At the end of a long and hot day, I’d had enough of the sun-baked sidewalks and the gnarly traffic with the unpleasant odor of internal combustion engines wafting through the air.

High up somewhere deeper into the mountainous Black Hills lies paradise for would-be trout fishermen. So I eagerly headed up as the sun blazed down. By the time I arrived in what could be called the high country of the Black Hills, everything had changed: The temperature was lower, and quite wonderful; cement sidewalks were many, many miles away. And stretching out in front of me were the cold, blue waters of a lake filled with rainbow trout.

The fly-fishing vest draping down over my shoulders felt like an old friend. And if an angler uses a fly rod long enough, it’s just like the baseball mitt that he used as a kid -- it starts feeling as if it were just another limb.

At first, just for the fun of it, I did some false-casting back and forth, the line flying out over the water; finally I let it settle down lightly on the water surface and began stripping it in. On the very end of the tippet was a Hare’s Ear nymph, one of the many flies that will catch trout here.

Down below swam one of the most widely coveted fish species in the world: rainbow trout. The most common trout in Black Hills lakes, they don’t attain huge sizes for the most part, but they’re big enough to entertain just about any angler who’s feeling that fishing urge.

And so it was with me as I waded out into the upper end of Deerfield Lake, one of the larger lakes in the Black Hills, and also one of the highest. The water is always cold, and when you’re out in it, even in the middle of the summer, you can’t last long without insulated waders.

For the fisherman ready for a change of pace from the hot summer lowlands, it’s like having Nature’s own air conditioning wrapped around your torso. The trout like it, too: The cold depths are well suited to the species that live there.

The little nymph slowly ascended and moved along in the water, and soon was in the jaws of a rather feisty rainbow trout. The line went tight, and immediately the fish moved into action. Rainbows usually make a panicked, darting swim first, and this one behaved true to form. And then it jumped completely out of the water, which is similarly characteristic of rainbow trout.

When the fish finally came to hand, I saw that it exhibited the beautiful reddish-purple color that rainbow trout are known for. Here in the Black Hills, they take on especially bright coloration when they’re exposed to lots of sun in clear water, a combination that brings out the brilliant hues.

I unhooked the fish and let it go.

Fishermen go after the trout in these Black Hills lakes all summer. Tackle ranges from simple spincasting rigs with a worm or piece of corn for bait to the best fly-fishing gear available. All of them catch trout.