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're holding within the structure of the stream.

I will first float a dry fly in a likely feeding lane, or a pocket of calm water closest to me, and then work intermittent lanes across the width of the stream...this prevents my fly line from landing on top of a trout (and spooking it), 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. However, 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 hits the water, and the less disturbance my line makes in the stream, the better my luck. And, the lighter the fly line, the easier it is to avoid splashing water and spooking the trout with my casts. This is why I fish with a 2wt rod much of the time on my tiny mountain Rio’s. When I’m fishing a 2wt line, most often it’s with my Winston WT 270 fly rod. Tom Morgan was a genius at designing creek rods, and those old classics are perfect for my little Rio’s!

Without question, casting upstream improves my chance for hook sets. It’s just more effective on my tiny Rio’s than when I’m casting downstream. I’ll do anything to minimize the risk of the Leetle Fellers spotting me, and fishing upstream helps me do that. About the only time I’ll float a fly downstream is when it’s impossible to reach a fishy looking spot with any kind of upstream cast.

Fishing small streams is my favorite type of fly fishing, and how I go about it is mostly intuitive for me. Everyone has their own style and approach to fishing a stream, and most anglers know what techniques work for them. Especially on their home waters.