Winter Small Stream Angling, and Dry Flies

After a few attempts to get together and fish a small stream Kirk, Mark, and myself pulled it off Friday. Upon arriving at the parking area the weather had a feel of winter. The sun was bright but a cold breeze was in the mix. The stream was clear and a bit low, but in good shape for this time of year. Many small brook trout could be seen scattering as we moved along, this is a good sign as to the health of the stream.

We had fished a variety of flies with some success. I consider success to be when a trout moves on a fly. It's not necessary to hold it, there's so much more to angling.

Mark fishing a long glassy pool. From time to time trout could be seen rising, but to "what".

Well it didn't take long. Mark took this wild jewel .

Kirk and I spent some time telling Mark a few stories about this stream. As we fished Kirk took a water temp...35 degrees...pretty cold. We continued to see sporadic rises, and small flies on the water.

Coming upon a pool that had a swift flow entering, then a bend that flattened out at the tail. There was a tree with a bunch of roots and a trout was rising near it. What to use? I tied on a small black caddis dry, It was tough getting the fly to float over the fish, but after several casts it was there.

The little caddis and 2wt did there job. I was fortunate to hold this wild brookie. Wild trout on the dry...in December.

We continued to fish and exchange stories. Mark fished small brook trout streams as a kid in Pennsylvania, and still enjoys it today. Kirk, fished for torut in his younger days but spent many years fishing the salt. It's been about a year now that he has returned to trout fishing and the small streams. They both have blogs. Kirk's is "Trout Quest Redux"...and Marks is "Fishing Small Streams"

Kirk is showing Mark a place where a few weeks earlier he had almost stepped on a good sized wild brown.

As that 2 hour window of opportunity started to close, and the fish stopped feeding we walked out and agreed it was a good outing.

Where we had parked, there was a pool. This pool was quite deep and I know it holds a trout or two especially this time of year. I said to Mark that I always wanted to fish a wooly bugger in that pool. He said that he tied some smaller buggers for just this type of stream. I said tie one on and have a go. On his second cast this beautiful rainbow hit the bugger. A quick photo and off he went.

A good ending, a good group of anglers, and perhaps the same results come New Years Day.

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Potpourri

This is the ingredient list for the "Orange Head Wet Fly"

Curved caddis hooks, antron yarn, rust orange Aussie Possun, and fire orange thread.

Streamers 365 has a wonderful  calendar. It has beautiful photos of some of the featured streamer flies of  Streamers 365.

Darren has also published the first volume of "Streamers 365".This is a book of streamers, there origins, recipes, and stories of what inspired the tyer to create these beautiful long flies. These can be purchased at the "Streamers 365" site. Well worth it.

A Small Stream.....12-11-12

"Good Morning".

Yesterday I teamed up with Kirk to fish a stream. We decided to meet at nine thirty, no sense in going earlier because the fish on this stream sleep in. As it turned out I was a few minutes early and thought why not cast a fly into that deep pool so close to where we park. I tied on a Picket Pin wet and took a few casts. It was not long when I saw Kirk pull up. As he got out of the truck a trout hit the fly. A short time later I held a handsome brown.

Post spawn wild brown trout. Now looking for a deep hole to ride out the winter.

We continued fishing, both of us taking some beautifully colored brookies. This one rising to a dry fly...Elk Hair Caddis.

There's a short window of opportunity to get these guys when they feed. So when the top water activity ceased I put on a Orange Head wet fly. It worked.

I never took an actual stream temp but I'll bet it was in the thirties.

The Orange Head, and a Connecticut small stream wild brookie.

Along the way we were greeted by these wonderful Springer pups. We stopped for a spell to chat with their owner and heap a lot of petting on the two.

Smelt Patterns..."Yankee Smelt"

Many of the feather wing streamers created for fishing in the northeast were tied to represent the smelt. Smelt are found in many cold water lakes and are the primary food sources of salmon and trout which also inhabit these same lakes. The smelt can vary in color depending at what depth they may be found. Some when looked at seem to be transparent. I know of a few lakes in Connecticut where smelt can be found. When ice fishing we seek out these little fish, they are excellent table fare.

While most of my fishing is done in small streams, there are times when I'll fish a few of these smelt lakes, primarily in the early Spring. Fishing one of these smelt patterns will usually bring a nice brown to the net.

"Yankee Smelt"

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