I fish small streams a lot and I've gotten pretty good at it. I agree with almost all comments except some of wsender's. I will say I agree with him on hippers. Wet wade or at least waste high. I've gone over hippers way too many times by kneeling or sitting in a stream to get an angle.
- Short leaders.
- 3x or 4x tippet
- big bushy, high floatin dry flies (size 12 or 14 is typical for me). I often use parachute adams but wulffs, humpy's, etc. are common as well. The advantage of a dry is simply distance, you can effectively fish it farther away, and that distance is more important than type of fly under most circumstances. By not snagging up on submerged vegetation, you also spend more time fishing and less snagged. That said, in especially deep pools, or cold water, etc., feel free to tie on a dropper.
- Stay low if possible.
- Distance is your friend, cast from as far away as possible. The challenge is casting in tight places, it requires that you get pretty good.
- Move fast, cover water. No hit on the first 2 casts in a pool? Move on. There is a fish there, but you've spooked him, and there's another just upstream. I can cover miles of water in a day, I fish only a little slower than I walk.
- Practice the bow and arrow cast at home. Sometimes I use it as my final, intend to catch a fish cast. But more often, I find the hardest part is gettin some line out, so I'll use it to get the line in front of me, then strip out more and roll cast.
- I prefer stout, short powerful rods. I like a 7 foot 5 weight, if you can find it. Overlining a rod is a very good trick if it will only be used for small streams where casting is short, I use a 6 wt line on a 4/5 wt rod personally. You need that rod to load with only a small amount of fly line out. The power in a rod is for throwing tight loops under obstructions, for which there are many.
- Go get em! They're there. I've topped 80 fish in a day before.
