A Life Well Waded: A Guide to Small Stream Fly Fishing

"If fishing is a religion, fly fishing is high church."

Tom Brokaw

“Creek” is an important word to me. Creeks are where I started a life that has been consistently dedicated to fishing for as long as I can remember. Fishing runs deep in my family and most summer days were spent walking through creeks throwing Beetle-Spins, catching Green Sunfish, and hoping to catch one of the bass I would see darting away as I lumbered through their hiding spots. As I grew up I spent more and more time on larger rivers or driving to southern Missouri to chase Rainbow Trout in the crystal clear waters of the Current but I never left my creeks behind. When it came time to teach myself to fly fish, my creeks were a place to learn in seclusion and to avoid the embarrassment of my truly god awful casting skills being on display to the “experts” landing trout around me. My first Smallmouth on the fly came from a small stream in the city of Palmyra. It was a scrappy little fish that fell for a black Wooly Bugger being stripped beside a rootwad that set me on an obsessive path which eventually wound its way to me typing this post for you to read. Creeks offer simplicity and solitude during the summer when the aluminum hatch plagues the more famous rivers in the state. You may never catch a state record doing it but it offers a purity that I personally can’t find on larger rivers and *shudders* lakes. It will probably be harder to fall in love with creek fishing like I have if you never catch any fish so I guess we should get into the how to part of this article. Lace up some cheap sneakers, where we are going we don’t need waders.

Sight fishing Smallmouth on the fly is one of the most rewarding experiences in angling.  

We all know the phrase “Think like a fish.” Every fishing show host and dad taking his kids fishing has said it ad nauseum. I’m going to try and avoid using the phrase here but I will say that the most important part of fishing small streams and creeks is to understand your surroundings and how the fish are going to react to them. The smaller the body of water the more difficult the life of a fish. Temperature fluctuations are more extreme, Floods are more intense, less water means predators have easier access, including fishermen out hunting for pictures to stick on Instagram. (@Isuckatflyfishing) A creek will fish differently 2 days after a flood in the middle of May than it will during the dog days of summer. Fish are relatively simple creatures when you break them down. They want to not get eaten, they want to eat, they want to expend as little energy as possible while eating, and they want to spawn. If we can recognize the areas that provide the correct balance of protection and food we will be able to key in on these areas to find fish.

Shade? Check.  Underwater cover? Check. Oxygenated water flowing in from the riffle? Check. Smallmouth? CHECK

Riffles: Moving water is the heart of any good creek. Riffles re-oxygenate the water and are home to the bugs that form the lower portion of the food web on any good piece of water. In the heat of summer the deeper riffles that teem with crayfish and schools of shiners can provide some of the hottest fishing on any trip. If you can find a deeper pocket of water, even only a few feet wide, scooped out in the middle of a riffle you will find a Smallmouth there almost without fail.

Runs: The section most often walked by fishermen on their first trip to new water, runs often provide the structure, shade and food we (and fish) are looking for. My preferred method of attacking runs is to slowly wade the through the center of the run fishing all 270 degrees around me (left, right, and directly up or downstream) focusing on eddies, areas of slack water or foam lines, underwater structure, and any areas of shade or changing depth. I prefer to start with shorter casts and cover all the water around me until I’m casting to the bank to prevent spooking fish with busted casts or line.

Holes: Holes provide the most stable temperatures throughout the year and deep slow water requires less energy to move through or hold in. They are the obvious locations to look for fish in smaller water where room is at a premium and many times the largest fish in a section of river can be found here.

Riffles are consistent producers of fish both large and small. 

When you you picture a fly fishermen what do you see? If you are like most people you probably had the image of a man with waders, wearing a vest packed to the brim with tippet and leaders and tools  and a thousand flies tucked into dozens of boxes. The beauty of small stream fly fishing lies in it’s simplicity. All we need is a rod, a box of flies, and a few essentials that fit in the cargo shorts you have been holding on to for 10 years. For rods, depending on the size of creek I fish anywhere from a 3 wt (very tiny)  to a 7 wt (considerably less tiny) fly rod. If I had to pick one line weight I would go with a simple 5 wt setup for poppers and smaller streamers.  I prefer a 7’ or shorter rod when fishing small creeks because to be frank you will never need to make super long casts and most of the banks are overgrown with weeds and trees just waiting to grab the beautiful loop your 9 foot Sage just gave you. A simple weight forward floating line will fit any situation you come across since even when you talk about “deep pools” the word deep is relative. When most of the creek is 8” to a foot deep a 6 foot pool is about as good as it gets.

For flies I almost always carry one box that fits in my back pocket. I carry all the classics, Wooly Buggers (Black, Chartreuse, Olive), Clousers Minnows (in color matching the local forage) and small deer hair and foam poppers. By far my two most productive patterns for Smallmouth in the last year on smaller streams have been the Sneaky Pete and EMPIE’S Deadly Shiner. The Sneaky Pete gives the same irresistible profile as a standard popper but glides and dives when stripped and won’t spook fish who are normally skittish in the shallow clear water characteristic of great small streams. EMPIE’s Deadly Shiner is my absolute favorite search pattern to fish pools and deeper water. Fished fast it darts through the water and provokes some very aggressive strikes and this winter and early spring I had great success with long slow strips and letting bass grab it as it dropped. Hooking fish in this method takes a bit of intuition if you aren’t sight fishing but can be picked up quickly. The moment you feel any resistance on a strip set the hook. You will hook up on trees and rocks. You will also hook into some of the best Smallmouth you will find in the creek.  The only other things we need is hemostats for pinching barbs and unhooking fish. (Trust me…it is much easier to unhook the monsterous Green Sunfish who just inhaled the popper that fills his entire mouth if you pinch the barbs.) Throw in an extra packet of leader and one small spool of tippet and you are set.  Creek fishing is about covering water and looking for aggressive fish. The lighter and more agile you travel the more success you will have. If the bite just isn’t on or you are exploring new water you’re best bet is to just slow down and look around. Are crawfish scuttling away as you step through the water? Do you see schools of shiners darting past your legs? The fish know what they are eating. It’s up to us to identify (and match) it.

EMPIE'S Deadly Shiner (Left, Right) and the Sneaky Pete (Center) are the first two flies I tie on when exploring new water.

Creek fishing probably isn’t for everyone. The fish will almost never get to be the size that their buddies in the larger rivers and *shudder* lakes do. Starting out you’ll spook fish and spend a lot of time unwrapping line from trees. At some point though, you will have a breakthrough. You’ll realize that the fish have been getting more consistent and larger and that you haven’t seen another angler in the 6 hours you’ve been here. Small stream fly fishing is fly fishing boiled down to it’s essence and stripped of it’s unnecessary complications. It’s you and the fish. You are a visitor in their entire world and you should respect that experience as such. Next time you have a free afternoon open up Google Maps and find a thin blue line. You may be finding your next obsession.