Everyone likes fly fishing in the open waters but fly fishing small mountain streams can be very enjoyable. The casting is easier and the trout are sometimes larger. Small stream fishing demands pinpoint casting, stealth, and the capability to read the water. Choosing a fly for this style of fishing is made easier by the fact that wild trout tend to be more opportunistic than their big water cousins. This may be because there is less food and more competition for it. If you stick with the most base variety, such as caddis flies or small streamers, you can have a stellar day.
Fly fishing small mountain streams doesn't require you to carry thousands of flies or lots of equipment. I have a friend who believes in order to be prepared, one must carry every item that you could possibly use and his vest feels like it weighs a hundred pounds. At the end of the day he can barely walk. All you need is a fly rod shorter than what most population use and some original mayfly patterns, a few caddis fly patterns and a streamer. You don't have much room to dry off your fly with a false cast so you will most undoubtedly need a bottle of your beloved floatant for your dry flies. For best results, use a silicone gel and a shaker floatant together for the fly to float longer before re-application.
Shimano Fishing
For this type of fishing my beloved rod is a 7 foot 5 weight; however, it will be beneficial to use a weight forward line that is one size heavier than what the rod is sized for. In this case I use a 6 weight line on this rod. This will enable you to make shorter casts on the stream and the rod will load better. The need for a shorter rod arises from the cover that regularly occurs around small streams.
A small fly box that will carry a few dozen flies is all you need. In my box I have some mayfly patterns. Depending upon the time of year, they could be March Brown, Royal Coachman, and the Leadwing Coachman, which represents the mayfly Isonychia Bicolor. My box is generally filled with caddis patterns which range from size 10 to 22 in colors of brown, green, orange, yellow, and black. The one streamer I rely on is a distinction of the Edson Tiger. I tie my own flies and I use a Hareline product called Pseudo Marabou for the streamer wing. This product is soft and quivers nicely in the water. The original pattern uses bucktail for the wing. When the day is not going the way I would like, I tie one of these streamers on and it never seems to let me down. Why I don't use it exclusively? I like to see the tantalizing take of a dry fly.
You can fish these small mountain streams all year long as they are not regularly field to the temperature rise that the larger open streams endure. After a rain the stream will be full of insects that have washed into it. Even when a heavy thunderstorm passes over the stream, the flow may increase from runoff and become a miniature cloudy but never unfishable. It will undoubtedly become clear within an hour of the storm passing.
To be victorious you need to use a stealthy approach as the trout not only see your approach, they also feel your footsteps. You must settle how you will cast to your selected spot while staying low and out of sight. There is one stream that I climb a steep bank to study how the fish are feeding or lying. Then I plan my attack. Hopefully it is a victorious one. Your life is made easier if you fish the stream upstream. Most of your casts will be the roll cast since there is miniature room for a back cast. On the other hand, fishing upstream affords you the occasion to use anything open space may be over the stream as an area for your backcast. If you select wisely, a cast of less than 20 feet will put your fly over the fish. If possible, study the stream from a distance. Anticipate where the trout will be lying in wait for food. Bounce Elk Hair Caddis flies along the edges of fast current where the fish can't see you due to the turbulence of the water. Trout will rest at the edge of the current just waiting for their prey to come by. Use delta wing caddis flies or flies that are imitating injured adults in the slow pools.
So the next time the water temperatures are too high in your beloved large stream, crusade out the small mountain stream. It may be one of your best fly fishing experiences. You might even see a bear or two.
Fly Fishing Small Mountain Streams
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