The 10 Commandments of Small Stream Fly Fishing Pt. 1

1.  Thou Shall Not High Hole a Fellow Fisherman.

Nothing is worst then fishing a stream the size of a hallway on the side of a mountain and seeing someone walking along the stream, not say anything to you, and then hop into the stream 30 yards up and start fishing.  This is not only unethical, but should also be a flying drop kick worthy offense.  The proper thing to do would be go way downstream and fish up or if it is your friend and your leap frogging each other, you should go way upstream leaving your partner a long undisturbed section to fish.

2.  Thou Shall Not Use a Double Haul Cast Unless Necessary.

You may laugh at this one, but I have seriously seen this happen on a small stream.  I came upon a guy fishing a pool that was about 25 ft long and 10 ft wide.  It was a big pool for this stream and at the end of the pool was a guy casting.  At first I thought my eyes deceived me, but after watching a couple more cast, I saw I was correct at my first observation.  He was double haul casting this pool.  Lets not be that guy double haul casting just because they can.

3. Thou Shall Not Use Any Fly Rod Over a 4 wt.

If you are fishing for trout that are no longer then your wrist to finger tip, you should not be using a rod that is made for 40 inch browns and tarpon.  Now I say this because I was once a breaker of this commandment.  When I first started fly fishing all I had was an 8 wt.  I wanted to try my luck at brook trout fishing but didn't have an appropriate rod.  So instead of investing money into a small stream rod, I thought I'd try my 8 wt on them.  Lets just say there were several brook trout that earned lots of frequent flyer miles and after one trip I purchased a 3wt.  I still will see a guy hiking into the woods with what looks to be a 7, 8, or even 9 wt and I just small and remember my first trip.

4. Thou Shall Not Ask a Fellow Fly Fisherman Where He Caught that Trout.

It is a very tempting rule sometimes to keep, but it is one that should be abided by when in the presence of other blueliners.  This gets especially hard when they are showing pictures of 12 inch brook trout (When you get excited about 12 inch trout, you know you are addicted to the small streams).  This can take years to practice to break the habit of drooling and instinctively asking that dreaded question.  Surrounding yourself with friends that when asked "where did you catch that pig of a trout?" they just point right to there mouth and say "I hooked them right here" helps to break this habit.

5.  Thou Shall Never Say "that's too far of a hike"

When fishing small streams, one should know that the best streams are the ones that involve a little hiking.  The hike prevents all the sane people from fishing it.  The sane people say "I am not hiking 10 miles through the back country for 6 inch trout."  An insane person says "a 10 mile hike for 6 inch trout, when can we go?"  Now I never said a blueliner wouldn't complain during the hike, but they still wouldn't have it any other way(which all my fishing buddies know I have been known to complain, mainly on the hike out).

The rest of the 10 commandments to small stream fly fishing will be continued....