Stockade is in Custer State Park, and it, too, has good fishing. The smaller lakes in the park are also good, with a put-and-take fishery for the most part. Anglers go to Legion, Center and Sylvan lakes to fish.

This is the very best time of year for catching large trout in these smaller lakes. The South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks usually stocks 8-inchers in the lakes. Many are caught immediately. Some survive into the summer and grow to 10 inches or more.

But some evade hook and creel for the entire summer and even the winter ice-fishing season. Those fish have grown to a really nice size. And more important, after being in a Black Hills lake for that amount of time, they're effectively wild fish, and correspondingly smart. If caught, they put up a terrific fight -- and they take on the colors and look of a beautiful wild fish.

Some of these older survivors swim the lakes right now. And anglers will be catching some of them this April, even in the smaller Black Hills lakes such as Roubaix, Dalton, Major and Lakota.

Soon all of these will be bombarded by tourists seeking to catch a trout. But for right now, it's mostly locals out on one of those nice sunny days in April when spring looks to have arrived.

And the really nice thing about all of this trout fishing is that when that urge to hit the water for fishing takes hold, the trout will certainly be hungry, since they're coldwater fish -- so consequently, this will be a good time to go after them in the Black Hills.