I once heard that 95% of what trout eat is brown, fuzzy, about 5/8” long and sub-surface. I’m not strictly sure whether that’s exactly correct at all times but my experience suggests it’s probably very close to the truth.
It’s a personal view but, dry fly only in small stream fishing is not really appropriate, and whilst a beautiful discipline it denies the roving fisherman the chance to fully explore the 3D nature of the stream and the fish that might be feeding. In the small stream the fish are often in the deeper holes safe under the roots of a tree but a nymph carefully drifted past at the right depth can often trigger a savage take. It’s a risky business there are a lot of potential snags and you might find yourselves retrieving flies frequently but knowledge and experience soon builds. If a fish is hungry it’ll often travel two or three feet from cover to intercept your fly so a cautious approach to casting and initially keeping the drift away from the roots before drifting closer often draws the fish. Consistently casting too close to the roots often risks under swinging and the dreaded dice with fly and woody tendrils this tends to strain the patience and the rod! And when you do hook your quarry your first aim is to steer it well clear of those roots!
Casting a nymph, particularly a weighted nymph, can be a tricky affair in a tight space and in the small stream you have to quickly learn ways to get the line out with rolls, flicks and sideways casts. In a wild stream you can often get quite close to fish and so long as you drop your nymph without slapping the line heavily onto the water the fish can often be remarkably tolerant. Short leaders are often a necessity. As a rule of thumb if I’m using a knotted leader I’ll make it up to be about the length of the rod, but if the stream is low and clear a longer tapered leader is best and this should become a smooth casting extension to a light #2 or #3 line.
It’s quite often that you’ll visit the small stream and not see fish regularly rising, but even when they do start taking flies from the surface a nymph carefully cast upstream of the fish and drifted carefully past will almost always result in a take. Avoid lining the fish with anything other than the tippet and you’ll be surprised at how many of these casts you can put past the fish without it spooking. Only if you allow yourself to be see in silhouette moving against the sky line will the fish sink away to its cover… not to return for an hour or so.
One of the great things about nymphing is that it encourages the angler to explore the stream, its holes, drifts and runs and I shall never cease to be surprised by the places in which the small stream trout can find the smallest lye that allows the food to be brought almost directly to mouth with minimal energy used.
In the small stream it’s not necessary to fish a team of lies, in fact such a tight casting and drifting environment anything other than controlling what’s on the very point of the line risks annoying snags and spoilt swims.
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