These mountains offer a lot of action. You won’t catch the huge fish that can be found in a few trophy lakes in the heart of the West, but the numbers of trout are solid enough to provide decent fishing most of the time. You’ll stay busy catching and releasing fish.

The food supply for the fish is reliably generous, for the most part, which allows them to grow fairly quickly. That’s important here, because it ultimately produces a higher quality of fish.

The South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks stocks all the rainbow trout in Black Hills lakes -- usually hatchery-sized 8- or 10-inchers -- and quite a few of those are caught fairly soon after stocking in a put-and-take fishery oriented to the needs of the tourist industry. But some survive longer, and when they’re allowed to mature through at least one winter, they turn into fish with an entirely different look and attitude; in fact, they even seem to get smarter. In other words, they’re almost indistinguishable from a wild rainbow trout once they’ve been in the wild for several months or years. That’s very important for avid flyfishermen, because savvy trout mean a fishery of much higher quality.

Two types of waters favor trout longevity. The bigger lakes such as Deerfield, Pactola, Stockade and, perhaps, Sheridan Lake are large enough to enable some rainbows to elude anglers and, in many cases, to age enough to take on the wild look and flair.

In smaller lakes hit hard by anglers, it’s more difficult, so to find the older fish, you have to hit some out-of-the-way places that aren’t pressured as heavily. Part of the fun lies in finding your own spots by trying out different lakes -- and it’s usually the ones farthest from Rapid City that make for the most rewarding "wild" trout action.

Rapid City angler Scott Zieske, who’s been going after these Black Hills fish for most of his life, likes to get away from other fishing competition as much as possible. "During summer, in my view, you need to get out of the immediate Rapid City area and fish the lakes with the least fishing pressure on them," he said.

One of the most avid flyfishermen in the area, Zieske has fished all over the West. Unfortunately, he’s watched trout fishing in the Black Hills lakes decline over the past decade owing to water loss and the illegal planting of nonnative fish species. But the Black Hills lakes still attract anglers.

For summer fishing, he recommends the morning or evening hours, when air temperatures moderate a bit and the fish are most active. You’ll also see more insects at those times of day, and since more hatches happen then, the rainbows also tend to be more active, and more easily caught. Often enough, you can get an idea of how much feeding activity is going on just by watching the water: Trout frequently dimple the surface as they pick off nymphs.

"In July, evening and morning will be better," offered Zieske. "I definitely stay away from the middle of the day. Fish either early in the morning or toward sundown."