Many anglers at Black Hills lakes are now using portable pontoon-type boats: one-person craft that can be propelled with flippers or oars. They’re easy to transport, though not quite so much so as are the belly boats. On the water, they move faster than a belly boat -- though not as fast as a canoe. And the fisherman sits up a bit higher than in a belly boat, making casting easier. In them, you also don’t have to dress as warmly in neoprene waders, because you are completely out of the water or mostly out of it.

Black Hills anglers also go after brown trout and brook trout in the lakes. Those fish don’t get stocked in the lakes; natural reproduction suffices. At Pactola, for instance, brown trout spawn in Rapid Creek up above. Some enter the lake and grow quite large. Deerfield Lake contains some brook trout, which spawn in Castle and Ditch creeks up above. They make a nice change of pace from the rainbows.

These fish also can be caught by working the most secluded fishing spots available in the Black Hills: the beaver dam ponds. These are most common on the smaller streams in the highest elevations of the Black Hills. You’ll have to explore to find them, which will as often as not be in the Black Hills’ spruce habitat, usually the moistest areas at the higher elevations. The mosquitoes can be thick -- but so too the trout, if you find a worthwhile pond.

You’ll most likely be catching brown and brook trout in these ponds. Wild fish, they are notoriously skittish. The ponds’ surfaces are often glass-smooth, which makes them very difficult to fish.

Use the lightest fly line possible. Part of the most accomplished fishing technique involves hunting and stalking the trout, keeping a low profile in a manner somewhat similar to the approach you’d take to pursuing a buck. You’ll find it challenging but rewarding fishing.

And it’s almost always far away from the mainstream of fishing pressure. It’ll generally be just you -- you alone amidst what remains some of the wildest Black Hills fishing.

You can combine that fishing with an evening of casting on one of the high-country lakes for rainbow trout. And that makes just about a perfect fishing day in the middle of summer.