fishing tight areas

[djmyers]

Does anyone have any recommendations for fishing tight streams? I am just beginning fly fishing and it seems that the streams that I fish are always tight. A lot of stuff behind me and along the stream.

 

[Bruno]

get a short rod and learn how to roll cast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6h5Gd2CKEM

 

[thedude1534]

Short answer: Learn to roll cast

Long answer:

I had the same problem too, as I think many new flyfisherman do. I don't think there is any one thing you can do, you just have to fish a lot.

I equate casting to learning to drive a stickshift. It's a little rocky at first, your concentrating on where to slide the stick, how much to press/release the clutch, what your RPM's are, how the engine is sounding, how its feeling, etc. After some practice, everything becomes second nature, and instead of thinking about when to shift, you just feel when to do it......and do it!

I've found casting is the same way. When you start out, your thinking about so much stuff that your casting with your concious mind, rather than your instinct and feeling. Once you cast a lot, you get more comfortable with the dynamics of your line, and eventually you are able to know and control exactly where your line will be in all stages of your cast, without even thinking about it.

Being able to unconciously know what all your surroundings are (branches, trees, shrubs, boulders, etc) and adapt your cast to fit those surroundings will make those tight spaces seem magically do-able. However, adaptation is only possible if you are very comfortable and familiar with your rod and line, which just comes with practice.

 

[mattd]

Like they said, it's all about the roll cast. I spend 90% of my time on the small streams and my rod tip rarely makes it over my head on some of them. Just keep this in mind, when fishing the small streams accuracy is not all that important. Most important thing is not spooking the fish, you can have a day full of perfect casts but if the fish are spooked it does ya no good. I also use a cast that is a little unconventional but works in some situations. I grab the fly by the hook between my pointer finger and thumb, pull it back, and let it fly. Kind of like a sling shot. It doesn't go to far and takes alot of practice to get any accuracey with it but it has gotten me some fish in places where most people wouldn't even look twice. Good luck.

 

[OhioOutdoorsman]

Shorten your leader, limit false casts, practice casting accurately at short distances, consider overlining your rod if it doesn't load well up close. Short rods, roll casts, off-hand casts, bow and arrow casts all have their place but are icing on the cake IMHO.

There is also a fine line between a roll cast and a spey cast....I actually use a cast like herb jacobsen in the "single spey with a one handed rod" video does here a lot, usually at much shorter distances than he is doing in the video. Any method that allows you to load the road with water tension on the line/fly while it is in front of you will help.

http://www.questoutdoors.net/skills/spey/video/

 

[sandfly]

Don't forget dapping too. great way to fish tight streams...just poke the rod and fly through the bushes... :-D

 

[RLeeP]

Fish like an Ind.. er, um, Native American. Be crafty and innovative.

There are a lot more ways to deliver a fly to a given point than a conventional cast. You can sidearm it, underarm it, catapult it, drape it dap it, umbrella it, backhand it, poke and drop it.

And on and on.

You might be surprised at all the ways you can deliver a fly. I know as I learned, that I was.

Rules, conventional wisdom and all the other stuff that everybody "knows" to be the proper way to fish or cast are all made to be broken and lots of times, in getting a fly where you need to put it, they have to be broken

 

[ian_brown]

I'm just picking this up, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I've found that slower flexing rods are much easier to cast at close distances because they load with very little line out. They are also easier to roll cast. The trade off is distance. Personally, I almost never find myself in situations where I have to make those heroic super casts, and even if I can keep that much line airborne, I have no accuracy.

I've also gotten better about thinking about my back cast before actually casting. It's obvious, but looking over your shoulder before you begin lifting will save lots of time, aggravation and flies.

 

[OhioOutdoorsman]

No rules is right on. Stay low, wear drab clothes, hide behind stuff and keep wading to a minimum.

 

[MattBoyer]

Try using one size heavier line than your rod is rated for. It will take less distance to load so you can shoot a bit with very little back cast. That and what everybody else said. :lol:

Boyer

 

[shipnfish2006]

One presentation method that I found to work perfectly this past spring while exploring streams where casts are next to impossible it to start upstream and work our way down with the flow. Instead of casting, just put the fly on the water, let out some line and get ready for the strike. I fished 3 streams this spring where I had rhodedenren 3-4 feet from the surface of the water and this method plus crawling was just what the trout doctor ordered. Other then that I agree with everything thats been said.

 

[troutbert]

Like RLeeP I learned a lot of odd casts that probably aren't taught at the Orvis schools or in casting videos (not that I have much familiarity with either).

Sidearm casting is one of most useful things, and the one I use the most in tight spots, and it's not that hard to learn. It helps out a lot when there are low overhanging tree branches.

Even when the stream is pretty narrow, you can scrunch into the vegetation on the left side of the stream (if you're right handed) and have enough room in the stream channel to make a side-armed cast. I fish these streams with a 7 1/2 foot rod. Most stream channels are at least that wide. And in real tight spots you can bring the reel in near your chest, rather than extending you arm way out, to avoid hitting the vegetation on the other side.

I have rule about tight streams though, particularly rhododendron choked streams. If you can't walk up the creek because the vegetation is too thick, then fugedaboudit. I've crawled on my belly under the rhododendron branches, but I don't intend to do that ever again. There are other places to fish.

 

[beeber2]

Here's a good one I picked up this year for tight streams. I was using a 4 piece rod on a really tight stream. On several occasions, I separated the rod in half and fished with just the top 2 sections. This works surprisingly well.

beeber

 

[shipnfish2006]

troutbert wrote:

I have rule about tight streams though, particularly rhododendron choked streams. If you can't walk up the creek because the vegetation is too thick, then fugedaboudit. I've crawled on my belly under the rhododendron branches, but I don't intend to do that ever again. There are other places to fish.

I'm still young and dumb. Plus the streams that I've fished like that have fished so good that to me it was worth it. I'm sure there will come a day where it gets too hard to for me to do it.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

my kind of subject, but by no means am i an expert. the most important things in fishing tight waters is:
approach/stealth, clothing and reading water.
but here are some various things to consider.

approach: of course kneeling and sometimes crawling is needed. spooking fish in small tight waters is almost impossible not to do. one thing you can do is wait. find your position and waith 15-20 mintues. it is hard to do, but it can be worth it. spooked fish will come back out from the rocks and begin to feed again. nature will adjust to your presence. it can be worth it after spooking a big wild trout, if you cant wait, then move on. cause that fish wont bite right away! stay out of the water when ever you can. if your in still water, then never get in! sending out waves for the fish is a very bad thing!

reading the water: this is the easiest thing to do on small streams. any form of hard cover is a hot spot: undercut banks, logs and trees, bushes, foam covered eddies, rocks and water falls. water falls are the best. the cut out the stream underneath creating depth. they create oxygen and the bubbles create a soft cover for the fish to hide. if fishing upstream work the hole properly. dont cast to the head of the hole.work the sides and back of the hole first. this way you may catch more than 1 fish out of the hole. also donot ignore unlikely water. i small stream trout(especially in the summer) is used to not having much water. i cant even tell you how many times i have seen trout sitting in a few inches of water with no structure or anything. just up from them is a nice hole. never figured out why they do this but the moral is: sometimes they are where they shouldnt be.

clothing: nothing bright of course! pretty simple. greens and browns your best bet.

getting in tight situations: if the stream is densely covered fish there! a place where the brush covers overtop the stream on each side most likely has trout under it. a few things u can do. casting is out of the question of couse. a slow and quite aprroach reaching your rod tip over head, poke it through the cover and drop a fly in the water. expect action! float in a dry from upstream. you can pull out line and feed it through the tip. allowing a dry to float underneath the cover to the fish. in this situation i reccomend a fly the can double as something. like a stimulator. fish it as a dry then strip it back up to you just underneath the water. this almost always gets a strike.

bow and arrow cast. i must for brushy streams. grab the fly and pull tight so the rod tip bends. aim and fire! a great cast for tight situations.

sizing down: small streams are no place for long leaders. long leaders on small streams mean bad tangles in the trees. i normally use a 12 ft leader in 5-6x for normal fishing. on small streams i use a 7-9 ft leader in 3x. 3x allows you to had some tug power for snags. i highly recommend a shorter rod. ideal is 7ft. you dont always need a smaller rod, but what can it hurt?

keep on a roll: most wild trout in small streams feed aggressively. you will get a strike on 1-3 casts in a hole. if you dont, move on! this isnt like fishing letort! no need to work a hole for and hour. small stream trout arent selective, they dont have that ability. actually they are selective, the select everything!

tough tackle: use only durable tackle. small streams are rough on equipment. one time i slipped and fell right on my reel. the reel went straight down on a sharp rock. luckily i use a BBSII it didnt even have a scratch.

picking your fight: some fisherman wont fish a hole where they are likely to get hung up. i understand that. but i will. those type of lies often prove to hold the best trout. if your afraid of losing a fly or you tippet then dont fish there.

fly patterns: the best thing about small tight streams is anything will work! THESE FISH ARENT PICKY! dont sit there a dwell on what to use. just tie it on a throw it. the more times your fly is in the water, the more fish youll catch!

just some ideas, i hope i helped :-D

 

[mattd]

Don't let a little bit of rhododendron scare you away from a stream. I have my own rule. The harder it is to fish a stream, the bigger and better the rewards. Its not always true but like Ship said, it has payed off to many times to ignore these locations.

 

[shipnfish2006]

Here is the tighest stream I've ever fished.

Note: I was sitting on a rock while I took this picture.

 

[sandfly]

that stream is perfect for fishing with a short rod and all the cast mentioned above...If you want to learn come on up and I'll teach you... :-D

 

[OhioOutdoorsman]

Ship -

That stream looks like heaven to my eyes. The big debate for me is whether to hike up the center of the stream and fish more conventially with a short rod or walk and stalk along the side and do more dapping with a longer rod.

What say you?

Also it really isn't the size of the water.

This stream fishes a lot larger:



than this stream (this is a large pool):



cause of how open things are.

 

[troutbert]

shipnfish2006 wrote:
Here is the tighest stream I've ever fished.

Note: I was sitting on a rock while I took this picture.

That's a walk in the park. I was referring to tight, brushed-in streams.