A Simple Fishing Approach to Spring-Fed Trout Streams

I have a weird affinity for fishing tackle that has led to a lot owning a lot of gear, yet I try to keep my tackle and approaches very simple in fishing

I have an odd affinity for fishing tackle that has led to me owning a ton of fishing tackle. Partly because a portion of my job for the last 20 years has been to review tackle. So I’ve acquired a ton through working with so many great brands in fishing, and the other part is I try to stay ahead of trends. I apply a lot of crossover thinking in my fishing. So I might borrow ideas from other niches in fishing, other species, other means to trick fish and apply them to the type of fishing I’m doing at the time.

I loved fishing for trout when I lived in Arkansas in the 80s and 90s. It led me into fly fishing, and I have a ton of fond memories of weekend trips with buddies camping and floating the White and Little Red Rivers. This past year, I got to know the team from Trout Magnet and they have rekindled that love for me again of trout and small rivers. Unfortunately where I am in Kentucky, I have to get in my truck and drive a while to find good trout fishing. Either back to Arkansas or over to the middle or eastern side of the state.

But between those better trout destinations and I, there are some little spring creeks stocked with rainbows (and a few browns) where I can get to some trout within an hour or two of driving instead of 3 or 4 hours of driving. I call these my “practice creeks.”

The fish don’t get very large, and there are almost no holdover fish even with delayed harvest in the fall and winter months. But it’s good stomping grounds for learning lures, presentations and rigs. And it’s been a great opportunity for me to knock the rust off my fly fishing mechanics. Here is a recent one of those adventures:

MY SYSTEMATIC SIMPLE APPROACH

But I approached it much like I do everything with a systematic, albeit, simple approach. I wanted to just take a rod or two with a couple different presentations and watch the fish and their reactions and then hone my presentations and offerings as I went. One of the creeks is on a military base another is a couple hours away and one is about 50 minutes from the house. So I knew I would have limited time to figure things out here and there. So that made being modular and simple paramount.

I started with a bait finesse, hard bait setup and an ultralight spinning setup as my go to approaches. I figure between an aggressive hard-bait action and subtle jig action on light line, I could fool most trout I encountered.

I have had tremendous success the last two years with both on small streams, so I wanted to share that with folks.

JIG FISHING

Day in and day out, fishing a jig on light line will catch the most trout. I believe you can take a few colors of the Trout Magnet and a few colors of the D2 Jigs and catch most fish in a spring creek, with the exception of high, fast muddy water. When those spring-fed creeks get like that, I generally just give them a few days as they clear fast and normalize faster. And honestly a couple extra feet with a little color in the water seems to make the trout a lot easier to catch than when the water is completely gin clear and slow moving.

I think a jig can mimic many things in the water. It can look like baitfish, crawfish, nymphs, midges and more. Play around with retrieves and sizes but I often find a few presentations will catch most of the trout you encounter.

The D2 Jig and the original Trout Magnet both provide multiple ways to present the jigs and the ability to be ultra finesse as well as very aggressive with a minimal amount of gear and lures. That’s why they are a go-to. You can fish them several different ways that will produce depending on the conditions and mood of the fish.

I like to start by hopping a D2 Jig. If the jig is not getting bites or the fish seem extra finicky, then floating a Trout Magnet is the follow-up. And then from there I will experiment. I always start aggressive to see the mood of fish. Are they reacting, chasing, biting, or completely ignoring the aggressive retrieves. The nice thing about fishing spring fed creeks is you often have very clear water and can see the fish. So you can gauge their feeding mood.

With the D2 I try to make it move a lot in a small space. So I want a quick snap to dart, open and flare and then fall with it’s unique fall. Even in 2 or 3 feet of water in small creeks, you can get a lot of action from a 1/32 or 1/16 ounce jig. And that’s a go to for me. I’m not trying to jerk it forward 5 feet. Simply hop up quickly and violently a foot or two depending on depth. And I want to keep it moving, never letting it lay on bottom as the trout turn off when they see that.

When there is a nice calm flow, a Trout Magnet under an E-Z Float is money. Let it drift through and deliver the trout a bug or morsel in a natural way. When the water is shallow your Trout Magnet can get too close to the float and that can make trout leery. When this happens I take the float off and cast the Trout Magnet without a float and just reel it slowly with small twitches. Twitching a magnet is another natural presentation.

FISHING CURRENT RUNS

In current runs, I will often work the 1/32 ounce D2 Jig like a streamer and jerk it through the runs pretty quickly or twitch it along with the current or sometimes across or against the current to keep it in the zone longer.

But usually when I’m fishing a lot of current runs, I will pick up the BFS combo with something like a Megabass Great Hunting Humpback that I can work with constant pops and twitches of the rod. Making it dart back and forth through the turbulence. I catch a lot of fish doing that when the water is up and running a lot more. And it’s a great way to cover water and find aggressive fish quickly and then slow down with the jigs after. I recently shared a video of that you can see below.

I want to be aggressive in aggressive waters and more subtle in the slower pools. And I adjust based on the fish and their reactions or lack thereof.

FOR SMALL CREEKS LIGHT IS RIGHT

Some of the allure of small streams to me is I can carry a single ultralight rod with light line (I typically use 2-pound nylon with a 2-pound fluoro leader) and a box of jigs. I will usually have another rod on my back and few hard baits in a small box and I’m good to go. My waders and small hip pack can take a bunch of stuff, but the simplicity of trout fishing small streams is where the allure is. And I’m often using these small waters to expand my learnings and hone my retrieves. I like being able to see the jig work, the fish react and what triggers a strike.

The interactive nature of creek fishing is the best part of it. You can learn so much about fish and how to work a lure. Your own personal test tank so to speak.

THE BEST WATER

Some trout guys will tell you something probably exactly opposite from this but for me the best places on small creeks for trout for me have been the following:

• the top and bottom of runs

• the pocket water around cover

• depth transitions

• the sides of runs in heavier current

I usually look for the tops and bottoms of pools. The middle of slow pools can hold fish but usually that is dependent on some cover and transition of depth. In bigger rivers this is where a lot of trout can congregate if there is cover, but I find in small creeks the tops and bottoms are the best focus points. I like when a run dumps into a pool and there is a piece of cover that creates a bend in the current, a wash out hole or something like that.

You will find those types of areas hold multiple fish. But the biggest groups of fish I find are usually runs with some depth, bends in the creek that create a natural deeper trough especially if there is some wood or rock laid through it that creates some slack water.

And the better trout are almost always the farthest walk from the access points. If you want to find holdovers, you have to be willing to go farther than most people will go. My biggest small creek trout in Kentucky was an 18-inch rainbow. But I walked 2 miles up the creek to catch that fish.

So you have to be willing to get to waters others don’t usually make it to. A good pair of waders and wading boots are indispensable to me as a bank angler and creek walker. I do enjoy wet wading in warmer months, but a good pair of waders opens up a lot more water.

A lot of these creeks have multiple access points and finding the places in between are a pretty good walk but usually worth it. Plus I like seeing what’s up around that next bend. The exploration brings the magic in small creek fishing for me.