Small stream fishing

   Tom Rosenbauer has some great tips for fishing skinny water in an article on the Orvis page.  I fished a small creek this weekend and could have used that article a few days earlier.  My favorite tip and one I will follow next time is to use a larger tippet diameter than you would on a stream where the fish see more pressure.  My thinking was the opposite: since the fish are spookier on small streams, I thought I would have to use a lighter tippet.  Tom makes the point that the fish are not likely leader shy and the stouter line size can help rip flies from the brush easier. Boy, that would have been handy on Sunday.  I was casting to water that was about two feet wide and I missed more than I would have liked. 

    I decided to take two rods with me, which is something I really don't like to do but I wanted to fish my 6'6" fiberglass rod with dries, and I wanted to be able to fish nymphs in case nothing was happening on the surface.  I should have just stuck with my 8' 3 wt.  The 6'6" rod was too short to keep my fly out of the 5' tall brush around the stream.  I got a few good casts in with it and with the slow action of that rod they lay down so soft.  Nothing hit though.  It was a really strange day for this stream.  Typically, I don't even mess around with nymphs because the fish usually destroy dries, but I didn't get one hit on top in 4 pools.  I ended up hooking a decent size brown on a GB prince nymph.  I have only caught a few browns and nothing of that size out of this stream so it was a nice surprise.

I ended up with a few more on nymphs but overall a pretty poor day on this stream.  The sky was really photogenic though and I got to try out my new Nikon D90.   I played around with the video mode a bit and filmed a pool with about a hundred brook trout in it.  I love this new camera.  I can't wait to get some nice lenses for it.  The only thing I can think of is maybe the midday sun kept the fish from coming to the surface. That usually isn't a problem there though.  Oh well, maybe just an off day.  Hopper season is coming and I now they can't resist those.