The Orvis Guide to Small Stream Fly Fishing

The definitive and comprehensive guide to fishing small trout streams throughout North America. Tired of the famous and crowded rivers, today’s anglers have a greater desire to get close to nature while staying closer to home. The Orvis Guide to Small Stream Fly Fishing provides all the information for finding and fishing unspoiled gems found everywhere from wilderness areas to suburban backyards. These often overlooked streams are abundant throughout the United States, and range from the Appalachians—from Maine to Georgia—to northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, the Black Hills of South Dakota, the entire Rocky Mountain region from Montana to northern Arizona, and the Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges. As more fishing is done close to home, small trout streams, or third-order streams as described by hydrologists, are thirty times as abundant as the bigger, more famous trout streams and most of them are on public land, making them more accessible. This beautifully illustrated and definitive resource explains the small stream environment, how to find these streams, how small-stream trout behave, how to read the water, special casts, fly selection, and how to present the fly in all types of small streams. With this book, anglers can find and catch wild trout far off the beaten path.

Tom Rosenbauer is a lifelong fly fisher and has been named 2011 Angler of the Year by Fly Rod & Reel Magazine. The list of recent winners—including John Betts, Bruce Richards, Ted Leeson, Yvon Chouinard, and Tom McGuane—is evidence of the experience and level of expertise required to earn this honor.

Tom has taught tens of thousands of anglers everything from how to tie on a fly to the best way to fool the most finicky trout. He has hosted fly-fishing shows on TV and his podcast, “The Orvis Fly-Fishing Guide,” is one of the most popular outdoor titles on iTunes. He has worked with The Orvis Company in Vermont for more than 30 years. Rosenbauer is the author of countless magazine articles, and ten books including: The Orvis Fly-Fishing Guide, which between 1984 and 2007 sold more than 300,000 copies; and The Orvis Fly-Tying Guide, published in 2003, has sold 18,000 copies.