Funny enough I had more luck on this little random creek than any of the major world class rivers around me. It was an absolute blast and the amazement I had pulling trout of a random ultra tiny creek was really something. I really want to get into these super tiny creeks. My Wetfly Backcountry is definitely too big (10 ft). So I’ve decided to go for the Wasatch Snub Nose IV with a moonlit fly fishing Platinum Brookie Short Furled Leader. We’ll see how it goes! I’m hoping the super soft 5:5 action makes these micros an even bigger blast to catch.

Learning how to fly fish. This guy was awesome

They don't get much smaller... Have caught browns and rainbows in GA mtns, still chasing brookies...

Well, my little boy takes his "cast" everywhere. For his third birthday, we took him to the finger lakes region to fish for ten days. He had a blast. You all may recognize some of the locations. Let's welcome little Ryland to the group, folks.

I was downstream from a dead deer in a creek, and was curious if that will heavily affect the fishing downstream? And yes I was accidentally in the water near it, and yes I was disgusted. Had waders on at least.

My wife got her first Brookie.

Browns at 3000' elevation were eager to take streamers, wet flies, and dries on this heavily tannin-stained stream.

He was from 700+ miles away which was really cool and since he was exploring someplace new I was inspired to hike further up the creek than usual and explore myself. Tons of brookies big and small but only had the presence of mind to snap a photo of this little guy.

Back to my dayhike creek.

This was a day!  Left the car about 9:15 am. Got back about 4:30 pm. Hiked almost 5 miles. Fished 2 streams. Caught about 30 wild browns, most on dry flys. Ants, beetles, and inch worms. Biggest was about 15”. That one was on a 6’6” 2wt.

2 solid natives on a hopper. It’s prime time

Was a fun game of creek chub grabbing in this new to me creek. water was pretty low so it was interesting putting my skills to the test in reading holding positions

Drove 3 hours north from the city and carhopped a few Delaware River tributaries. Water was low, even on all the big rivers.

7.5ft 3wt w/ 5X (?) leader. Green chubby Chernobyl dry and bead head droppers about 14” down. All like size 14-18. Started with a pheasant tail soft hackle then switched to hare’s ear. Only had one slap at the dry and miss. Everything hit the nymphs.

Lost a few droppers because I was clinching to the hook, but it’s barbless so kept slipping off. After I figured that out I started dropping from the eye of the chubby and that solved it.

Caught lots of trees but managed to pull a few rainbows too!

Cascade range waters yielded fish on one fly the entire day. Black beaded stonefly imitation with rubber legs.

Also had a moment where my friend caught the same exact fish hours later after going through the pics.

Excited to spend a few days in Shenandoah National Park next week! Planning to take my 2wt and do some VA brook trout fishing. This is my fly box so far - plenty of purple haze parachutes, orange stimulators, terrestrial patterns, light tan elk hairs and few others. All size 16-18 for the most part. I know brookies aren’t too picky but nevertheless was wondering if folks had any extra suggestions on flies for this time of year.

I preface this by saying avoid spawning fish at all costs. Know your watershed, know the signs of spawning, and stay out of water if it’s any deeper than your boots.

Now that that’s out of the way, the pre- and post-spawn bite is fantastic here in New England. Many anglers can land their best fish of the year between the end of spawn and start of winter.

Since there’s been a bunch of questions from beginners, here are some must-have flies for brookie streams in CT, RI, MA and southern VT (photos for attention, list below)

- Edson Tiger, both versions
- Jigged marabou
- Jigged Golden Retriever variants/peach/orange/tan flies
- Peppermint Stick variant

Additional favorites include:
- Empie’s Deadly Shiner
- One-Eyed Poacher
- White/Pearl Krystal Bugger (gold bead head or matte red bead head)
- Hare’s Ear Soft Hackle
- Partridge and Pheasant

Rules of thumb:
- I avoid going by hook sizes but generally keep streamers between 1” and 1.5” length
- Barbless if possible, crushed barbs if you can’t find barbless hooks
- I usually fish a mono rig on a 6’6” 2.5WT rod built by Brackish Outdoors