My report from the river last weekend.

Arrived Wed night, and it began raining about midnight, didn't stop raining for more than about 15 minutes at a time until noon on Saturday. We donned rain gear before stepping out of the cabin in the morning, and didn't remove it until we went back in the cabin in the evenings.

Thursday, we spent most of the morning in a creek (those of you who fish the river likely know which one), and caught decent numbers. Once we limited (3 of us), we moved back to the river and began spot checking sandbars. The sandbars were holding fish, as well as some of the larger backflows/eddys on the outside of bends.

Friday, we went back in the creek, and could tell right away that the fishing had slowed a little bit in the spots we'd caught them the day before. We picked up quite a few fish, and could have stayed in the creek and ground out limits but decided to get out and hit the river instead. The sand bars were paying off about the same as the previous day, and we found a good pile of fish stacked up in an eddy on the outside of a bend where we finished our limits for that day.

Saturday, the river had risen 3-4' overnight, and since we were catch and release only for that day (having our 2 day possession limits at camp already) we elected to stay out of the creeks all together. We had a tougher time pinning down piles of fish in the river that day, but we caught quite a few fish overall. Reports we got once back at camp were all from the creek, and favorable over being out in the river. We did notice that the guides were getting off the water a bit later than they had on previous days, an indicator that they were experiencing the same slowing of action that day.

We slept in Sunday, packed up and drove home.

It was a great weekend, and even though I thought I was growing gills myself Saturday morning the rain was tolerable enough to fish in and kept the fair weather crowd at home.

The river was still rising when we left, haven't looked at its level since Sunday.

We went last Saturday and again today. The river is high but safe to navigate. We caught fish both days but had to work for them. Both days we fished noon until 5:30 pm. Caught a few in the creek and a few on sandbars. I think it will get a little better soon. Water was 50 degrees last Saturday and 52.2 today. I was told it was 55 2 weeks ago. Caught males and females at equal rates. Released them all. Have a freezer full of specked trout and reds.

The road to Deadwood ramp is easier because you can avoid the mud but it is a long ride if you are fishing THE creek.