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DFoster

My "Practice Stream"-

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Greetings from New England, below are a couple of photos of my "practice stream". It's a small, shallow (knee deep) stream that I am fortunate to have a behind my house. Lightly stocked in April, by June the water is too warm to support Trout. Still it does offer a year round population of river dace, perch and blue gill. Over the years I have used this stream to keep in practice between fishing actual trout waters. Often I"ll fish it simply because I don't have enough day light remaining after finishing with the responsibilities of life to justify a half hour car ride out to one of our local trout rivers.

 

I'm a grandfather and all of my grandchildren have expressed an interest in tying and fly fishing. My oldest granddaughter is getting tall enough to fit into my wife's waders and I plan teach her to fly fish on my practice stream. There is enough current to learn the fundamentals of river fishing and the brush is tight enough to make you aware of your back cast. Generally the pan fish are not very picky and are a lot of fun on a 3wt especially if she tied the fly herself.

 

Just curious if anyone else has a similar practice spot?

 

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Greetings from New England, below are a couple of photos of my "practice stream". It's a small, shallow (knee deep) stream that I am fortunate to have a behind my house. Lightly stocked in April, by June the water is too warm to support Trout. Still it does offer a year round population of river dace, perch and blue gill. Over the years I have used this stream to keep in practice between fishing actual trout waters. Often I"ll fish it simply because I don't have enough day light remaining after finishing with the responsibilities of life to justify a half hour car ride out to one of our local trout rivers.

 

I'm a grandfather and all of my grandchildren have expressed an interest in tying and fly fishing. My oldest granddaughter is getting tall enough to fit into my wife's waders and I plan teach her to fly fish on my practice stream. There is enough current to learn the fundamentals of river fishing and the brush is tight enough to make you aware of your back cast. Generally the pan fish are not very picky and are a lot of fun on a 3wt especially if she tied the fly herself.

 

Just curious if anyone else has a similar practice spot?

 

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You are a fortunate man. A practice stream, grandchildren to tie with and teach to cast. Have fun.

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Nope. No water like that in my part of the State, let alone in my backyard.

 

But I do have access to about a dozen places to fish within 20 minutes of the house.

 

 

Fortunately for me, no kids so no grand offspring, either.

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Thank you Mark, fortunate is an understatement. I hope they as they grow and learn they will develop a passion for our sport.

 

 

 

 

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Nope. No water like that in my part of the State, let alone in my backyard.

 

But I do have access to about a dozen places to fish within 20 minutes of the house.

 

 

Fortunately for me, no kids so no grand offspring, either.

Not quite my back yard, but close. We're built on family farm land with access to the stream through my father in law's cattle pastures. Roughly 500 yards from our home. I'm thankful to have it so close-

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I have to drive nearly 3 hours to get to a stream that good!

3 hours! The only time I ever see anyone else fishing on this river (with bait) is within a few weeks of the state stocking in April. After that it's just me. The vast majority of our local anglers are spinning tackle, still water bass guys. I have it on good authority from several of them that a fly rod is in fact impossible to cast- who knew?

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I have a pretty good smallmouth stream within a mile of me but access is limited, nearby trout is over an hour and the stream is not as large as yours looks. Probably have to drive a day or more to get perch, not even sure which way to start. All of my kids outgrew their interest in tying and none of the grandkids even fish. Enjoy your blessings.

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Not in my backyard but I have one in a state park that takes me about three minutes to drive to if I catch the green light. It's where I go when I only have a few hours to fish. Same deal in that it's stocked in April and then they die come summer leaving the water to its natural warm water inhabitants of pannies, SMB, an occasional LMB, carp and suckers. Only difference is it's not a practice stream. It's a blast to fish for the bass and carp. Can't say I don't enjoy the annual sucker spawn either.

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This is my "practice" stream. The creek is about 15 minutes from my house. A couple of spots on it.

 

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It's stocked with trout in the spring and a few even survive the summer as it's spring fed in spots. Good mix of warm water fish, smallmouth, largemouth, rock bass, crappie, at least 3 kinds of sunfish, carp and suckers. No grand children, but I taught my niece and nephew to fish and got my nephew interested in fly fishing. He still fishes but doesn't do much in the way of fly fishing. My niece got interested in fly fishing when the then love of her life was an avid fly fisher. Rather than teach her all my bad habits, I presented her with a couple of casting lessons at my local fly shop. That love didn't work out but the guy she married is also an avid fly fisher. Now she's interested in fly tying and in the process of moving from South Dakota to Vermont. Maybe she'll show up on the board one of these days so she can learn from the experts here.

 

 

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Beautiful scenery you have there Dfoster.

 

My practice stream is about a hundred yards from the house. I've lived less than a mile from Lake Okeechobee in south Florida for most of my life, but it's nice to have places like that for a quick getaway. I'm a fairly new tyer and the residential canals near the house are great for testing new flies and patterns. It mainly has small bass, bluegill, and tons of aggressive, exotic cichlids that are eager to strike anything that moves. And yes, my 3wt. is perfect for some fun in these small canals.

 

I'm a father of 3 now, and these canals make for an easy way to keep them entertained as opposed to just giving them electronics. Fly fishing is a bit much for them now, but my middle son has succeeded in landing a couple on fly. Here are a few pics from my practice areas.

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Thanks for posting all. It was a slow day at the office yesterday due to the Veteran's Day observance -Thank you to all of you who served. I got thinking about those of us who love to chase trout on flowing water but, like myself don't live next to a cold water fishery. Here in central Mass most trout streams are heavily pressured and the fish can be tough to entice. Because sometimes life gets in the way of fishing, I will go months between visits to a trout river. I began fishing the stream behind the house as a way to keep my skills up, what I call my practice river. Now I've come to love the time I spend on that little stream.

 

As a river fanatic it's great to see the photos of your local spots, please post photos if you have them-

 

This is another warm water stream a few minutes drive that I fish on occasion.

 

 

 

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