Fishing Skinny Water

As fishing goes, it might not seem tremendous. It wasn’t a very big smallmouth, just over a foot long. But when you’re in water barely calf deep, and the bass has nowhere to go but up, it can be as exciting as a marlin in the salt.

We were working a little known creek, Friend Wife and I, when that bass hit her hair bug and came up like a Saturn B. I say “little known,” but that overstates the case. This “stream” could easily be crossed by three or four strides, and averaged only ankle deep.

There are hundreds of streams just like that one everywhere in the country. They are bypassed by everyone. Indeed, most anglers don’t give them a second look, figuring there can’t possibly be anything to catch in them.

The fact is, though, these creeklets often harbor some interesting catches. Smallmouth, for sure, in the scours and undercut banks. Trout if there are some springs to keep the water temperatures down. And certainly panfish of all types.

Best bet for these tiny streams is either a lightweight flyrod, or an ultra-lite spinning outfit. Keep in mind that the forage, like the gamefish, are small. So you don’t want to overpower the environment with big baits.

Keep in mind, too, that we’re talking about streams that are microcosms of their larger cousins. Holding water will be the same, only diminutive. A scour just a few inches deeper than the bottom surrounding it is comparable to a deep pool in a larger stream. A fist-sized rock is like a boulder elsewhere. And a line of grass leaves overhanging the water are the same as an undercut bank.

Smartest move, when exploring skinny water streams, is to work upstream first. That way you’ll discover the better lies, which you can work more thoroughly on the way back down.