Fishing Small Streams

                In the North Country, small streams mean wild trout. Few things are more fun than poking around the back country looking for small streams to fish. In the hottest weather of the summer those back country streams may be the only places cold enough to keep trout active and healthy.
                But those small streams can be a challenge.

                Below our home is a stream filled with brook trout. Spring freshets sometimes move the stream, not just the bottom but the whole stream may find a new course. Storms any time of the year can raise havoc with the banks.
                Where the stream twists through a softwood forest, fallen trees crisscross over the water. Some of those trees, after the stream has chewed at the bank where it grew, left huge cavities when they no longer had earth enough to hold onto. The water then carves away at the newly exposed soil and before long is nibbling away at the roots of a neighboring tree. The process is endless.
                Parts of the stream weave through meadows and alders. The fishing may be easier there, but the trout have less protection from avian predators. And the biggest trout get the pick of the cover.
                Sit on the bank and spend some time trying to figure out how to drop a fly among the tangle of logs and you may fool an outsize trout from that small stream. Hooking him is one thing, landing him is another.