Small Streams, Little Rods & Big Fish

There is a group of fly-fisherman out there called the 20/20 club; if you don’t know, they are casters who try and catch trout of over 20 inches on a fly that is size 20 or less. Many of you probably don’t know what a size 20 fly is…picture a mosquito, maybe one of those bigger ones that always bother us early in the morning or late in the evening…that would be close to a size 20 fly. It is a very prestigious group and they take it very seriously! Recently while on one of my Missouri summer trips Frank and I were both fishing down the Current River which is just south and a little west of Salem, Missouri. I was ahead of Frank because I was going to do a couple more miles that morning before being picked up and as I rounded a bend in the river I heard a sloshing noise and thought it would be the usual deer walking against the flow of the river. I peered through the morning mist to see a chap smack dab in the middle of the stream and making long cast into the flow. I knew immediately it was a dry fly fisherman and he was matching the hatch…the hatch in fact had the air around the stream so full of bugs that it looked like a snow storm was going on. As we passed we both gave each other a nod and kept right on going; me fishing a big, size 4 streamer pattern and he a very small hatch pattern.

A few hours later and Frank and I finally made our rendezvous and the discussion came around to our ‘chap’ fishing up the stream. Frank, being the conversationalist, had done just that…struck up a conversation. Our guy had shown Frank his fly and yes…it was indeed a size 20 white trico pattern that very closely resembled a mosquito. The friendly fisherman offered Frank a couple of flies and Frank being his nice self-accepted; however, when Frank offered him a pattern that I had tied (and we had caught a slew of nice trout on!) he made a face and said, “Oh NO!” Now I must admit that he seemed quite snobby and I am sure that me and my streamer seemed snobby to him but difference is what makes the world go around-even in the fly fishing world!

Locally over the past few years I have been working on and trying to perfect my own one man club; that is using a small fly rod, pretty large bait fish or crayfish pattern…and doing all of this in pretty small streams. I will admit that I may have an addiction? I love to walk these small streams and poke a fly into every little nook and cranny and it is quite remarkable the size of fish that are lurking just under a log or just behind a rock…waiting to smash or slurp up an unsuspecting meal.

This past Saturday (July 28^th) I went to one of my favorite spots; I’ve learned to be very quiet when moving into these pools as they water is both down and clear. I had my 4 weight, 5’6” TQR rod in hand and a pumpkin colored crayfish pattern (click here to see how to tie the crayfish). I stripped out about 25 feet of orange colored line and made a cast into the base of a big Sycamore tree…waited and let the fly sink to the bottom; I made a couple of hops with my line hand, I felt tension on the line and strip set with my left hand and up out of the water came a big 15 inch smallie. I grabbed my new underwater camera and filmed the fish and the fly in his mouth for a while, took some photos and released him back to his pool. I took just a minute to drink it all in and once again made a nice cast to a point about 5 feet to the right of the previous casts and bounced the fly along the bottom when this time there was no doubt, a felt the pop and tightened up on a 17 inch smallmouth and a nice battle ensued. The fish zipped through the pool and back again and finally I led it to a shallow section and was able to lip my trophy. It was a nice male (buck) smallie that I had caught a few weeks earlier in the same pool and as I released him back into the now murky water I had to marvel at how hard and what a fight these native fish put up.

I had a volleyball practice earlier this week that ended at 3pm; me and my fishing gear were in the stream by 3:45. I had my 3 weight rod and floating line with a small, size 6, crayfish pattern that had weighted eyes up front allowing me to jig and drag the fly over and around boulders. The first 20 or so fish I caught were big fat rock bass…if you haven’t caught many of these natives then you may not know that they hit like a sledge hammer but put up almost no fight after that…still they are fun to catch! Over the next couple hours I caught a few smallies but nothing of size. I arrived at a new hole that looked promising and decided to tie on a deadhead minnow with big eyes. My challenge was to cast the fly under the tree limbs and allow it to sink and then swim it liked a damaged baitfish through the pool. On my second casts I noticed a lot of water boil just behind the fly and could see that I had a good fish following it; I paused the fly and instantly could feel a pop on the line, a quick strip set with my line hand and I was into my first good fish of the day. The water in this pool was a little murky and I could only pick up an occasional flash from the fish as he bent my 3 weight and took line out a couple times. I started to ease backward out of the pool and within a minute or so had lipped a chunky 15 incher that can be seen in the photo above today’s column. That one fish made the afternoon and made the long walk back in the summer hear all worth it!

If you want to join the club…then grab your fly gear or small spinning rod, a few flies or jigs and take a walk. I think you will find our waters full of nice fish waiting for a mid-day snack and I know you will Enjoy the Great Outdoors.