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The Small Stream Fly Fisherman Meets High Water, Decides It's a Bonus, Not a Curse (or, The Brown Trout Decide For Him)

By Tom Chandler 6/15/2010

Stepping out of the Underground's ageing Toyota pickup (1987 vintage, broken tailgate, rusting muffler) I got an eyeful; the flows on my "small stream" were high.

Very high.

Still, the water was clear, and you can choose to get cranky about the high flows, or you can revel in the knowledge you've found one of the few potentially fishable streams in the county.

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I opted for Choice #2.

Revelry got a lot easier just two casts into the trip; I hooked and landed a 12" brown trout - a far better-than-respectable trout in this water.

A few minutes later, a 10" brown trout got frisky with my #12 Stimulator.

Small stream brown trout

"Ok," I told myself.

This high water thing is usually bad, but this time it's OK.

Helping that impression along is the largely water-starved nature of this stream.

Simply put, it was nice to see some water in it.

Traditionally, it's fishable only in spring; later in the year, diversions tend to be hard on the flows and the trout population.

In fact, I wondered if three years of drought hadn't hammered the juvenile brown trout recruitment rates (brownies spawn in the fall).

Out of the ten I hooked, only one fish was under 8" - a fairly dramatic reversal of "normal" for this stream.

Brown Trout Tail

Given my deep and abiding interest in pure science, I plan to continue this research at the first opportunity (no need to thank me for my selflessness).

My time was limited (about three hours fishing for two hours of driving - a slightly better than break-even proposition), though after the first couple fish, I fell into that familiar pattern where you're far more concerned with how you're going to fish the next pool than you are the state of the economy (even your personal economy).

It's one of the reasons we fly fish, though we never seem to realize it at the time, which I suppose is kinda the point.

Brown Trout

The Fish Stuff
I fished an 8' 5wt Diamondglass fiberglass fly rod - a truly supple, wonderful, seductive fly rod you'll end up cursing if the wind gets too strong.

The wind only blew up towards the end of my trip, so I maintained a mostly family friendly atmosphere, which wasn't the triumph I'm suggesting (I never saw another person).

I tied on a #12 Stimulator at the start and fished it most of the time, and given the fly-eating-tree-rich environment, I didn't miss the spool of 4x tippet I forgot to buy after my last trip (I fished 3x instead, and at times, I was pretty happy about it).

fly eating trees

This is hardly the toughest stream I've fished, but it is one of the sneakiest; every once in a while it throws an easy stretch at you, dulling your predatory edge and causing you to toss your next five backcasts into a tree.

At least that's my current working theory (it's not possible I'd ever screw up on my own).

The high, clear water also presented something of a trap for unwitting fly fishermen (well, one of them anyway).

Several times I found myself wasting time on a gorgeous-looking stretch of water, only to realize it didn't hold fish at "normal" flows, so it wasn't all that likely to hold trout during high flows.

Sure enough, all my trout came from the runs and pools that routinely held fish, while the normally barren-but-fishy-looking edge sproduced nothing (apparently I'm a real sucker for submerged grass lines).

At some point, I may get this predatory fly fishing stuff figured out, but then again, I may not, which may also be kinda the point.

The Snake Stuff
I ended my trip on a meadow stretch, which is pretty as hell, but tough to fish. For those keeping track, meadows offer unobstructed backcasts, but compensate the trout with unobstructed views of approaching fly fishermen.

wildflowers

Wildflowers were blooming, and the stream was running high enough to flood the meadow, which made knee-walkiing like a sneaky bastard largely impossible. (With the water already more than knee deep, knee-walking would have felt suspiciously like swimming.)

I did manage to practically step on a snake that I immediately identified as a Deadly South Pacific Coral Snake, though later - while I was looking for a place to have my heart attack - it occurred to me it may have been a simple Garter Snake pretending to be a Coral Snake.

It seems the reptiles get trickier every year.

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In simple terms, it was a beautiful couple of hours on a beautiful stream, and if you subscribe to the thinking that record snowpacks and fast-warming temperatures probably will dampen the fly fishing, it was also something of a gift.

The stream was high but the bonus-sized brown trout were willing, and coming on the heels of one of those probing family discussions about money, time, work, the future and Little M's college fund, it was probably more winning lottery ticket than simple gift.

See you on a small stream (but not this small stream), Tom Chandler.

AuthorPicture

Tom Chandler

As the author of the decade leading fly fishing blog Trout Underground, Tom believes that fishing is not about measuring the experience but instead of about having fun. As a staunch environmentalist, he brings to the Yobi Community thought leadership on environmental and access issues facing us today.

21 comments
Good luck. Send pictures if you survive the high waters and Man-Eating Brookies...
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I love it. I'm heading to my favorite small-stream stomping grounds in just over a week, and the water is looking pretty high there. I guess as long as it's clear...
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Scenic, fishy, cannot ask for more.
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I want the GPS corodnites and i want them now ! Hope you're up for a little disappointment...
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It dosen't get fished much. If it did there would be snarls of leader and mono. wrappeed up on that barbed wire. I love the small streams. Smaller the better. Tom that stream looks very fertile and quite tasty....I want the GPS corodnites and i want them now !
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I've yet to find a fly gawdy enough that it scares away the smallest ones that is still considered edible by the larger models. That sounds like a job for Singlebarbed. "Gaudy" is his credo...
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I've tried the same technique (scare away the 4-5 inchers, entice the 8"+ fish)... very limited success. I've yet to find a fly gawdy enough that it scares away the smallest ones that is still considered edible by the larger models. Good luck though. Right now we're talking Mississippi River flood stage stuff; at normal flows, you can get across most of the stream in two good steps (and a few places ... more in a hop). And hell, I thought I was being aggressive with the #12; I wanted it big enough to dissuade the 5″ fish, but not so big that it frightened the 12″ trout away…
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Great report and awesome photos as usual.
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Yep, probably. Gotta watch out for those Norcal coral snakes, especially with the coral, and all...
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nothing like a day (even a short one) where you don't have to share the water A man after my own heart...
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Liar. I'm pretty sure I saw a King Cobra just last week.
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Yeah, they love it, but they're sometimes unwilling to move to a dry fly, and we both know I didn't have a single nymph with me...
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Sure, you say that without having to face every fly fisherman's biggest enemy: dry skin.
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Right now we're talking Mississippi River flood stage stuff; at normal flows, you can get across most of the stream in two good steps (and a few places in a hop). And hell, I thought I was being aggressive with the #12; I wanted it big enough to dissuade the 5" fish, but not so big that it frightened the 12" trout away...
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Its the ones with the rattles you need to be concerned with in the State of Jefferson. Nice report.
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Black & yellow. Probably a deadly coral snake like I first imagined...
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Fantastic report and no haze in the background. What I would give for that kind of low humidity here in the south right about now.
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Lovely pics ..... nothing like a day (even a short one) where you don't have to share the water.......Snakes are good they mostly confine themselves to biting idiots
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Rule #1: Fish love water. High to us and high to them are two different things. Good to see you take advantage!
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I must say, you NorCalers have a different view of "Small Stream" than those of us in the South. Gotta Say: I'm a bit jealous. It's not that that is Big water... but I don't see any places that you could hop across... Nice looking water and nice troots. Why fishing such small flies? Stimmies deserve to be #8!
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Glad you got into some nice browns. Kingsnake, maybe? Red on black, poison lack; red on yellow, kill a fellow...
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