A fine small stream afternoon.

[cbtrtbum]

A few weeks ago, I fished a favorite small stream for the first time in about 6 years. Sneaking along a small stream, picking each little seam, run, pool, grassy bank....One of my favorite types of angling. After having a fantastic afternoon, then getting on here (also for the first time in forever) and enjoying some of the fine posts/photo documentaries I thought I would too contribute in an attempted photo documentary of the time I spent on the same stream, this afternoon. The photos did not come out as great as I had intended but they are still ok. Enjoy.





This stream, like many other small streams, is a tributary to a significantly more well known river. 2 side roads off of the heavily traveled main road lands you at the trail head of a wilderness area. A relatively easy hike in gets you streamside in about 15 minutes. Then you have the choice of going either up or down. There is a hiking trail bordering the majority of the stream, but it is mainly used with hikers and those riding horses. The trout are all relatively small and are all wild. I really dont come across to many other anglers down here.




I hiked about 10 minutes up the trail and began near where I had left off a few weeks ago. The stream was in beautiful shape and there was a sporadic hatch of various bugs (PMD's, Yellow Sallies, Red Quill, a few hoppers and caddis) I arrived a little earlier than I had intended and there was still a bunch of sun on the water. I saw quite a few hoppers on my hike in and so started off with a small henry's fork hopper (my favorite small stream hopper)




While I enjoy many types of angling, a small cane rod and a silk line are my favorite tools to enjoy an afternoon of small stream angling. I foolishly used to carry all of my fly boxes with me. Now I carry one box and it is plenty.






The angling was fantastic. I landed about a half dozen small brookies and the only brown of the day on the hopper. Then I switched over to a #18 pmd sparkle dun. Yes, I probably could have done well on a royal wulff, humpy, etc. Thing is, when I fish attractor dries on this stream I do get fish but not as often as if I fish a small sparkle dun. On the SD they just crush it pool after pool. The fly rebounds extremely well with a few brushes of frogs fanny (if you are not using this for your small stream dries you are doing yourself a disservice IMO.-no connection to the company just love the floatant!) and in general sparkle duns are pretty easy to see on the water. Absolutely one of my favorite drys. I then went on to just enjoy going upstream, picking all of the little different holding spots. Landed lots of brookies, and a handful of beautiful rainbows. The stream doesnt have many browns in it and even fewer cutthroats. I was fortunate to land the grand slam today as one brown and one cutt each came to hand. I photographed one of each trout. Something was wrong health wise with the cutt as its shape was a little weird.