Small water, nice fish -- video

Today, I went to a small creek about 45 minutes away for some full contact tenkara. This stream is moderate to high in gradient, depending on the reach, with good pocket water. It can be very closed in with alders, willows, red-twig dogwood and the like making casting a real challenge in spots. It does have some more open sections, but it is never really an open, cast-as-you-like kind stream. The stream is anywhere from 6 feet to 12 feet across. The rocks are slippery as snot and a good wading staff is essential.

A nice pool

Because of the tight terrain I used the 9 foot, 3 inch foot Iwana. It is a little stiff for my liking but not too bad in general. It has enough backbone to handle any fish in this small stream, and then some. As I stated earlier, casting is an challenge here. Sure, you can see what's a head of you, but making a back cast is a different issue. About 50% of my casts were modified roll casts. Bow-and-arrow casts will work as well, but only if you can lift or strike the rod to the side if a fish takes the fly. Sometime it is too closed in to do either.

Fish on!

The fish are native Yellowstone cutthroat. They average 6-8 inches but every once in a while, like today, you can hook a nice 12 incher. You also can catch some really tiny ones -- I am amazed at their audacity of trying to eat a fly as big as their head!

Average size cutthroat

12 inch Yellowstone cutthroat

For flies I used a #10 Utah Killer Bug and a #12 Soft Hackle Grey kebari. I know that I keep talking about and using these flies but they are such good producers that I have not had to experiment with patterns much. I promise to try some other patterns soon -- I've got them all tied up and ready to go.

Another nice fish

I hooked quite a few fish today but I was having trouble keeping them on. They mostly did a long line release. I did get a few to hand though.

I like this stream. It really works you over and you know that you've been fishing when your done.

I have off from work next week and I plan on fishing various streams on the Idaho-Wyoming border. It should be interesting! Now, where did I put that Wyoming license?