Hello all,

I'm quite new to the forum (and quite new to fly fishing). I'm rapidly developing an addiction for small, forgotten and unloved streams in unlikely places.

I have what may be a very silly question: how small a stream are you likely to find sea trout in?

And does it depend on ecology/location?

many thanks,

Matt

They get into the tiniest of streams,spawn then head back to the salt.I have seen a 5 lb seatrout in a 2' wide clean water/gravel ditch.gone the next day.They sure don't hang about the wee streams once they have spawned.

Jim

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The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

Like Jim says Matt, you'd be surprised at the size of some of the streams that seatrout will go up and spawn. Down in Lough Currane they will ascend tiny streams when there is a flood, do their business and are then gone. You'd wonder how they ever got up them.

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Bert

Éist le fuaim na habhann agus gheobhfaidh tú breac.

Thanks folks. I'm glad I'm not seeing things!

The next obvious question is whether it's possible to catch them (assuming they're in season)?

Best of luck,They tend to have only one thing on their minds when they get into these small spawning streams.I personally let them get on with it.

Jim

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The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

our local river here in anglesey is fairly large at the mouth of the estuary where it begins but either side of her there are two feeder streams and i have witnessed shoals of fish moving up and down on many occasions.
you can literally jump accross the stream and thats not jakanory
i have also been told reliablythat salmon were seen in such small streams/ditches,and these you can honestly jump accross.

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All my life I've had one dream, to achieve my many goals

I agree with all above. I've seen them in some unbelievably small places in Connemara when it was my job to know where they were.

Really, if you discover them 'at it' or close to, then the time to fish for them has gone. Better to leave quietly and let them concentrate on producing more for us to try for in the future.

If you like the taste of rabbit don't shoot them out of season .

Don't give up on the idea just yet
I know many small tributaries of Devonshire streams that get a few sea trout in season, in some cases as early as late April but generally from mid summer onwards. These are lowland streams which although very narrow do have a number of deep (up to 4 foot) pools where the fish can hide away under tree roots. The numbers of fish are never going to be anything to get excited about, you might get one or two a season if you were lucky but they make a lovely surprise when they do show up. That said there are a few small (but not tiny) tribs where you can expect to catch fairly regularly.
The other sort of stream worth a look are the tiny ones that run straight into the sea. There are several available on the angling2000 scheme down in Cornwall that have (or had) useful runs of sea trout.


Andy

strange analogy seeing as rabbits don't have a season

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WHEN YOU LEAVE THE RIVER, TAKE NOTHING, AND LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINT'S!!!

THA CAN TELL A YORKSHIREMAN ,BUT THA CAN'T TELL HIM MUCH !!

I have seen them really small streams, ones that run through around 3 miles of tunnels before hitting gravel?!!!
I have also seen salmon in the same stream, a tiny tributary of the Teviot, that pours in to the main river from under the sewage works, strange but true!

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