Small streams, fun fish

I've spent the last couple days after work cruising up to a few high country streams that are producing brookies and cuts. It's amazing how small a stream can be and still support a population of fish. I know that everyone is crying doomsday about it being dry with no water this year, and sure it's dry, but there have been drier years and fish have survived. The Animas is about exactly double the flow it was on this date in 2002. The high country steams will get low and we'll find the fish stacked up in pools and beaver ponds. I tied a bunch of very simple Elk Hair Caddis because I didn't have a ton of time. They seem to do a good job imitating everything up there. I taught a buddy how to fly fish up there too, it's kinda fun reteaching something I've so recently learned. I was reflecting at this one pool on my favorite stream. The very pool in which I caught my first Brookie and got addicted to fly fishing. In that summer I would be lucky to catch one fish in there before spooking them all with sloppy casts, or worse, snagging the bushes and having to wade in to get my fly. Yesterday I crept up on the pool and picked off 5 nice Brookies in a row. I'm not suggesting that Brookies are hard to catch by any means, but, I'm enjoying the improvements and have really enjoyed the process of learning what for me was a new way to fish. Fun Fun.

Oh here's a video of this guy tying that simple Elk Hair Caddis, I like this guy's style, he's using a simple quick technique to get the job done. I like my fly tying like my women. Fast and easy. I'm not affiliated with these cats by the way, just a video I found on Youtube.