Equipped with a pocketful of ultralight fishing lures and a small spinning outfit, an angler has everything he needs for a fun fishing day.
Life is wonderful knee deep in a creek. Abundant fish hold in obvious places, making the catching easy, and usually the stream is all yours. Plus, everything you need, beyond an ultralight rod and reel, fits in a fanny pack.
Late in the summer and on into fall, few kinds of fishing offer more dependable action or more fun than wading wet up small streams and casting tiny crankbaits, topwater lures or soft-plastic lures toward downed trees, boulders, shoreline eddies and the heads of pools.
Smallmouth bass, bluegills, largemouth bass, green sunfish, spotted bass, channel catfish, white bass, rock bass... The list of fish species you might tangle with in various streams goes on and on. Most days, you'll catch several kinds of fish.
You won't need a huge tackle selection. In fact, all the lures you need will fit in a small stowable tackle box, which you can carry in your fanny pack or even in a shirt pocket. Add some split shots and hooks and a few packets of YUM baits, and you are ready to fish.
Fish commonly look toward the surface for meals this time of year, making small topwater lures extremely effective. Often a Heddon Tiny Torpedo will be the only bait you'll need. Other times a Rebel Bumble Bug twitched across the surface will attract vicious strikes, especially if the fish are keyed in on misdirected terrestrial insects floating.
Rebel's entire series of ultralight crankbaits lends itself marvelously to this style of fishing. Depending on what the fish eat in the stream you choose to wade, be equipped with a few Rebel Hellgrammites, Cat'r Crawlers or Tadfries. And don't forget your Wee-Crawfish. Probably no single lure has caught more stream fish of more different kinds over the years than a Rebel Wee-Crawfish.
As for soft-plastics, a few of the best picks for wade-fishing in creeks are YUM Wooly Hawgtails and Dingers, both in 3-inch versions, and Baby CrawBugs. You can fish all three on 1/8- or 1/16-ounce leadheads, and each will give you a different action.
While any one of these offerings will yield at least a few fish almost any given day, one or two typically will outshine the rest. Start on top (because that's the most fun way to catch fish), and then change baits several times until you find the best lure.
Also pay attention to the types of spots most hits come from. Usually, most fish will be on certain kinds of cover or in specific zones, like the heads of long runs, near the deepest water available or in well-defined eddies.
The only wading gear you'll need in most places are some comfortable shorts. If the bottom is rocky and slick, you'll also want lightweight felt-bottomed wading shoes. Beyond fishing tackle, bring plenty of water, something to snack on and some kind of pocketknife and pliers.
If you opt to invite a friend, bring a camera as well!