best approach for small streams

I fished a favorite small stream last Friday and the water was painfully low. Those of you who are acquainted with me know that I detest low water. On this day, it meant that the longer, deeper pools had precious little movement. Sometimes the only discernable flow was at the extreme upper end of the head. Leaves were a problem, not because they were interfering with drifts, but rather because they had amassed in large quantities on the surface, essentially creating a sheet of leaves. Great for fish to hide under; not so great if you’re trying to present a fly to them.

**This is what I’m talking about. That lower end looks like a pile of leaves on dry land; they’re actually resting on the surface of the water.**

My solution to the low flow/leaf problem was to fish a dry-dropper in the faster sections, and to go heavy subsurface with micro-jig streamers. Both produced fish, although most of the dry/dropper hookups were on the trailing bead-head nymph rather than the dry. I’m all about watching wild fish slash at the dry, but there’s something cool about using it as a strike indicator — now you see it, now you don’t. Set that hook!

I’m not sure yesterday’s rain qualifies as a blowout, but it certainly should have been enough to move some leaves. The Farmington gauges bumped up a bit, but most of it was generated by the Still River. I expect the Farmington to be in excellent shape for most of the week.

I spent a good part of yesterday afternoon knocking on the doors of two favorite brooks. Conditions were similar on both thin blue lines: low water, clear water (thankfully still cold) and bright mid-day sunshine that kept the bite off. Still, a dozen-plus were pricked and a handful landed. All the bite activity came in the deeper plunges, runs, and cutbanks. Given the low water, I decided a downstream approach was best. (For more on small stream approaches, please read my article “Upstream, Downstream, Small Stream.”)

Bugs were bountiful. One of these streams sees a good number of yellow sallies this time of year, so I fished a size 16 Partridge and Yellow dropped off my bushy dry. It definitely got the attention of the char. Also seen: caddis, midges all sizes, sulphurs, and a few large spinners (March Browns?).

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I love how nature makes something out of nothing. No soil? No problem. We’ll just make a fertile bed on this boulder out of leaf compost and moss and lichens and let the ferns do their thing.

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It was no surprise that the best char of the day came from one of the deeper pools, and took a subsurface fly, in this case a black micro-bugger. Given the size of the brook, this buck could be considered a giant.

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