Belle Fourche River Fishing Guides and Conditions, South Dakota

About the Belle Fourche River

The Belle Fourche River rises in northeastern Wyoming, swings around the north side of the Black Hills past the town that shares its name, and runs east across western South Dakota to join the Cheyenne. The USGS gauge near Elm Springs reads the lower reach out in the badlands country east of the Hills and reports discharge and stage without a current water temperature series. This is a river that swings hard between conditions, and the gauge is the only honest way to know which river you are going to find on any given day.

The Belle Fourche is a plains river in the full sense: turbid, warm in summer, running over silt and shale with cottonwood galleries along the banks and long stretches through open range. The fishery reflects that. Channel catfish are the mainstay and are abundant through the lower river, walleye and sauger move up out of the Cheyenne and hold in the deeper bends, northern pike use the slower backwaters, and smallmouth bass have taken hold around the rock and riprap sections. Carp and freshwater drum round it out. This is not trout water, and the good trout fishing in this part of the state is in the Black Hills streams and Spearfish Creek to the south rather than on the main river.

Access and guiding are both thin. There is no commercial float industry on the Belle Fourche; South Dakota guides work Oahe, the Missouri and the Black Hills. Anglers reach the river through highway and county road crossings, Bureau of Land Management ground scattered through the badlands, and permission from ranch landowners who hold most of the frontage. Belle Fourche Reservoir upstream is the more heavily fished still water in the drainage and has its own walleye and perch fishery.

Flow is the whole calendar. Spring runoff and irrigation releases from Belle Fourche Reservoir push the river up and make it fast and muddy; by midsummer it settles into a low, warm, wadeable state that fishes well for catfish in the evenings. Autumn brings clearer water and the best walleye fishing of the year. South Dakota licenses are required and the regulations linked below carry current limits and any special river provisions.

Access

Elm Springs area crossing at the USGS gauge - the lower-river flow reference and bank access.
Belle Fourche city river accesses - upper-river bank fishing near the reservoir outlet.
Belle Fourche Reservoir and its outlet - the upstream impoundment and its tailrace fishery.
Newell and Vale county road crossings - middle-river bridge access.
Highway 34 and Highway 79 crossings - main-road bank access points on the lower river.
BLM parcels through the badlands reach - walk-in public access to remote river frontage.
Cheyenne River confluence area - the downstream end of the river and the best walleye water.

Seasons

Spring: runoff and irrigation releases make the river high and muddy; fishing is limited until it settles in late May.
Summer: low, warm and wadeable, with evening channel catfishing the most productive use of the river.
Fall: clearing water and cooling temperatures bring the best walleye and smallmouth fishing of the year.
Winter: low, cold and largely iced on the slack water, with very limited access.