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Home › Waters › South Dakota › Pactola Reservoir
Reservoir · Western South Dakota, Pennington County, the Rapid Creek impoundment in the Black Hills west of Rapid City · South Dakota

Pactola Reservoir Fishing Guides

The largest reservoir in the Black Hills, a deep clear impoundment of Rapid Creek west of Rapid City with a coldwater trout fishery and a notable lake trout population.

A quiet lake ringed by trees under a clouded sky
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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About the Pactola Reservoir

Pactola Reservoir is the largest body of water in the Black Hills, formed by a dam on Rapid Creek west of Rapid City and sitting at around forty six hundred feet in ponderosa pine country. It covers roughly eight hundred acres and is deep and clear by regional standards, which is the reason it supports a coldwater fishery that most South Dakota water cannot. The gauge here reads reservoir storage, the appropriate measurement for an impoundment where level changes through the season with inflow and release.

Trout are the reason to fish it. Rainbow and brown trout are the mainstays and are supported by stocking along with some natural reproduction in the tributaries, and they can be caught from shore, from a boat and through the ice. Brook trout are present and splake have been stocked in the past. The genuinely distinctive fish here is the lake trout, which the depth and cold allow the reservoir to hold, and which give anglers in the Black Hills a shot at a species otherwise associated with far more northern water.

Warmwater species have established themselves as well. Yellow perch are abundant and support a good deal of the ice fishing effort, northern pike are present, and smallmouth and largemouth bass along with crappie and bluegill occupy the shallower bays and the rocky shoreline. That mix means the reservoir fishes usefully in every season rather than having one narrow window.

Access is very good. The reservoir sits inside Black Hills National Forest with developed recreation areas, campgrounds, boat ramps and a visitor center, and Highway 385 runs right past it. Rapid City is a short drive east, and the tailwater reach of Rapid Creek below the dam is itself a well regarded trout stream worth a day in its own right.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

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You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

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We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

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Pool right now

58.68ft NGVD29
  • 24 hours+0.05 ft → steady

Reading taken 1h ago at USGS 06411000, PACTOLA RESERVOIR NEAR SILVER CITY SD. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

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Posting to Pactola Reservoir.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Lake level alert

Tell me when the pool at Pactola Reservoir ft (NGVD29)

Now: 58.68 ft pool elevation, read 5:15 pm CDT, Sun Oct 18, 2026 (USGS 06411000, PACTOLA RESERVOIR NEAR SILVER CITY SD).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Rapid City - the city east, with full lodging, tackle, fuel and services.
Pactola Visitor Center - forest service center and overlook on the reservoir.
Pactola Recreation Area - developed campground, beach and boat ramp.
Jenney Gulch - a second developed access area with a launch on the reservoir.
Silver City - the small community near the upper end of the lake.
Rapid Creek - the inflow above and the tailwater trout fishery below the dam.
Black Hills National Forest - public land surrounding the entire reservoir.

Seasons

Spring: trout move shallow after ice out and shoreline fishing is at its best through May and June.
Summer: trout go deep and lake trout fishing is a downrigger and jigging game, with bass and panfish in the bays.
Fall: cooling water brings trout back toward the surface and produces strong shoreline and boat fishing.
Winter: a well established ice fishery for perch and trout, with the reservoir among the most popular in the Hills.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Pactola Reservoir?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Bluegill, Brook Trout, Brown Trout, Lake Trout, Largemouth Bass, Northern Pike, Rainbow Trout, Smallmouth Bass, Splake, Yellow Perch on the Pactola Reservoir in South Dakota.

Where can you access the Pactola Reservoir?

Rapid City - the city east, with full lodging, tackle, fuel and services. Pactola Visitor Center - forest service center and overlook on the reservoir. Pactola Recreation Area - developed campground, beach and boat ramp. Jenney Gulch - a second developed access area with a launch on the reservoir. Silver City - the small community near the upper end of the lake. Rapid Creek - the inflow above and the tailwater trout fishery below the dam. Black Hills National Forest - public land surrounding the entire reservoir.

When is the best time to fish the Pactola Reservoir?

Spring: trout move shallow after ice out and shoreline fishing is at its best through May and June. Summer: trout go deep and lake trout fishing is a downrigger and jigging game, with bass and panfish in the bays. Fall: cooling water brings trout back toward the surface and produces strong shoreline and boat fishing. Winter: a well established ice fishery for perch and trout, with the reservoir among the most popular in the Hills.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Pactola Reservoir?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the South Dakota agency site: https://gfp.sd.gov/fish/