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Thread: small streams and how you fish them

  1. #1

    small streams and how you fish them

    Had a discussion recently about small stream fishing and methods... and it made me think. I'm not sure where to post this, so it goes here where lurkers, members, search bots and everyone else can see.

    smallstreams is not about fly fishing. It's about fishing small streams in any responsible manner you choose.

    Sure, most of the participants here are primarily fly fishers, but I honestly believe there is nothing wrong with casting spinners on monofilament, there is nothing better or worse using some other type of pole that's been used for centuries and is the latest fashion from overseas. Fishing is fishing. I know there is a lot of leftover baggage from the elitist jerks who once elevated (in their own minds) fly fishing to be something greater than any other method, something purer, or recently, something more "extreme" (since that's the preferred cool but meaningless label du jour of the X Games generation) or something other than the blood sport that all angling really is. Yes, we try to protect the animals we target and save them from harm most of the time, but the bottom line is all forms of fishing have evolved from humans needing sustenance.

    Some of the best fishing days in my life have been with a light Ugly Stick, spinning reel and a tackle box loaded with Panther Martins, Rooster Tails, and Dardevle spoons... aaah, those black and white Dardevles used to just be irresistible to some of the Oregon high desert Lahontan strains...

    I didn't enjoy fishing any less when I used spinning gear. I didn't enjoy it any less when I have dapped with cane poles with worm bits for panfish.

    It's all fishing.

    This site happens to be about, for and by a community of people who prefer plying their angling craft, whatever it may be, in streams that most people overlook, often remote and usually only holding tiny fish, small streams captivate and call to us. The intimacy with nature, the joy of finding small jewels in small water, and the giddy elation we all feel when there is a tug at the end of the line.

    smallstreams.com is a simple community of people who prefer angling in specific locations - not with specific tools or because they see how they choose to approach this endeavor as anything other than a means to an end, the end being peaceful satisfaction.

  2. #2
    Ahh you sound like me.

    I invited the spin fishermen some time ago, I've always had this attitude, that's why I wanted to kill the tenkara forum.


    This place is bigger than that.



    BTW, mr surf photographer, we are the parents of the X-Games kids, it is our generation that spawned "extreme"


    That being said, I could not agree with you more, I'de search the archives for the article I wrote but it just doesn't matter, you wrote it pretty well, nailed it far as I'm concerned. Nicely done.
    Japan: Tsuttenkai, Jolly Fishers, member since 2010

  3. #3
    i could not agree more with you guys. i learned to fish using worms dug from the ground and huge may flies fresh out of the big, wet morning spider webs on my grandfather's dock in AL.
    Last edited by Brooktrout; 07-20-2012 at 08:35 AM.

  4. #4
    Fry
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Victoria, Australia
    Posts
    36
    Quote Originally Posted by Brooktrout View Post
    i could not agree more with you guys. i learned to fish using worms dug from the ground and huge may flies fresh out of the big, wet morning spider webs on my grandfather's dock in AL.
    I usually fish small streams with a fly rod. However, I'll use it to cast a fly, worm("garden hackle" or fake one) or even those fly spinners but with the treble hook removed. I really enjoy catching trout on flies but one caught on a single worm drifted through a pool is just as much fun to me. Some regard fly fishing almost like a religion and as with religion, sacrilege can be committed by those who do not practise the 'art' in a particular way. Maybe everyone should read or reread "The Compleat Angler" by Mr. Walton?
    Cheers,
    Steve.

  5. #5
    Ho Ho! What a tangled web we can weave, Halford and Skues shake in your boots or revolve in the remains of your coffins; Waltonians rejoice, we can all go a fishing as the fancy takes us with fly, lure or bait and providing we do no harm enjoy our contemplative sport.
    I too come from an age of willow wands, mothers sewing cotton and bent pin. With a worm for bait the burn was supreme and a 4 inch trout a monster to delight the heart of a child. Now rapidly heading for my dotage I discover some have never grown up and fish just the same though with slightly more sophisticated tackle and the prize is to catch a fish of less than 1 inch on hook and line. Yes I have tried it and it is a challenge; with a size 22# hook and an 8 oz line the smallest that I managed was a 2 1/2 inch Bully (Sculpin) and I had a ball.

  6. #6
    I've written in these pages before how I began trout fishing with bait and then with spinners, but I turned to fly fishing because once the rudimentary skills are acquired it's much more effective.

    When I meet another fisherman on the stream or at a bridge pool, a rare thing for me, he is usually a bait fisherman. He often assumes I will look down on his methods because so many other fly fishermen seem to do so. That's not the case with me, and I learn a lot about streams and fish from the bait fishermen, and I always try to give them some information they can use.

  7. #7
    Fry
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Victoria, Australia
    Posts
    36
    Quote Originally Posted by Ernest View Post
    I've written in these pages before how I began trout fishing with bait and then with spinners, but I turned to fly fishing because once the rudimentary skills are acquired it's much more effective.

    When I meet another fisherman on the stream or at a bridge pool, a rare thing for me, he is usually a bait fisherman. He often assumes I will look down on his methods because so many other fly fishermen seem to do so. That's not the case with me, and I learn a lot about streams and fish from the bait fishermen, and I always try to give them some information they can use.
    I really dont get fussed about the method that someone uses to catch trout--if it's legal then it's fine. Besides, who am I to pass judgement? A few weeks ago, I met and talked with a bloke fishing worms at a nearby small lake. He said that he'd wanted to try fly fishing but assumed it was too hard to learn all the casting. I handed him my rod and had him roll casting in a few minutes. I told him to not believe all the hype and mysticism that fly fishing has attracted. It's a fun way to fish--so is casting a bait or spinner.
    Cheers,
    Steve.

  8. #8
    "Don't believe all of the hype and mysticism that fly fishing has attracted. It's a fun way to fish."

    -spod, smallstreams member



  9. #9
    Interesting to review this thread as I post on a few UK based boards where 'small stream fishing' is more the norm than the exception. Fun to read even if the "Woozer! Look at this one" would be small for us if we were fishing The Salt for Salmon. That's assuming this 'Summer,' or rather theirs, is a 'take a pass.' Most of the UK is being deluged with rain fall.

  10. #10
    We have a fair amount of UK folks here too, Fred! It's a universal thing. Welcome, by the way!

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