Len -

I'm always pretty much left flat footed when you show pix of the water you fish because it is so different that anything I fish around here.

Having said that, if I were going out with a definite prospect of hooking up with a 26" brown in a smallish creek like that I would want to take the heavy artillery so I could horse the fish if I did happen to catch him. I would go with a 7 wt rod and use 2X fluoro tippet.

Nothing to suggest on the fly / flies to use. I'd have to spend a fair amount of time on your waters to get up off the bottom of the learning curve for the area. If I didn't have time to figure out the bugs, I'd go with a PSC fished off a full sinking line.

John