very small streams

[mustang_50matt]

I want to FF a very small mountain stream. The brush is quite thick so there's barely any room to cast. The fish are small, but hungry and aggressive. I was thinking of sticking a reel on my MPR and using a very short leader. Any other suggestions?

[TheBadger]

Purely for the hilarity and awesomeness of that...go for it.

[blackwater]

From what i hear they fish well with a 5wt line. One of the blokes over here was telling me he picked up a 10lb carp on his MPR with a reel zip tied on.

[WetWading]

IMHO the MPR is much too stiff for this application. Most of the time you're just casting the leader and a bit of fly line. I've tried it with lines up to 8wt; at close range it's too stiff, at long range it's too short to keep the line off you and the water.

Give it a try anyway. If you don't like it or if you're planning on doing any significant amount of that kind of fishing Cabelas makes a TQR in 5ft 2wt for $109.


Chase

[Bobinmich]

I sometime fish small streams like this:



I use a 5 ft. White River 3 wt. overlined with a 6 wt. line. Works perfect. You can shoot tight loops under tags and it mends like crazy if you want to roll cast down stream.

Godspeed,

Bob

[Paul Arden]

Hi Mustang,

I've fished the MPR with a 5 line, and although it copes, it's not pretty. There is excessive tip bounce and it feels clumsy. You'd be much better off spending some money on a decent rod. As a one-off it's fun, but for serious fishing you're going to want something that feels and casts great.

Cheers, Paul

[mustang_50matt]

Bob, my stream is about 1/5 that size. WAY tiny. I don't usually get up to that stream just to fish, it's usually a "Take the family on a picnic and sneak away to fish for a while when nobody is looking" deal. I just can't justify buying a completely new rod just for that, and a regular fly rod is to much in that brush, so the MPR will have to do me. As far as being clumsy... That's me anyway :p

Cheers
-Matt-

[Biology]

I sometime fish small streams like this:



I use a 5 ft. White River 3 wt. overlined with a 6 wt. line. Works perfect. You can shoot tight loops under tags and it mends like crazy if you want to roll cast down stream.

Godspeed,

Bob

That's tricky water Bob... what's your leader design? And casting range?
Keen to hear more

Best,
Andy

[Bobinmich]

Matt,

That stream is less than 5 feet wide. You must be fishing a trickle. I have found the best way to fish these streams is down. Take a small caddis and smoosh it in the water so it floats in the film. Fish it down mending from spot to spot back and forth. Sometimes you can manage a side arm cast back under the tags. If you get a wider spot, you can sneak around on the bank and fish it up. Steeple casts and side arm casts are the rule of the day with a lot of just mending and following the line down.

Andy,

Leader? Ha! What leader! All I use is about a foot of .020, then a foot of .015, then a foot of .009 and about 18" of 5X. Nail knot to the flyline to get a stiff union.

I use a lot of bug juice because "they aint't no wind nor sunshine" to keep them off.

Bob

[Eric]

Not to poach too hard on this thread, but the downstream seems the only way sometimes. I happened to be walking up a small stream yesterday. Let's just go ahead and call it a ditch Well, as I was crossing over at an ag road, I noticed a nice brown move up the willow edge and hold. Of course as I was desperately trying to arm myself and keep an eye, it doubled back and slid casually into a good sized culvert (didn't come out the far side). After waiting a bit and unsure what to do, I threw a hopper in and fed line. No luck but it sounds like I was kinda on track with the downstream hang.