What kind of gear do you need on small trout streams (44 of 51)

I'm pretty much a 12-foot leader guy for trout fishing, but when I fish small streams like this, 7.5-foot 4X is really all you need. If you need to go a little lighter, you can extend your tippet to 5X, but 7.5-foot 4X works fine. I like this 7.5-foot 3-weight Helios because it's small, and it's light, and it's fun with little fish. But you don't need to get a special rod, and it doesn't have to be ultra short for small streams. Because usually, you have plenty of back cast room [00:00:30.250] straight up and down in the creek.
What do you carry on a small stream? I get that question all the time. Well, everything that I'm going to carry, I could literally put in my pocket. But I'm not going to put it in my pocket. I've got this nice little waist pack, and when I'm done with it, I just slide it around behind me, and it's out of the way. I'm not going to get it wet because I'm not going to wade that deep. But what do I carry in it? Well, I carry four spools of tippet. I carry 4X and 5X, [00:01:00.380] in nylon for my dry fly, fluorocarbon for my nymph. That's all the tippet I carry.
I carry two things of fly float. I carry the Shake-N-Float for retreating my fly, the powder, and then I carry the liquid fly dip, which I love, and I put this on first when I first fish with the fly. Dip it in there, dry it off a couple of times, and it works. And then, you know, basically, I have a pair of forceps for debarbing a hook, in case [00:01:30.000] I forgot to debarb them. I've got a thermometer in here somewhere. And then I carry one box. This is an old Orvis box. And I carry one box with a bunch of high-floating dries and a few nymphs, a couple of eggs, you know, usually one or two small streamers. But you don't need a lot. One box will do it. And this will last me all season, the flies in here.
So that's what you carry [00:02:00.615] on a small stream, really. A pair of snips around your neck when you're fishing. Good idea to take those snips and put them in the back so they don't catch your fly line. And then slide this around like that. I've got my net tucked into my belt back here. And I'm ready to go.