Small stream fishing times

[lycoflyfisher]

Just curious on what other small stream anglers find their fishing time in hours to be per stream mile. I have a plan to fish about 5 miles of a ncpa stream Saturday and have various ideas on how long it will take. Typically I have found a mile on streams of similar size to take me 1to 1.5 hours to fish primarily focusing on sections of good habitat.

 

[RLeep2]

I've always been hasty by nature and have always been notoriously hot-footed on small streams. Depending on habitat and good holding water, I've been in the same range as you and covered roughly a mile an hour on a typical small PA freestone.

I also know that over the years, this approach has probably cost me opportunities at a lot of fish, particularly larger fish. I don't mind this so much. My need to see what is going on around the next bend is about equally powerful as my desire to catch fish.

 

[Clams]

RLeep2 wrote:
My need to see what is going on around the next bend is about equally powerful as my desire to catch fish.

Excellent

 

[Swattie87]

I’d say I average about 1/2 mile to an hour. The better the habitat the slower I am. Was on a stream last weekend where it took 6 hours to fish less than a mile and a half. Good habitat and rough terrain.

 

[troutbert]

Swattie87 wrote:

I’d say I average about 1/2 mile to an hour.

About the same for me. I've fished faster, and slower, than that, depending a lot on the nature of the stream and the terrain, but that is a good general average.

 

[bradtheflyfisherman]

Honestly depends on how much time I have - I'd say I'm almost always rushed and spend more time fishing water that is more likely holding fish. And also depends on terrain - brush/rhododendron heavy streams? I'm probably snagging bushes left and right and spooking more fish than I'd like, and thus will be moving through the water much more quickly than I'd like. I'd say about a half mile of water to an hour is typical for me as well.

Is it the first time I've fished the water? Then I usually spend way more time fishing everything to see where the fish are. Streams that I've fished before and sort of know where the most productive areas are, I'll hop around to my favorite or most productive spots.

If I have the time, I enjoy picking apart each piece of water while
enjoying the surrounding nature. It is the most relaxing, and always the most rewarding.

Honestly haven't found a best time to start fishing these streams though - it always picks up through mid/late afternoon if anything, and most of the time I want to be trying to find my way back as the sun sets, which is probably the best time to actually fish.

 

[Wild_Trouter]

I was on Slate Run yesterday and probably spent close to 2 hrs. per mile of stream fished. The stream has great habitat, and you need to slow things down to fish all of the nooks and crannies if you want the larger fish. FYI...Slate fished great- water levels and temps were ideal.

 

[afishinado]

lycoflyfisher wrote:
Just curious on what other small stream anglers find their fishing time in hours to be per stream mile. I have a plan to fish about 5 miles of a ncpa stream Saturday and have various ideas on how long it will take. Typically I have found a mile on streams of similar size to take me 1to 1.5 hours to fish primarily focusing on sections of good habitat.

Some really good responses and info above.

Not really sure what you plan is for fishing the 5 miles of stream, but walking through brush, cover, and rocks along a stream without a road or path to follow one one would average 2mph at a steady pace for 2.5 hours to cover 5 miles. And the return trip would take the same amount of time. So that would be 5 hours of just walking time, without taking any time to fish.

There is a fine line between fishing while hiking vs hiking while fishing. Have fun either way.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Thanks for the input guys. The plan is to park a vehicle at the upper end of the section we plan to fish and park at the lower end and start fishing. There are some hiking trails in the area and from other experience I am sure there are some old logging roads. We plan on through fishing the stretch so we will not have the walk back out. We will see how the habitat is and fish the beginning thoroughly and if we start getting late into the day we will pick up the pace on the way out. I will post a follow up report with some pics for sure.

 

[Dave_W]

Tough to say (scratching head).....

I tend to be generally impatient and a walker who covers a lot of water when fishing small mountain freestoners. I rarely fish all day, so tend to want to focus on the better pools for a couple hours.

To complicate this, most of my small freestone stream efforts are on South Mountain where dense stands of rhododendron requires effort to get around burning time and adding stream miles (sometimes I'll fight through the rhodo to fish in it, which is why I like very short rods for brookie streams).

I dunno...

 

[Swattie87]

There’s been some good posts since my initial one, that spurred some additional thoughts:

While a good general average across the board for me is 1/2 mile per hour, there is a lot that can affect that, and it CAN vary greatly. Rough terrain coupled with good habitat and good numbers of fish being caught clearly slow me down, as was the case last weekend…6 hours for roughly 1.25 miles…0.2 mph.

As brad mentions, on streams I fish more frequently I’ll sometimes cherry pick the good spots I know from experience and cover more ground quickly walking between them, skipping the more marginal water. This is even more true if I have a limited amount of time to fish that day…On those days I usually try to fish streams I already know to better facilitate that.

In Winter on small Brookie streams, sometimes I’ll skip everything but the big pools. I’d guess I probably max out at about 2 miles per hour if I’m doing that. This is definitely more of a hike than a fish…Just good to get out in the Winter though.

FWIW - My normal hiking pace in the woods is probably somewhere around 3.5 mph over decent terrain or on a trail…not climbing severe grades or clambering through rhodo.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

My own personal thought: there's a 5 mile stretch of stream in NCPA that I've wanted to fish in one day. I think, in theory, I can do it all in one day. I've fished this stream many times for many years (almost 20) I know every section of the stream, I know what I can jump over and what I want to take my time with. ONLY because I know the stream this well do I think I can do it in one day.

If I didn't know the stream that well, I'm not sure I'd attempt 5 miles in one shot.

 

[sarce]

I tend to think 5 miles is a bit too much for one day if you want to fish it thoroughly. For me to cover that distance I'd have to start at daybreak and fish ALL day. See if you can use google earth to find the section you think looks best - often those stretches are a good distance from the access points so you can consider skipping over some water to get to where you REALLY want to go.

I think I'm about the same as Swattie, half mile per hour or so, but I have fished some steep, rugged streams loaded with fish where it takes me 4 hours to thoroughly fish a half mile. Your typical PA small stream isn't that steep though and if you focus on big pools only, you can definitely pull off 1 mile per hr.

 

[tomitrout]

5 miles? Be sure to take a sandwich.

 

[Dave_W]

The_Sasquatch wrote:
My own personal thought: there's a 5 mile stretch of stream in NCPA that I've wanted to fish in one day. I think, in theory, I can do it all in one day. If I didn't know the stream that well, I'm not sure I'd attempt 5 miles in one shot.

Five miles of NCPA is a heckuva day of stream fishing. Most of my float trips by boat are less than that, and even in these cases I'm paddling past a lot of fishable water.

Go for it if it's something you'd like a crack at....Pack a lot of water and food and see how it turns out. Give us a report when you're done.

You young guys can be motivating to us old farts. :-D

 

[dryflyguy]

When I fish small steams, I like to take my time.
I work every pool pretty well- starting at the bottom - by casting a terrestrial or attractor pattern.
And I usually slowly sneak up into casting position, to - hopefully, avoid spooking them. So, it can take some time

Then on the hike back downstream, I usually hit some of the better pools again. Even if I caught fish in them on the way up, they've settled down again by that time - and I often pick up a few more

So, yeah, I can spend most of a day fishing a few miles of water.
And see no reason to rush. I usually fish small WT streams only once a season.
Why not make the best of it while there?

 

[Prospector]

I fish small streams (15’-25’ wide) very slowly. Especially Class A streams that hold fish in every nook and cranny. I’ve measured several of my favorite stretches and have found I generally fish 800’ to 2000’ per hour. I probably average 1000 feet per hour, so a mile of stream takes me 5 hours.

It usually pays off to sneak along in dull clothes. I tend to fish upstream so start at the tail end of a hole and work up to the riffle. Being very methodical gets your fly in front of more fish. In a Class A you will catch a lot of fish in places you may not expect.

If I’m fishing 2000 ft in an hour that means I’m passing up the marginal locations and walking past a lot of water.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

It has been interesting to get everyones approach. I will confirm that 5 miles of a small to mediumish class A is too much to effectively fish in a day. Started on the water about 730 and got to the upper vehicle at 6. We fished 3.5-4 miles and walked the rest of the way. We stopped for about an hour and cooked up a stream side lunch, starting a fire in the rain proved difficult. The fishing was pretty solid, several 10+ in brook trout and I am sure if we spent more time on the bigger holes we could have ran into some larger browns. Next time on this stretch I plan on camping in the middle haha.

 

[Swattie87]

That sounds like my kinda day lyco. Though in the rain any more, I’ll punt on the fire and just use my little jet stove.