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I fished one of the smallest and bushiest streams I have ever tried. This stream runs down a bit of a drop so it is mostly little bits of pocket water, but what a blast.
My technique must have been hilarious to watch. It was so close in that half the time I was fishing by either kneeling or sitting in the middle of this creek. It was a challenge to figure out how to approach each little hole.
I was using my 7 1/2 ft 3wt rod and it was just about impossible to do a regular cast anywhere. I was getting a bit frustrated until I decided to take my furled leader off. (BTW it was a very nice furled leader from FlyGoddess. Many thanks to her as I love it)
I ended up attaching about 3 ft of tippet straight to the flyline. That allowed me to have enough flyline out so that I could flip my line up stream, or even rollcast in the tight space, and still keep my rod down low. I am sure that I line spooked a lot of fish, but this stream still surprised me with 3 and 4 fish out of most of the pockets. The fish were mostly cutthroats and ranged in size from about 8 to 13 inches.
This little pocket -- the dark area in front of the boulders on the left gave me two good fish of 11 and 13 inches.
[inline SmallStream4.jpg]
It was shady and dim so a lot of my pictures came out blurred and not so hot, but I will include some of the fish here. Just wish I had more of the creek itself as it was a beautiful, clear, bubbly little stream.
[inline SmallStream1.jpg]
[inline SmallStream3.jpg]
[inline SmallStream5.jpg]
[inline SmallStream2.jpg]
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great post.. and great looking little fishing hole..
I have to admit it would of been hilarious to see you sitting in the middle of the little stream.. but.. you got results and that is all that matters..
in tight spots I usually rely on the roll cast.. now there is also a spey technique for single handed rods.. I can try to look it up if you want.. basically its a parallel sweep to the side.. lift arm up and roll cast it out.. Ive used it on smaller sections of a stream in TN but I dont think it was near as small as you describe here...
Id say you adapted and conquered the situation and came out with excellent results..
MacFly [cool]
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dont want to name drop, nor hot spot so ill ask it this way.... is that north of the place everyone in Logan go's to to play the "Utah State Lottery" ? [laugh]
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No, these are Snake River or Yellowstone Cutthroats, so that opens up a huge area of small tributaries!!
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C..
here is a link to the Jeff Putnam video.. this is only part of it but I think it shows what I was trying to say earlier.. :-)
[url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZyKjIBzEDI"]Putnam Video..[/url]
MacFly [cool]
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Great video, Mac! Thanks for bringing that up. His are very similar to some of my casts except mine usually end in creating knots! [shocked][blush] Good techniques, I fish a lot of places that you can't backcast at all.
On this particular stream though my real problem was that the casts were so short that I was having difficulty loading the rod. The amount of line that was out from my rod tip was mostly leader. That is when I decided to eliminate the leader and see if I couldn't then flip or cast my line the short distances more accurately and with a smaller loop. I was doing a lot of my casting to holes in under bushes and maybe only a short ways away. Taking the leader off gave me a lot more line weight to work with but also put my line fairly close to my fly. I did a lot of midair stops and quick side flips to keep the fly line over away from the fish as much as possible. I wouldn't recommend it in most other places, but it worked on this stream.
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C,
welcome.. now I do have his dvd somewhere.. could try to get you a copy if you want...
now.. before fg says it.. was this or is this a situation where a tenkara rod.. or more accurately .. and tenkara fishing technique would of worked well??
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MacFly
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I don't think it would work very well because of the heavy brush, but I haven't really seen how adaptable they are. Having a set line length would be one problem and going through to the next pool would be hard. Is the line just attached to the end, or in your hand so that you could shorten it?
I had to either walk in the creek or go around in the brush in most areas. Thankfully there had been cows pastured on this area so there were "cow trails" through the willows. Cow trails are not open enough to even stand up in, dragging a 10 ft or longer would have been a mess. If you collapsed the rod it might work in getting around.
A long rod might reach many of the holes, but there was over head brush above the creek some of the time that made it hard at times to do any kind of reach and dab' if you can"t adjust how much line you have out. Some places I would side cast my line in under overhanging bushes that are two feet off the water. With a tenkara would you be able to flip your line in there or shorten your line to get in that close? Might be interesting to try one.
I visualize the tenkara being similar to the problem I was having. With my leader and tippit both on the pole my "end line" (unweighted) was too long. I couldn't flip the line accurately anywhere. I needed more weighted line out to take my fly in to small pockets but not over shoot too much. Maybe a tenkara would not need to be cast and wouldn't over shoot. On the tenkara is it only leader? Is the line tapered or weighted?
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C,
the tenkaras are long poles.. 10 - 13 feet.. but collapseable.. so you could do that between fishing holes.. just reextend the rod..
it has no fly line.. it is simply a leader (that FG makes btw) and some tippet.. so you could set the length by the tippet + leader lengths..
you would be doing a lot of dapping type fishing in the area you describe.. and that is, from what I understand.. part of what that rod is made for..
yes you could flip your line/tippet into small areas .. but not sure how easy it would be in tight areas..
I picture using one on a little more open streams but that still have limited area for a full cast.. the lenght of the rod is suppose to make up for the lack of line length..
maybe on the waters you were on.. but Id bet on some of the waters you fish it would be a good rod to have in your arsenal.. and remeber.. it collapses down to about 14" I think so you could carry it with you ready to use if the situation arose where your normal rod would be hampered by the conditions..
if you go to tenkarausa.com there is a lot of information on the rods, their uses, and setup..
one last note.. there are several different companies that sell and tenkara rod.. the first and best as far as I know is tenkara usa but if interested you could easily look it all up and do some comparison shopping..
also.. if you are interested in one Id contact them
MacFly [cool]
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Tenkara has no guides. The line attaches to a loop at the tip of the rod. They are telescopic and collapse to about a foot lone.
They are made for streams...that is the idea.
Here is a vid on small streams:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1gs8WurQNw
Her is my favorite, the real fly goddess with one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWt7uf4VyvU
One other thing you could try is a style the late great Gary Lafontaine came up with. Raid the medicine chest for floss. But, you can use your favorite rod.
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That really looks like fun! I especially liked the double haul that Joan Wulff did. [sly]
They seem to have a pretty good action too even though you don't really "cast" as such. I know lots of streams that one would work great on.
I have heard of floss fishing in the wind. Is that Gary Lafontaine's method?
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Kochanut, I forgot to say that sent you a PM.
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I almost corrected you on the fly goddess comment until I saw the video.. so I understand what you meant.. but you are our fly goddes.. thats all that counts.. :-)
on the floss thing.. are you looking to do some dapping??
[url "http://www.amazon.com/Dapping-Exciting-Fishing-Flies-Quiver/dp/0811701425"]dapping book[/url]
[url "http://www.gofishn.com/content/dapping"]dapping explanation[/url]
plus if you do a search of the archives here by Irish Float Tube (member of this site) has some excellent links on dapping as the Europeans do.. which is basically a long rod with floss attached then a light tippet to fly.. based on the idea that the wind will make a dry fly dance across the water as long as you keep it just barely touching or above the water.. its suppose to drive trout nuts.. :-)
MacFly [cool]
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I'll use 6x leader as short as 3-4 ft without tippet for both nymphs and dries on those brushy creeks with small pockets. I fish upstream and will cast in almost every way imaginable depending on where the brush is and the hole to reach. My standbys are snake roll and reverse snake roll casts. I know there are some you tube videos on these techniques but I did them out of necessity for the conditions I frequent not because I saw anyone else do it. That looks like it could be one of the creeks I mentioned to you but there are tons of those small creeks loaded with those cutts in Idaho. Thankfully most of them get overlooked by the folks that don't experiment and adjust their techniques for the fishing conditions. It really is quite a painful site when you see someone trying to fish a dry and a dropper off 7 and a half ft or more of leader plus tippet in those conditions.
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Here is a quick look on these casting techniques if you're interested. They're so simple no explanation is needed just look at the wrist movements and where your line goes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVs0M2qdSzg&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLcELzWoNms
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Looks like im getting in a little late on this, I fish alot of the same areas in that part of the state pierce.
What I have used for alot of years is I have an older 7.5 foot fiberglass 2wt that I leave setup with a 4wt line on it. It loads so fast that it works well with the short throws you get in the tight spots we have. Its what I use on McCoy Creek and other stuff in that neck of the woods.
Good looking fish, Love creek fishing in this part of the start.
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A 2wt would be about perfect I bet and fiberglass too boot! I wonder what a 4wt line would cast like on my 3wt? I love the 3wt for streams and high mountain lakes. I have caught some pretty big fish on it, and for a cheapo rod and reel combo it has cast better than I expected!
I love McCoy creek! It is HUGE compared to some of these little baby streams, but they have been fun. The upper part of McCoy would be about comparable. Have you ever fished this part of McCoy up by Wolverine? I was going to but didn't have time when I was last up there. I thought it looked interesting. [inline "streams1 (2).jpg"]
It has been a blast just seeing how small a stream holds fish. Even then I think most tapered leaders are too long for some of these little trickles! I grew up fishing small streams in brushy western Washington, but that brush didn't go over and in the streams like Idaho's willow and alder jungles do! This little run in another small creek held at least 3 nice fish. [inline "streams2 (2).jpg"]
[inline Streams3.jpg]
There are an amazing amount of wild cutthroat that live in streams that I can jump over easily. The problem is figuring out how to get to them without spooking them or tangling in the brush. That shallow clear water surrounded by bushes that leap out and grab my fly is wicked!
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#008000] ![[Image: happy.gif]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/happy.gif) Nice pictures cpierce. I use a 3wt line on my 7½' 2wt rod. It loads really well. However, in fishing small streams seldom is my line getting wet as my leader & tippet is long enough to get to where the little dudes are hanging out.[fishin][/#008000][/font]
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Looks like a lot of the small creeks in that area. They can hold some pretty decent sized cuttys, especially if you can find some areas with good beaver activity in them. The heavier wt line will load things up fast, even if you can't do traditional casts, it will load up fast for short flips and I agree with the short leaders, 6ft is max usually on those small guys.
As far as light wt and big fish I have gone to fishing my 2wt almost exclusively even on the south fork. Big fish of the year on it so far is a 23in brown and it handled it fine.
This time of year I have had some awesome days on those small creeks. Usually will take my rod on the elk and deer trips and spend the afternoons casting. Renegades work amazing up there right now.
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Glass...wooohoo, love it! E glass for the light weights and S glass for 5 wt and up.
The shorter the rod the faster it will be. I have a 6' 3wt that I really don't care for. It is so fast it lis like a thin broom stick. I also have a 5'3" Fenwick 5 wt glass...it really likes Wulff Triangle taper.
I have never overloaded a rod to slow it down, but I know it works to a degree. I just go buy the rod with the action I want and use the designated line.
Thing about glass is they will usually come in two sizes, like a 4/5 or a 5/6..etc. In that case the smaller to fasten it up and vise versa.
I love slow action and that is what I use. Glass, bamboo, full flex graphite.
However, my 2 wt is a 7'9" Sage LL that I got for a killer price. I put it more as a medium action. But I can cast nymphs with it and maybe a BB slip shot. (love to nymph)
I have two glass blanks I am going to be putting together this winter.
If someone who has never cast glass, try an "S" glass or a half and half, I think you would love it.
FG
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