Streamer fishing in the context of trout fishing is something I have found is a polarizing method and concept. People often either live for the streamer game, or have limited to no interest in it at all. This is something that never made sense to me, as streamer fishing itself is a method that makes sense during windows of opportunity that are limited in terms of timeframe. It is a method and approach that is conditions based. Hardcore streamer bros that throw meat all the time regardless of conditions never made sense to me. Oppositely, nothing upsets me more than hearing someone say they aren’t into throwing meat when the conditions are perfect for it and nothing else is in play. While streamers are not something that work well all the time, they are something I test as a concept more days than not when on the water. When on the move and floating, I often keep a fly in the water to see if fish are willing to chase on any given day. I’ve been surprised to find they are on some days that didn’t make sense. Time frames where rivers are “inbetween” hatches or bugs just aren’t that good on a given year are things that have given rise to better than expected streamer fishing on days that the conditions were not streamer oriented. Normal flows and conditions, sun, etc. Some days you don’t move a thing and didn’t expect to, and focus in on something else after briefly testing it for the day.
As we head into the fall timeframe that provides one of the best windows of the season for fishing in this manner, these are the little things that help and matter for any angler that feels luke warm when it comes to the idea of streamer fishing.
EQUIPMENT
Before even getting into technique, its important to touch on the set up. The streamer junkie cliché is sinking lines and big flies. Articulated patterns. Go big or go home. The fact is there are many occasions where a floating line for streamers makes sense. Occasions where the water is cold early season, dirty water but only semi high flows, or days where you are dealing with trout that are inspecting and moving on your flies in reactionary fashion that requires an enticing retrieve to tease them into committing all support using a floating line. Obviously, with a floating line comes the need for a longer leader and flies that have some weight to get below the surface. In times where the floating line makes sense, you are best off using tippet to form your leader. Going straight 10-20lb to the fly and ensuring your leader is at least 9 feet allows you to have enough distance between the fly line and the fly to get down, and using a fly that is sparse or has some type of weight involved allows you to get it down enough to draw strikes without the need for the sinking line. No heavy butt section from a traditional tapered leader that gets caught up on the surface of the water and limits your fly’s ability to get down.
There are also times that a sinking line is undeniably the best option for the conditions. High water, situations where pools are deep with dense/complex currents that the fish are holding in, or any situation where getting down to the fish is the priority over versatility. Often, before you start your day it is unclear whether a floating or a sinking line is going to be the best option. For this reason, its important to bring numerous lines/reels with you on days you know streamers are part of the gameplan. You may find that your anticipated set up that you initially start with isn’t getting it done. Flows aren’t as high as you thought- fish are holding in different water than expected- a slower or faster retrieve is needed and your go to set up isn’t allowing you to achieve that. Having the right equipment and options to change it up is important. And with streamers, you know if you aren’t moving fish in a relatively short amount of time that something needs to change. If fish want to chase flies, you’re going to see that from them in a short amount of time of covering likely areas. When you don’t, something is wrong with what you are doing, what you are throwing, or the viability of the streamer method itself on that given day.
FLY SELECTION
Stereotype that is mostly true: Guys that fish streamers regularly bring a full blown bugger box of patterns on the boat with them daily regardless of conditions. Guys that don’t streamer fish have a little dry fly box with some wooly buggers and borderline nymphs that they carry in their vest and rarely use. On occasions they do streamer fish, they cut their dry fly leader back to 2-3x and tie on their wooly bugger to a leader that is max 6ft long-1/3 of that being heavy butt section.
However, there is a balance that can be achieved here and should be something all anglers keep at their disposal. On pressured rivers, having a selection of smaller patterns that can entice educated fish to take when conditions aren’t totally there to get the fish in to totally reckless mode. Sometimes smaller to midsized patterns that are 3-4’’ long and aerodynamic are useful just for castability on a day the wind is howling and you just need a fly you can punch out there consistently, yet also have confidence in when in the water knowing they can see it and will view it as enough of a meal worth chasing down. On days conditions are extreme and casting is tough, big articulated flies tend to get fouled often, wear you down generally throughout the day, and also can just be flies that you are moving a lot of fish on -but just that. When you are getting a lot of follows, attacks without hookups, or trying to get down and struggling to do so with larger flies that have a lot of material- the answer often is going with something simple and smaller in the 3-4’’ size category.
That said, the big stuff has its time and place. Some rivers are the type of place where you have big fish and then really big fish. The big fish move on the medium sized stuff, the real big fish require something more to show interest. Sometimes conditions are so blown that going big is necessary to draw attention. Sometimes going big is just what it takes to move fish on a certain river and it is what it is. You gotta throw the big stuff to move them. Often, scenarios that require big flies are where casual streamer anglers draw the line. They half heartedly throw them for 15-30 minutes, have some struggles casting and don’t work the fly with enthusiasm, have some scary casts over the boat where they almost hook someone, or just generally get to a point where they decide “this isn’t my thing” and call it quits. I will say that anglers that tend to go through this process often do so because they have never had that breakthrough moment of success where the big fly came through for them. It’s a matter of a mere lack of belief. And simple fixes when it comes to fundamentals on fishing these flies. You don’t try to carry these flies in the air, you get line speed with a limited amount of line out of your tip- and shoot them to the area you intend to target. For the dry fly snob that feels streamer fishing is not their thing- I will argue that being able to consistently and accurately hit the bank with a big fly is more technical when it comes to casting and presentation than any blue wing olive you’ll ever throw to a riser in your life. Don’t blame the method for your discomfort with the process. Just plug away and get used to changing your casting style. Have the right line and equipment for the situation. Sinking lines help propel these larger flies. Floating lines and a larger fly that has weight can be similarly thrown well and accurately once you get dialed in on how to accurately shoot line instead of trying to carry most of the total casting distance. When you get that first strike from a big fish on a big fly you’ll come around.
Beyond pattern size, there is again the simple fact that if you are fishing streamers and not moving fish within a relatively short amount of time, something is wrong. You gotta change something. Colors are the easy thing to think of when deciding what to prioritize when making a change. Bright day-bright flies. Dark day or water- dark flies. But there are no hard rules. I try to make dramatic changes between flies in the beginning of a streamer day to get a sense of what type of streamer day it is going to be. Go small or big to start. Next fly change is the opposite of what I initially chose in size. Moving a fish or two on a pattern lets you know that size is in play for the fish. If it’s a weird day where conditions are right but for some reason I’m not moving the number of fish I expected, I start to question my presentation and water I’m covering more than the fly itself. Fish that are aggressive enough to chase a streamer down usually don’t care that much about the fly- they just want to chase. I’ll start changing retrieves, start fishing more middle river or the shelf instead of the bank, and overall start creating different looks via my presentation to see if that changes things. Sometimes that means changing lines from floating to sinking or vice versa.
LINE CONTROL/THE RETRIEVE
One of the biggest things that separates success from failure in streamer fishing is line control and the way an angler strips the fly when fishing a streamer pattern. If you look at your fly in the water when retrieving it, you will find that your fly does not move as dramatically as you think it does in response to uniform stripping in of your line. Streamer focused anglers put a lot of effort in when it comes to truly varying their strip cadence, know how to impute action to the fly with their rod without getting themselves out of position for setting the hook if and when a fish takes, and get the fly moving immediately after putting it where they want it to be on the cast.
Unless you are trying to let your fly sink for a long period of time after laying it out there, the importance of getting your fly moving and “fishing” after hitting a spot is critical. If you lay a cast out and there is slack in your line, its important to realize that your first few strips are not even leading to action being imputed to the fly- you are just getting tight on the line itself. Uniform strips of 6’’ do nothing when you have 1-2 feet of slack and play in your line before you are even tight and able to move the fly. By the time you retrieve that slack, and continue with your uniform strip, your fly is no longer in the spot where the fish was believed to be holding, and now that the fly is moving its still coming in on a straight line and in a manner that isn’t enticing to a fish that is in the area outside of where you originally hoped to be fishing. Transitioning quickly from the cast to the strip to get slack out simultaneously or immediately after it hits the water is critical when fishing structure that you know fish are holding in. Being mindful and focused on truly varying your strip cadence so that the fly is actively and erratically moving off the bank or location you put it in is often the difference between moving a couple of fish, and having a banner day on streamers during most streamer situations. If you are getting inspected or halfhearted swipes, take that as constructive criticism that you are not doing enough to generate the urge in the fish to take your fly. Speed it up, or work in a more varied cadence. Make sure the fish are forced to commit. If you keep getting inspected or weird reactions to your fly, you at least have ruled out the presentation and then lean more on fly selection to convert the looks into landed fish.
GOING CONTRARIAN ON PRESSURED WATER
Sometimes, you go into a day knowing it’s a streamer situation but also that everyone has been throwing them. You know the fish have seen them and are likely to react less to the meat than they ordinarily would but for angling pressure. In situations like this, you can do little things that increase your chances of moving more fish. For one, you can fish non-dominant banks. When the water is high, fish are on the banks- both of them. It’s a natural instinct to fish the bank that looks best as you head downriver because it looks good and its where you just think to fish. By going with the non-dominant bank, you know its likely there are less fish there, but hope the fact they have been less targeted causes them to be more responsive. I’ve found this to be something that works not only during pressured streamer situations but also cold water times of the year. Non-dominant banks often involve less current and character overall. The water that looks worse because during ordinary situations it is worse. But in cold water periods- this water is where the fish are. Your fly gets in front of the fish because there is less current and features creating separation between the fly and the fish. No matter how bad the non-dominant bank looks, sometimes you just commit to this approach when you’ve thrown to great looking water for too long without a sign of a fish.
There are also times that the old box of wooly buggers in the vest serves its purpose. When streamers have been a theme and fished hard, I find going simple sometimes outperforms. Size 4-8 wolly buggers, even classic hairwing streamers sometimes can cause fish to swipe at them when the bigger or fancier modern patterns have been fished to death. Going smaller and simpler equates to something a fish can grab with less commitment and energy and strikes the balance of getting their attention without triggering the alarm that they have developed from getting bombed by larger flies for an extended period of time.
Sometimes going contrarian on pressured water means fishing streamers at a time of year no one else is. For instance, I’ve found that summer can be a great time for throwing streamers, albeit for very limited and specific periods of the day. Early morning streamer fishing from first light to 7-8am during the summer months can be a window where an angler moves or lands 10+ fish on rivers that are low, clear, and in anything but streamer condition. Fish during summer months , especially on pressured rivers, often have become limited to smaller bugs they reluctantly eat during that time of year after being hooked and caught on imitations of those patterns for a month of more. They are tired, if not downright conditioned to want something else beyond the mainstay summer menu that is limited and been fished to death by anglers. No one has thrown a streamer at them for months since spring flows receded and the summer doldrums set in. Sometimes the early bird gets the worm by thinking outside the box and taking advantage of these factors. Often, simple and muted patterns can move big fish during this time of year that are willing to react and show aggression during low light situations.
RECOGNIZING OPPORTUNITIES FROM A STREAMER STANDPOINT
When you commit to the idea that you are willing to take the streamer game seriously, it changes your perspective when it comes to the way you evaluate conditions and weather patterns. You view a day that involves 1-2’’ of rain hitting as an opportunity to catch a river on the rise, rather than a day that things are going to be blown out. You start becoming strategic on days volatile weather conditions are being predicted knowing that they present the best opportunities for targeting fish on streamers before conditions become unfishable. These days are often the easiest way for a semi-committed streamer angler to fully commit to the method. Days of all day heavy rain often leave no other choice but to throw the streamer. Fish are likely not rising, nymphing in heavy rain just sucks, there is nothing else to do but to throw the big fly out there. Often, the success you find on these types of days also causes you to appreciate the beauty of a streamer day that comes together. Your faith in the method builds from there.
This change in perspective also causes you to think about certain rivers and how you can take advantage of bad weather fishing this way. Rivers where the fish are especially spooky, or it just seems that the big fish don’t present themselves often become earmarked in your mind for a day like this. You no longer think the only long shot hope you have at a big fish on your favorite spring creek is finding him sipping with 5 minutes left before dark. You start to hope for a day that stream is one shade lighter than pure chocolate milk knowing that scenario is in fact your best chance at the fish you know lives there and hasn’t been realistically catchable prior to this time.
You realize that this strategy is something that involves no one else on the water on most occasions. You find that its oddly very comfortable and exciting being on a river soaking wet when you are having big fish blow up on big flies and no one is there but you.
THERE’s NO EXCUSE TO NOT BE FUNCTIONAL AT THE STREAMER GAME
At the end of the day, any angler that says streamers are not their thing clearly is someone that has never experienced a day when the streamer game is on. The method requires some labor and good fundamentals, but overall is not very complicated. Having the right set up from an equipment standpoint is half the battle to ensure the method is enjoyable while in the midst of these moments of opportunity. Having patterns of different sizes for different scenarios helps provide you flexibility and the ability to adapt to the circumstances you are in when streamers potentially make sense. Frustrations with this method are often a sign that your line control and casting has room for improvement. That said, the streamer game being an active and fast paced approach will force you to improve in these areas. From casting, to line management and reading water, streamer fishing comes down to being able to do the simple things well. Yes, we all love the dry fly, BUT on days it’s raining like hell, the bug life isn’t there, or opportunities at fish that are bigger are present- there is a clear choice to make. Thankfully It doesn’t involve a bobber.
You must be logged in to post a comment.