Fishing the small waterways in the Western US

Brown trout

Abundant from high mountain streams to broad rivers

Brook trout

They are typically found in higher elevation lakes, beaver dams and streams.

Fishing for trout in the Western inland waterways is more akin to hunting, yes I said hunting, not fishing - and therein lies the point.



So what does that translate to? Survival fishing.

Brook trout in small mountian streams are very motion sensitive, they will see you walk up to them, but they have a weakness - they watch upstream for food!

Tenkara fly-fishing simple close and great for tight spaces - imagine the use of live bait.





Similar to Russian fixed line long fly-pole method, and similar to the cain pole cat-gut fly-fishing that Ben Franklin wrote about in the 1700s.

So here is the hunting part, you do not even need a real fishing rod, simply a thin whip-like stick with a few feet of monofilament on the end, and run down the stick, a small (very small) hook and a few night crawlers or insects, you can dig them up with a stick - this is not sport fishing.

First spot where they are, if you walk along the stream traveling the direction of the water, they will see you the first time - take a nice walk and note where they are, you need to give them some time - about an hour, and they will return to where they were (they tend to return to the same spot watching the water come to them and bring a washed up insect).

You need to crawl up to the area you spotted them, one at a time careful to come from the down stream direction and flip the baited hook above them and let the bait flow down the water to their spot. They will also eat each other so the entrails of one will be bait for others.

They prefer areas where rocks funnel water flow into a small area so they can pick and choose.

They are often quite small, but easy to clean, and can be cooked in a stew of your dried good storage food to provide more taste and food value, one to three per person will be enough for a full day.