Fishing Small Streams
When I'm approaching a stream's bank, I begin looking upstream, searching for likely feeding lanes and holding areas. Many days the trout in my mountain streams are not visible, so your challenge is to assess where they are holding within the structure of the stream. I will first float a fly in a likely feeding lane, or a pocket of calm water closest to me, and then intermittent lanes across the width of the stream...this prevents my fly line from landing on top of trout (and spooking them), and it also helps me to not make assumptions. Yeah, I began doing this after ongoing surprises with trout hitting my fly in the most unlikely of places. Hover, this technique can feel like work if you don't change up how you fish on occasion. So, I do have days where I only target the fishy looking spots, such as pockets of still water, around boulders, pools below small waterfalls, and drifting a fly along the seams of fast runs...then I move on. The softer my fly lands on the water, a...
