Mirror Lake, but I knew there had to be a better way to land those largemouth bass lunkers lazing in the far reaches of the cattail bog. I found the answer at the 2001 American Fishing Association ICAST show in Las Vegas.

The new inflatable SeaEagle catamaran canoe/kayak is slim, light, inexpensive and paddles with stealth. Bass see only a gray SeaEagle cloud gliding effortless overhead.

Bass, cattails and a SeaEagle catamaran go together naturally. I can get in close to the cool cattail cover meeting the murky reed free deeps. The big boys bask in the cattails, and then they dart out for juvenile sunfish and bluegill baitfish, before dashing back into their lair.

Cattails produce enormous amounts of oxygen during bright, sunny days, and bass love oxygenated protection, as do baitfish. Cattails reverse the oxygen generators at night, or on cloudy days, devouring oxygen, driving bass and baitfish into deeper water.

Bass do not lurk under dead, decaying brown cattails, again because of hypoxia. They love O. I only cast upon green cattail cover where there is the most O. During heavy bloom. cattails produce alkaline mats, eating up the O, moving the bass out to deeper water. During cattail blooms I paddle my new SeaEagle to the trout springs on the other side of Mirror Lake.

I have used hoppers and flies to draw the bass out of their hideouts. I came across a unique Fly Trap fly case from Waterworks (800/435-9374) that clips anywhere on your clothing, even your pants. It comes with an unusual clipping feature that is easy to operate, and my flies are right where I need them. Waterworks also makes a nice, no-slip grip glove called the Fighter, offering UV protection in non fish scaring, non reflective colors.

If the bass are not fly happy, I have plenty of live grasshoppers captured shore side. With a hopper on a Murad hook and a water bobber clenched 18 inches up the line, I cast onto the cattail cover to avoid baitfish gobblers, and the water bopper keeps the hopper from sinking. Jerking the rod tip slightly makes the bass explode, and I usually catch "keepers" on each cast

After the bass action drops off in the long hot afternoon, I paddle the SeaEagle to the trout springs on the far side of the lake, mirroring the red clay bluffs. Like loaves of strategically placed French rolls, the trout gulp artesian bubbles in their own private oxygen bar. They love O, too. The more oxygen the more active the fishing.

With my new, revolutionary gold OX-530 KingHawk, I reel effortlessly. I have never used such a smooth reel. I grew up with $5 reels that were always tangling. The premium priced KingHawk is manufactured with five ball bearings for a smooth, quiet and precise retrieve. There are six models in the KingHawk series, including saltwater rigs that are slightly heavier than the fresh water. Because the KingHawk is so light, I can feel every trout tug on the line with an unusual sensitivity. For more info on the KingHawk line oceanerproducts@yahoo.com

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Kriss Hammond, Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent