# small creeks



## Flymaker (Jan 24, 2013)

with winter coming and more vice time than time on the water , I think I may start planning for some small creek fishing next spring....My main fishing is the Mad River (trout water) and the Stillwater River for smallmouth....with a 12 ft yak and a 8ft pontoon I have no limits on those rivers.....But with a 7.5ft 2wt and 4wt in my arsenal I think I need to start a special fly box for small creeks.....Being I live in Springfield the upper reaches of the little Miami is pretty close and I plan on exploring everything below the gorge at Clifton down to almost yellow springs.....Blue Gill and small smallmouth should be all over these areas and provide some good fun with the 2wt ..fly selection should be pretty simple .... clousers in size 6-8 and buggers from 6-10 as well as some small topwater stuff like Chernobyl Ants and the like......I figure the upper reaches of the LM could be a great place to bend a rod small creek fishing Ohio........


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## HipWader (Jun 25, 2013)

Sizes 6 and 10 for fishing small creeks.....to big....use sizes 12 - 14 and small blugill poppers for bass and gills.....small streamers to..I've tried using larger size hooks on smaller creeks that feed off the main tribs but since those creeks are small the larger size hook tends to scare them off....I've caught lots of Creek Chubs and Carp on size 14 and 16 pheasant tail nymphs fishing Tinkers Creek when it was low in the summer....any offering larger than a 14 and the fish just ignored or were scared off......


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

Size of the fly is going to depend on what species are there, for me. If you're expecting small panfish and other small species, sure, go small. In that case, this fly did wonders for me in small streams and I can cast it easily on my 1wt, tied on a #10 DaiRiki bent shank craw hook:










Black/blue also worked great in that pattern. But in that same creek I fished that a lot there's spotted bass easily to 16"+, I know because I've caught them and seen them. I also fished basically a large version of the above pattern which is a slight variant to the Bronze Goddess in Size 4 and even caught dinks on the #4.










I've seen enough pictures of spotted bass eating musky flies as big as they are to realize it's hard to go too big for their appetite. Your bigger restriction to fly size may be the rod weight you carry and not the fish, but it depends what is in the creek! Creek fly fishing is a blast, I had a lot of fun getting back to that this year. Here's a thicker spot from this year that took the #4 Goddess:


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## briney dave (Aug 28, 2013)

That is what I love about fly fishing. I have had a two pound brown slurp a size 20 midge after turning twice to look it over. While a 6 inch bluegill does not even at great looking midge a tail flick of interest. 

I am going to tye midges and tiny hare's ears etc along with a range of wooly buggers and streamers to head out in the spring with


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## goatfly (Jun 21, 2013)

Careful, don't go too small with bluegill hooks, they have a tendancy to suck them all the way into their gill plates.


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## Yakphisher (Jul 9, 2013)

Years ago a 12.5" gill succumbed to an 3/0 EP bluegill fly that i tye so what am saying is if a a fish wants it bad and aggressively smash it and hook itself. That was fun. 
Whenever i fish for gills especially always mash the barb down as like been mentioned already them agressiveness will typical deep hook them. Size of flies is totally irrevelent.


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