How do I catch brook trout from a really small stream

[PennypackFlyer]

Please take notice that I am using Flourocarb line. And I'm sure I can wade across most small creeks to unhook my fly from a tree. Next year I might just need one of those old man wadding staffs.

 

[tomitrout]

Ahh the Amish dry fly.

Yeah, but I usually fish 'em wet by rubber banding to a small rock, tends to bring up more 'risers'.

 

[wildtrout2]

I always fish upstream, unless the lay of the land/stream dictates something else. I've seen clothing color mentioned at least twice. If you're close enough for a trout to see the color of your clothing, he would have already spotted your movement anyway. I still wear camo and or drab colors. Don't spook them, and you will catch them.

 

[pcray1231]

Please take notice that I am using Flourocarb line.

I can understand that for stiffness reasons, you want a really short leader with a stiff tippet that turns over well to put it through tight windows. Most of the time my brookie leaders range from 4-7 ft. Having to get it under a branch is a very common situation.

But I have no idea why you'd feel the need to go to really fine tippets. They aren't drag shy, and they aren't leader shy, and you're throwing big flies in tight spots.

While you do want to be "sneaky" in terms of staying low and no sudden movements, when it comes to presentation of a fly, finesse doesn't enter the equation for me. I throw a 7 wt line, lol.

As far as fly size, 12 is most common for me, but a 10 or a 14 will work fine. They'll take a size 6 or a size 24 too, but on the big side you tend to miss a lot of fish. On the small side, the bigger ones tend to inhale it too deeply and you also hook too many 3" yearlings.

I still wear camo and or drab colors. Don't spook them, and you will catch them.

Me too, but that's true on bigger streams as well. I don't really know whether it helps. But it doesn't hurt.

 

[LetortAngler]

If the tippet fits through the eye of the hook, it'll likely work for Brookies. I also agree with heavier tippets, 4x is the norm for my Brookie fishing.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Garden hackle! GG

 

[sarce]

Find a deeper bend or other pool with a log/stick jam or some other type of overhead cover. Walk about 10-15 feet back from the bank until you are safely upstream of this spot and drift a dry fly right downstream until it is a few inches upstream of the cover. Then carefully take up the slack in the line, raise the rod tip and "skate" the fly in place right in front of that cover. Short leader helps for this (mentioned above). Try to make it look like a bug struggling on the surface of the water. With a little practice (and if you can approach the spot without spooking the fish as others have said) this technique never fails on the really tiny streams.

 

[duckfoot]

sarce wrote:
Find a deeper bend or other pool with a log/stick jam or some other type of overhead cover. Walk about 10-15 feet back from the bank until you are safely upstream of this spot and drift a dry fly right downstream until it is a few inches upstream of the cover. Then carefully take up the slack in the line, raise the rod tip and "skate" the fly in place right in front of that cover. Short leader helps for this (mentioned above). Try to make it look like a bug struggling on the surface of the water. With a little practice (and if you can approach the spot without spooking the fish as others have said) this technique never fails on the really tiny streams.

Dammit. I thought I was the only one who figured out this trick...

 

[FarmerDave]

PPF, Good to see Pat also caught that. I usually use 4X and rarely go smaller than 5X. the brookies in the streams I'm used to are not line shy. You must be fishing urban brown trout.;-)

And of course there is that nymph thing.;-)

With nymphs I might bump that down to 5X as the go to.

 

[FarmerDave]

duckfoot wrote:

sarce wrote:
Find a deeper bend or other pool with a log/stick jam or some other type of overhead cover. Walk about 10-15 feet back from the bank until you are safely upstream of this spot and drift a dry fly right downstream until it is a few inches upstream of the cover. Then carefully take up the slack in the line, raise the rod tip and "skate" the fly in place right in front of that cover. Short leader helps for this (mentioned above). Try to make it look like a bug struggling on the surface of the water. With a little practice (and if you can approach the spot without spooking the fish as others have said) this technique never fails on the really tiny streams.

Dammit. I thought I was the only one who figured out this trick...

Hell I learned it when I was a kid catching bluegills around the lilly pads on Aunt Clara's pond. When people say you always have to have drag free drift on trout, I just smile.

 

[sarce]

^sometimes when you're dealing with fish in dense cover, whatever the species, you just have to make sure they notice your offering! Sometimes it takes a little commotion to draw those 5" brookies out of the piles of sticks they're hiding in. And a lot of times those same sticks the trout use for cover are also blocking any possible cast from downstream. I know the area the OP is talking about pretty well (probably not the specific stream tho) and with the exception of two streams, those creeks are brushy, relatively flat, and shallow- very tough, sometimes downright impossible to approach the fish from downstream which forces you to get creative as Duckfoot said.

Probably about half the dry fly fishing I do anymore is skating a caddis directly across or even slightly upstream back to me. It works pretty well on browns too. The takes are awesome!

 

[dryflyguy]

I'll second the Joe Humphreys video. Well worth watching IMO - even just to see the end of it as he fishes with George Harvey.
But the rest of it certainly contains many good tricks for fishing the trickles.

I would also add that a shorter leader makes things a lot easier IMO.
I cut the dimensions of my normal large stream leader in half for a small stream leader that comes out to about 6 feet long.

 

[BrooksAndHooks]

I didn't read all these, so it's probably redundant.

Fish slow, move slow. Use cover like trees etc. I wear camo, darker/neutral colors.

Keep your distance. I use what works. Stay back from the bank and cast up and drift down, or fish downstream and drift. I will sometimes drift 20-30 feet downstream if I can on a longer hole. If I fish upstream I usually walk out away and around the hole and then fish it down.

Use good fly patterns. brookies love bright colors and stuff that looks like their food/is food.

use light tippet, and a shorter than typical leader like what was mentioned. I use a 7-6 3wt, but have used my 5wt too. the 3wt I can actually feel them hit though

Play around the rocks. If you are nymphing/wet flying, drift the fly past/around little rock overhands or ledges, logs, etc. Brookies sometimes lay on the bottom of larger slow pools, but in pocket water they will sit under a rock edge etc in the slower water and watch to strike. Work the entire pool because they may not be able to see the fly where you are fishing it.

Return fish you catch to the top of the pool so you don't spook the rest. This is another reason I like to fish downstream. Can't drop the fish off into the fast stuff below sometimes. I like to put them back from the spot I caught them.

Faster swinging will get their attention, slower drifting will give them time to swim out and grab the fly. Vary technique by conditions and how the fish are responding.

 

[BrookieChaser]

The only thing I'll add is, when fishing upstream, hit the back of the pool first. That's so you don't line that back fish when casting to the head of the pool.

 

[Swattie87]

BrookieChaser wrote:
The only thing I'll add is, when fishing upstream, hit the back of the pool first. That's so you don't line that back fish when casting to the head of the pool.

+1 big time. I think this is among the best advice in the thread and something that's often overlooked. You come up to a real nice pool with a nice plunge fall at the head and you can't wait to fire a cast up to the head of the pool...you get excited. Odds are that the best fish in the pool is at the head, in or next to the plunge fall...but you won't catch that fish if you spook one of the dinks in the tail out and send him darting up into the plunge fall for cover, spooking the pool boss as a result.

It's not easy to do all the time, but the best way to avoid this is to actually catch the fish in the tailout, and release him in the next pool or run downstream.

 

[pcray1231]

I don't disagree. But just to play devils advocate, I sometimes like to shoot a cast to where I think the pool boss may be very quickly. The longer I mess around on the periphery of the pool, the more likely I am to screw up and spook the good area.

It just depends on the situation. If it's wide open, the chance for screw ups is low, and you must go through the tail to get to the head, yeah, I fish the tail first.

But if I approach from the side a bit, or at an angle, and there's an overhanging branch that I'm bound to catch sooner or later, well, I try to send my first cast to the best spot. Then I fish the less likely areas. That way, when I do hook that branch and have to wade out to get it, I've already hit the best spot and don't feel so bad about spooking the rest.

And sometimes, you know you only got 1 cast, cause it's so dang thick it'll be a miracle if you can get a fly out of there. The hope is to get a fly in there, hook a fish, and wade to it. In those cases, make that 1 cast count!

Each hole is different and approach them all like a golf hole, and think about the best way to accomplish what you want. But yes, the point about spooking fish which then dart away and spook other fish is valid and should be considered.

 

[BrooksAndHooks]

I agree with pcray.

That is the main reason I like to fish down, or walk around and fish pools downstream individually. I can hit the best water first usually, and get the drift in to the likely spot. Really you can go about it either way you like, you just have to know how to do it smart whichever way you choose! Big thing is to take your time, look at the hole, and think about how you want to approach it. Some guys like to run and gun, which I do at times, but it really pays to slow down and think it out. Every spot is a little different.

 

[JackM]

Really can't say I've read all the tips, but here are mine in order of priority. This assumes you are fishing waters that accually hold wild trout:

Stealth. This is not just drab clothing colors, but more importantly careful placement of your body when in range of a fishes sight. Careful placement also encompasses movement. Slow movement within the field of vision of your quarry may alert the fish, but will not spook him if at a sufficient distance. Abrupt movement even in the fishes periphery will spook much more certainly than slow movement, even if the image data is an odd color or pattern. So move slowly around any area you plan to fish. And, I mean really slowly. Careful placement means being aware of your shadow. Depending upon the period of day and sunlight, your shadow may extend much farther than your movement betrays. Slowly creeping shadows are less intimidating than fast moving ones. (Thus see prior point.) Finally with stealth comes sound and more specifically vibration. Don't stomp. Talking or whistling, singing or playing your IPod isn't a great concern unless it also makes you feel like dancing. This is to say, breaking off a tree branch to clear a casting lane is better than cracking a dead-fall because you decide to step on it.

Presentation. Avoid spooking with slapped casts and cover the entire column of areas you "know" will hold fish, unless you have established a successful pattern of feeding behavior and can save time by just fishing to that pattern.

Identify and Establish the Successful Pattern of Feeding Behavior. If you are lucky enough to get strikes, follows, hits, or takes, make mental note of the fly and presentation strategy you used and look for consistencies. Include water characteristics in this assessment, such as riffle run or pool.

In other words, the same basic techniques as with other kind of fish, with an emphasis on errors of stealth, because the streams are by your own query necessarily smaller and the fish, that much more vulnerable.

 

[tomitrout]

So, basically, to sum up this entire thread...

If you want to catch brookies, do what works everywhere else you would fish for the trouts. Use every trick in your bag, depending on the situation.

 

[PennypackFlyer]

If all else fails go back to your minnow trap - just joking.