What?s your definition of a small stream?

[waskeyc]

I?m captivated by flowing water, partly because that?s what?s most available to me, but also because it?s often overlooked and because of the variety and abundance of fish species available in most streams. I fish mostly a warmwater stream on the back edge of my property, with occasional trips for wild brook trout in the nearby Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia.

Below are some pictures of small streams, in order of increasing size. For the mountain trout streams, I think it?s getting big when I can no longer use the protruding boulders to jump across at will. Hiking through the woods in waders can be risky, and being mobile on the stream is a big advantage when I want to keep my feet dry. A warmwater stream becomes a large stream to me when a canoe can be navigated during normal water flows (even large rivers may be challenge with a canoe during a drought).

01 IMG_0282.jpg
I?ve not actually fished this mountain stream, but it is reported to have trout. I suspect they are in the lower reaches (and on private property), but every time I visit, I look in the water just to check. There are several pools that look capable of supporting trout, but I?ve not seen any.

02 IMG_8301.jpg
This is a trout stream tributary, and I?ve caught a trout from this pool, though I didn?t see or catch any upstream of this point.

03 Creek.jpg
This is another mountain trout stream and I?ve caught many brook trout from it, but usually not more than one per pool.

04 IMG_0109.jpg
This might be my favorite mountain trout stream, and it is still small enough to step across on the rocks in most areas. Some pools may be 2 or 3 feet deep, and runs may be 30 feet long or more. From the air, it can be difficult to pick out the exact stream route because the forest canopy is unbroken.

05 Hughes.jpg
This is the cover of a popular book showing a small stream, that is noticeably bigger than any trout stream I regularly fish. The stream appears to be several rod lengths wide. Rock hopping across the stream may be possible, but hazardous. The tree canopy does not completely cover the stream, but this is likely due to the semi-arid location.

Continued in Post 2

[waskeyc]

Continued from Post 1

06 lower creek resized.jpg
This is the lower reaches of another local mountain trout stream, and on private property, so I don?t get to fish it here. This is about as big as most of the local streams get before they enter the piedmont and get too warm for trout.

07 The River.jpg
This is my backyard warmwater stream. I can canoe for several hundred yards between riffles, but logs and shallow areas prevent long canoe trips. There are pools over 4 feet deep, but the riffles may be very shallow and there are numerous runs where the stream can be crossed with dry knees. The tree canopy almost completely covers the stream.

08 Orvis.jpg
This is the cover of another popular book on small streams, and is clearly bigger, at least in terms of water volume, than any of the streams so far. The tree canopy isn?t visible, but doesn?t appear to cover the stream even though it appears to be an eastern location.

09 Meck.jpg
This is the cover of another book on small stream fishing. This is a small stream? The water is well over knee deep, and looks to be at least three rod lengths wide. But I agree that perspective may be misleading, since one bank is not visible.

So what do you think of as a small stream? When is it no longer a small stream?

Perhaps more importantly, what size water do you prefer to fish?

[NJTroutbum]

Most of what I refer to as a small stream are like the 3rd pic on your first post. But a large part of my fishing in my area are on streams much like the private water you posted on the 2nd post. Our average streams are much like the the Orvis book you posted.

[AllenOK]

We don't have a lot of Trout water in OK. All populations are stocked fish, with natural reproduction occurring at one or two locations. One of my home lakes gets stocked by the City. While many Trout stay in the lake, a lot of them run up the one and only feeder creek. I have a kayak. I've paddled my yak as far up that creek as you can get without grounding. At that point, the creek is 14' wide and about 12" deep. I know it's 14' wide, as my kayak is a 13-footer, and I'll turn it sideways in the creek to cast both upstream and downstream. About 50' upstream of where I would ground my yak, the creek narrows to about 2 - 3 ' across and is barely a trickle.

[Bluegill Budd]

This is the only trout water in West Kentucky. It is named Casey Creek and it borders between a creek and a stream as I was taught in my formative years in New England. I was under the impression that if at some point you could step across it without getting wet is was a stream. And streams are intermittent, that is they do not necessarily flow all year while a creek does. Casey Creek, its name not withstanding, will dry up in the heat of summer leaving small shallow pools with no appreciable flow until the next rainfall or if a farmer up flow over irrigates for a day or so.

casey creek 1.jpg

[dudley]

This is the brook across the street from my house and what I consider small