ENJOYING THE OUTDOORS: FISHING SMALL WATERS A BIG TREAT

There's a special attraction about water in linear form that speaks.

Lakes, ponds and big rivers all have their own allure. Small creeks are something else again. Like baby animals, their upstream adolescence makes them cute. Toy waters.

A creek that's far enough on the headwaters end of things to offer defined pools and riffles has an intimate character that its more mature, downstream brethren lack, especially if it talks.

In high country, a boisterous young stream might roar. In relative flatlands, it might babble, gurgle or barely whisper. The volume hinges upon how much of a hurry it's in, but a running creek speaks -- and fishermen are most prone to listen.

A miniature trickle is the least of choices if fishing is all about poundage. Small creeks lack the sheer space to produce big fish in numbers. Instead, what they offer are relative miniatures, but often in surprisingly copious numbers.

Fish from compact streams are to experience what hors d'oeuvres are to food: they're not meant to fill you up with sheer bulk, but rather are to satisfy with flavor.

Toy waters merit play, and that usually means wading, sneaking and generally fiddling around from pool to pool. Small stream fish concentrate in deep holes and sheltered, shady pockets between riffle sections. The pool area just below a riffle, although it might not be much larger than a hog trough, is prime in any miniature creek.

Residents in such pockets will depend upon the kind of environment -- elevation, water temperatures, nutrient levels and such. Most warm water streams will be dominated by sunfish varieties, including bluegill, longear and green sunfish, maybe some warmouth. Cooler environments might host rock bass, pumpkinseeds or redbreast sunfish.

The same variables also determine the predators, the prime game fish of little creeks. On the warm end of the scale, largemouth bass will dominate. In the middle range, spotted bass may be mixed in or fully fill that role. In cooler water environments, it might be smallmouth. In high country in the really chilly waters, that's the trout's job, but such habitat is far less common than bass-ruled creeks.

There are assortments of all manner of other fish critters out there -- minnows and daces, catfish, grass pickerel, suckers, chubs, sculpins, bowfin, all depending on the character of the creek habitat. It will be the sunfishes and the assorted bass, however, that most often do business with the recreational creek angler.

Fish of "good" size are proportionate to the creek. One of my best little creek catches has been a nine-inch green sunfish -- small compared to most fish, but hefty for the species and an oppressive bully in respect to the tiny rivulet in which I was fishing at the time.

My "trophy" fish also include a 2-pound largemouth bass that darted back from beneath a root was to attack a spinner in a bathtub-sized pool and a 1 3/4-pound spotted bass hooked from a knee-deep, rocky-bottomed run.

The only way to make the more diminutive fish significant on the end of the line is to drastically downsize in equipment. True ultralight spinning or spincast gear -- noodle rods and reels appropriate for 2- to 4-pound test line -- have their finest hours on wee streams. Flyweight tackle makes flyweight fish seem bigger and stronger than they really are.

For "trophy" fishing -- deliberately targeting the largest available fish while discouraging hits from many of the dinky ones -- pick slightly larger spinners, ultra-light topwater plugs and crainkbaits, even lightly-weighted plastic worms of four inches or so in length.

Adorn yourself in dull or camouflaged clothing to blend with the background (shallow fish in clearish waters can see you if you let them) and slip on a pair of grungy sneakers for wet-foot wading. Pack along a handful of spare lures and a bare minimum of accessories in pockets or a belt pack.

Ease into your chosen creek and work your way upstream. Moving slowly with a minimum of slosh and disturbance, stalk the deepest pools and the shady spots under logs, root wads, rocks and overhanging banks and vegetation. That's where those relative whoppers usually will ambush your offerings.

Don't tread recklessly where you can't see the bottom. Green holes have been known to swallow uncautious waders. Be prepared for occasional dances with serpents (snakes in the creek only wish to retreat from a wading angler, but their mere presence can make for some lively stepping).

For the least impact, practice catch and release in a small creek. One might catch literally dozens of fish, but those relative few that are large enough for eating purposes probably will serve the natural balance of the stream better than they will the dinner table.

And whenever you approach a riffle section, always give it a listen. The lessons it murmurs teach peace of mind.

~Steve Vantreese is outdoors editor of the Paducah (Ky.) Sun