Rog's Rod & Nimrod

On the weekend of February 1st, Betsy and I traveled out to Spearfish to visit our longtime friends, Art and Janice Jones. Art is the best all-around fisherman I know, and I know a lot of good fishermen.

Via cell phone on the way out, Art had conveyed to us that he was fishing, and that we might arrive at his home before he did. I was excited to hear this, and I looked forward to seeing what he would bring home. I pictured some trout, a natural association with Hills fishing. I had actually packed along my favorite ice rod along with a carton of wax worms in the event we might find time to fish.

Imagine my surprise when he dumped his and his partner’s catch on the fish-cleaning table in his shop. There were limits of thick 8+ inch bluegills, a half dozen northern pike that were already “getting broad in the shoulders,” and five hefty rainbow trout that ran around 17 inches in length. I was thinking “prairie stock dam” when I asked Art where they came from. I was stunned when he said “ Jenny’s Gulch.” What the heck was Jenny’s Gulch? Art responded that it was a part of the Pactola reservoir accessible by way of Hwy

385.

While we filleted the fish, I was elated to hear Art’s plans for tomorrow. In order to get to his favorite spot, we would be at the Gulch boat ramp before sunrise. On Friday the 1st we fished into the mid-afternoon. The stark mountainsides and jagged ledges that rose above us were awesome to say the least. I hadn’t fished such beautiful surroundings since British Columbia’s Queen Charlotte Islands or Arizona’s Lake Powell. On occasion, an eagle would swoop down from a nearby pine and snatch one of our fish from the ice surface.

Art’s Yamaha ATV pulled his pop-up as well as his gear-filled sled across the ice as it carried us about a half mile down the gulch. We hadn’t gone far enough to view the main reservoir. Art’s auger, powered by a Milwaukee half-inch battery-powered drill, easily cut through the foot thick ice. We were soon surrounded by tip-ups baited with live four-inch shiners. We jigged wax worms on sixteenth ounce jigs just off of the bottom. Art lowered the transducer of his Vexilar into my hole. What an instrument! It was my first experience with a Vexilar.

The very entertaining Vexilar not only indicated the depth, but it also depicted my baited hook as it fell toward the bottom. I could watch my baited hook, and I could monitor fish as they swam up to my bait. Sometimes they would gobble the bait, and other times they would merely watch it and then swim off.

The action was not as good as the previous day’s, but we still brought home 20 large bluegills, a northern pike caught on a tip-up, and Art’s fat 19 inch rainbow. A very large rainbow broke my line just before we wrapped it up for the day. I didn’t stand a chance with my small bluegill rig. If one wanted a rainbow for the wall, a few days on Pactola would yield it. I would suggest having a gaff nearby to get the fish up through the hole.

Other than rigging tip-ups for large rainbows, twenty-pound northern pike roam Pactola as well as monster lake trout.

We are all aware of the technology that kept Art up to date with his friends who fished for walleyes near the Platte-Winner Bridge as we fished Pactola. It was almost like being together as the Francis Case guys would send pictures of their walleyes along with a verbal play by play. They described the walleye action as “fish nearly jumping from the holes.” Limits on Francis Case came easily that day.

I saw many families on Pactola the day we fished, and I would recommend a “Jenny’s Gulch” Black Hills getaway in a heartbeat.